Auditions

May 6th Audition Page

Updated April 19th 1:45pm

May 7th - Callback Page

Who Will I Audition With?

You may choose a partner if you know someone else who is auditioning for the camp. Choosing a partner to practice the audition with allows you more time to work on your presentation but it is not required. If you do have a partner, make sure that you and your partner come to the sign-in table together and let the staff member know that you and your partner want to audition together. If you don't have a partner, you will be paired with another actor.

What Are Callbacks?

Callbacks are a time for the staff to take a second look at young actors that have shown enough potential at the first night of auditions to be considered for a lead role or a role that has a significant number of lines and stage time.

Can I Still Be In the Camp If I'm Not Called for Callbacks?

Definitely! There are 50+ roles to fill! We want a camp that contains actors from each age group and a wide variety of acting abilities, from beginning actors to advanced actors. The actors learn from each other as well as the staff during the camp. Young actors often advance into more demanding roles in future camps.

Sing A Song

Everyone that auditions needs to sing a song if they want to be considered for the camp. You don't have to be a good singer to get into the camp but you do need to sing. The song is sung without accompaniment. Here's a few tips:

Pick a song within your voice range. Pick a song that you're very comfortable singing.
The staff will tell you when to stop singing. When that happens, it doesn't mean that you are not doing well, but rather, it means that we have heard enough to judge your singing ability and we need to move on.
Choose a song that flows well. Don't choose a song that has lots of pauses with musical interludes.
Your song can be as simple as Row,Row, Row Your Boat or Happy Birthday.
It's better to do a simple song well than stumble through a complex song.
If you want a challenge, add gestures to go with the song.
If you want even more challenge, move around the stage as you sing the song.

Some Do's and Don'ts!

Do show respect for whoever is auditioning.
Don't do anything to distract the person who is auditioning or the Directors who are scoring the audition.
Do download the audition page and think about how you will present yourself during the audition.
Work the a partner if you know another person who is auditioning.
Don't come to the audition unprepared.

Tips for Improving Your Speaking Presentation

Voice Projection: The Audition Staff will be sitting a distance back from the audition stage. They want to hear you. They want to know if you can speak loudly. This is not the time to be quiet! Practice projecting your voice. Think about your voice as a baseball. Throw that baseball back to the Audition Staff with your best throw! But remember....projection is not yelling!
Gestures: Gestures are like voice projection except using your body. Gesturing involves moving your arms, hands, legs, mouth even your eyes to reinforce what you are saying with your voice. Gestures almost always are slow and deliberate so that the audience has a chance to understand what you are doing before the action continues. Slow and deliberate, but not small. Gestures on stage need to be seen by audience members in the back of the theater. To do that, they need to be large...larger than life!
Movement: Movements onstage, like gestures, are slow and deliberate. Even movements that depict something fast like running away are most often done in a slow motion manner.
Positioning Yourself Onstage: Always face the audience. Easier said than done. When talking to your partner during the dialogue, it is natural to turn to your partner and speak to him or her. The trouble with that is, your partner already knows what you are going to say, but the audience does not. So, even though you are speaking to your partner, you must face the audience because it is the audience that needs to hear your lines.
Enunciation: Speaking clearly so that the audience can understand what you are saying. Voice Projection is about volume, whereas enunciation is about clarity. One of the ways that you can quickly improve your enunciation is to slow down. Speaking rapidly is sometimes called for in theater. Seasoned actors can speak rapidly with excellent enunciation. The audience understands every word even though the words are coming at them quickly. For actors with less experience and training, the surest road to enunciation is to slow down the delivery. Your parent or another adult can tell you if you are speaking too slowly.

Advanced Tips for Improving Your Presentation

Move Your Partner: You can move your partner around the stage during the audition if you need to. There are many ways to do this. It may be helpful to move your partner if your partner's position is not a good one or if your partner is too stationary.
You can put move your partner physically by taking an arm, holding a hand and guiding your partner to a better position. You can also move your partner by walking away from or walking towards your partner or moving downstage. They should either follow you and move away as you move into their comfort zone or move downstage to be closer to you. Another example is to move behind your partner and, holding him by the waist, look around one side to deliver a line and then the other side. There are lots of ways. If you and a partner have worked together on blocking and movement for your dialogue, then you shouldn't have to move your partner around.