General Audition Information

What You Should Bring
– Sheet music for a 16-bar or 30 second cut of a song (we strongly prefer that you do not sing acappella, and we will not be equipped for you to use a track)
– Clothes/Shoes that are comfortable to dance in (If you would like to change between the singing and dancing portions of the audition, you will have the opportunity to do so, but this is NOT required. Feel free to sing in your dance clothes.)

What to Expect at Auditions
Our goal at Summer Stock Stage is for you to have a great audition experience, and that no matter the outcome you have the opportunity to learn, perform, and get better at auditioning by participating in the process.

When you arrive we will give you a number and take your picture. This is just so we can make sure we match your name with your face when we are going through the casting process.

During the audition you will have the opportunity to sing a 16-bar or 30 second cut of a song that shows off your best performance skills. You will sing individually on stage at the Schrott Center for the Arts in a group of approximately 15-20 other actors for our audition panel. We will provide an accompanist for you.

You will also have the opportunity to learn a dance combination from our Choreography Supervisor, Philip Crawshaw. There will only be one dance combination that will serve as the audition for both shows. After you learn the dance with 15-20 other actors, you will have the opportunity to perform it on the Schrott stage for our audition panel in a smaller group of 3-5 actors.

After everyone has had the opportunity to sing and dance, some actors will be asked to stay to read/sing some callback material. We will not necessarily do a callback for every role, and even if you don’t get a callback, you may still be cast in the show. We only do callbacks when we need more specific information than we already saw in your audition.

Everyone should plan to stay for the full 4-hour block, but you may be dismissed early if you aren’t needed for a callback or if your callback is finished quickly.

Choosing Your Song
– If you aren’t sure what song to sing, consider asking your voice teacher or your choir teacher to help. It’s usually best to sing something you know REALLY well!

– Remember that you should only perform 16 bars (which means 16 measures) or approximately 30 seconds of your song. If you go significantly longer than that, we will (politely) ask you to stop, just so we have time for everyone!

– Keep in mind that your 16 bars don’t have to be the first 16 bars of the song. If the end is the part you really want to sing, find a good spot to start and make sure we hear that!

– Make sure your sheet music has the piano part on it, and that the piano part is totally visible on your copy. It should have two staves of music for every line.

– Our accompanist is AWESOME, but think carefully before bringing in a song by Jason Robert Brown, or Stephen Sondheim, or anything else with a very difficult piano part. You want to be able to show off, and if the pianist is struggling on a song they haven’t played before, you won’t be able to do your best.

– The most important thing to consider when picking a song is choosing something that makes you look and sound your best. Don’t worry too much about the show or the role you are hoping to get…that’s what callbacks are for. Show off YOU and the things YOU do better than anybody else. That’s what we want to see.