Audition Tips From Behind The Audition Table

Chris Peterson, OnStage Blog Founder

This was originally published in the OnStage Blog Newsletter on April 10th, 2023. To get this and all weekly commentaries in your inbox, subscribe here

I have been involved with theater fairly consistently since I was a teenager. In those years, I have appeared in musicals and plays as an actor, played drums in the pit, worked front of house, ran the soundboard, and done vocal coaching. After college, I got the chance to assistant direct a production of “Private Lives”. It was a wonderful experience, a chance to pull back the curtain and see the process of putting on a show from a totally different angle.

From giving notes to running some rehearsals, I was able to be involved in nearly every moment of our show. Being an assistant director (or working on the creative team of a musical) will make me a better performer the next time I step on stage and performing on stage made me a better assistant director. But the place my insights will be the most helpful happened while watching and judging auditions for the first time.

So here are a few things I learned about auditions and casting after being on the other side of the table.

The best piece of audition advice I’ve ever been given as an actor rang out even true after watching two long nights of them. Your audition truly begins the second you walk in the door. The way you say hello to the creative team, the way you talk to the accompanist, and your body language make a huge difference.

A girl came in with hunched shoulders and could barely look us in the eye, but then totally came to life the moment she started singing. While I could appreciate her talent, the disparity between person and performer seemed too hard to rectify.

Perhaps this is a somewhat controversial statement, but song choice doesn’t really matter, at least in the big picture. Of course, you want something that shows off your voice (overly talky songs or stagnant melodies don’t do any favors); it is probably a good idea to sing something similar in style to the show you’re auditioning for.

But song choice doesn’t matter because talent is talent; more times than not, we could tell an A+ singer from a B- singer in the first two measures. We had auditioners who sang Sondheim and some who sang Happy Birthday. Both songs proved equally valuable in evaluating talent.

If you think you’re wrong for the part, audition anyway. Every director will view the characters differently without knowing who they’re looking for. As an actor, I once auditioned for a show that, on paper, I was totally wrong for – the character was big and intimidating, and I’m short and unimposing. But I really loved the show and worked hard on the audition (which was reading from sides).

The moment I finished reading for the director, I knew it had gone well, and I eventually booked the gig. I was later told that the director had another, more muscular actor in mind but made a switch after seeing me do a different take on it. Those things happen. When we were casting “Pirates,” we even changed a character’s gender purely because of an exciting audition. You never know until the cast list is up.

Waiting for a cast list can be difficult as an actor, but putting it together is equally hard. Even beyond talent, there are so many factors that go into casting. You need couples that have chemistry and look good together (in most circumstances, things like age, height, and body type are factors).

You want a well-balanced cast regarding age, gender, and ethnicity. You want to allow younger actors to prove themselves and reward talented old standbys with lead roles. Often, casting is more like a puzzle than anything else (“If we cast X as Seymour, there’s nowhere to put Y. But if we cast Y as Seymour, X could also pull off Mushnik.”)

Sometimes casting someone indicates talent or being physically right for a role. Still, other times it’s the perfect-sized puzzle piece to make a whole complicated picture come together. So not getting a certain role is not always a comment on your audition or talent.

This leads me to my final point: in both auditioning and during the whole process, it’s important to remember that the show is bigger than you. It’s easy to get lost in the drama or nerves. It’s easy to obsess over a missed note at an audition or not get enough time to block your big song.

But when you see the process from a different angle, it makes you appreciate how many hands it takes to put on a show, how much thought is put into each tiny detail, how meticulously words and beats are created when putting together the script and how staging is often a matter of logistic and problem-solving rather than being a purely creative endeavor.

So take a deep breath, look around at all the artists working together, and do your best.