Musical Theatre
In musical theatre, a standard audition consists of two sixteen-measure selections of music, contrasting in style, intention, characters, time period, or all of the above. There is also usually a monologue portion, where the actor is asked to perform a one-minute monologue. A headshot and résumé are almost always required. Although auditions vary depending on the theatre, program, or show, this formula is considered “the norm” in the musical theatre world. The purpose of an audition is two-fold. Practically, performers audition to get a callback. "Callbacks", or callback auditions, allow the artistic team to assess a performer’s skills in accordance with specific characters. They see the actor for particular parts and have them sing the songs that those characters sing, read the scenes in which those characters shine, etc. Therefore, because this business will be handled later, the audition is not a platform for selling oneself as a character. Instead, the audition is a chance for the performer to show off what they do best.
Read more about this topic: Audition
Famous quotes containing the words musical and/or theatre:
“Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The poem of the mind in the act of finding
What will suffice. It has not always had
To find: the scene was set; it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)