Auditions Can Be Fun

Auditioning for a school musical can be a really exciting process. It is the first opportunity for children to hear about the story to be acted, the characters to be played and the songs to be sung.

So why is it often so stressful, for teachers and pupils alike?

Could it be the great throng of chatty children gathered together in a room far too small for such a purpose?

Or that nobody ever feels they have been given long enough to show what they can do! Or that they only got a few lines when someone else got loads. Or they want just one more try again.

School musicals and leavers musicals generate a lot of interest, so here are a few ideas for making the audition process as smooth and enjoyable as possible:

• Hand out a copy of the musical’s synopsis ahead of auditions, perhaps alongside the scene summaries and the character profiles.
• Use relatively short excerpts from scenes to keep things moving; a few lines from each person within a scene is often all you need to hear to gauge suitability.
• Allow children to sing a couple of lines ‘a-capella’ from any song they know well. Teaching them a song from the musical really isn’t necessary at this stage.
• If you want to generate some excitement, play the children snippets of the songs from the show.
• Try to have two rooms available to use, with plenty of other staff on hand to help out. Including to make tea!
• In casting a musical, it is nigh-on impossible to ensure that everyone gets to audition for the part they will end up playing. Tell children about this before things get going!

Finally, just think, if you can make the auditions fun and stress-free, the production as a whole might just follow suit.