Auditioning for Woodside Community Theatre is easy and relatively painless. Bring three copies of your resume and headshot, if you have them. Please get to the audition site a few minutes before your appointment to fill out the paperwork. Bring your calendar so you can add your potential conflicts during August - November to our audition form.
And, just so you know, virtually everybody is nervous at auditions -- even those people who don't look it! Relax and don't forget to breathe!
Appointments
We offer automated appointments for auditions, which are highly recommended. If all of our appointments are taken don't despair! Check back in a day or so -- we may open up more appointments. Regardless, we will make every effort to accommodate everyone who comes to audition, appointment or not. If you don't have an appointment, you may have to wait a bit.
Your Audition Song
Our audition format is pretty typical of amateur musical theater. We'd like you to come prepared to sing 16 to 32 bars of a Broadway song. Bring sheet music, in your key, for our excellent accompanist. No recordings or lead sheets, please, and the accompanist will love it if the music is well-organized, easy to turn pages, and the beginning and end point clearly marked. Experienced musical theater performers will have a repertoire of these, and we're happy to hear anything that demonstrates your range, capability and technique. Please don't do a song from the actual show for your preliminary audition; you'll get a chance to sing those at callbacks! Bottom line: we'd rather you nail a song you know well, rather than stumble through one that is difficult or you just learned.
You should choose a real Broadway show tune, rather than a pop song -- but most important, we'd rather you sing something you love that shows off your talent and your enthusiasm. If you're new at this, or don't have a song prepared, but want to be in the show anyway, don't worry. Our audition team will help you determine and demonstrate your singing range.
Who
All roles will be cast by audition, and all roles are available. WCT has no contract with Actors Equity Association, so if you're with AEA and we cast you, you could get in trouble with them (we won't :-)). Other performing arts unions, such as SAG, are no problem. We do not pay or monetarily compensate our performers -- but everyone says we are one of the most fun groups on the peninsula!
WCT periodically chooses shows with many scripted roles for kids who look like kids, like ANNIE. Teenagers who appear as adults are more than welcome to audition for our shows. If you are under 18 years old, we have a permission form your parent or guardian must sign before you audition. We may cast a few kids in the chorus later in the summer.
Callbacks
The callback sessions are by invitation; callbacks will be sent by email as soon as we know them, most likely a couple days after preliminaries are over. We only call back people we actually need to see again -- so just because you are not called back does not mean you're not in the show. Really!
Cast Announcement
We usually announce a cast list within 10 days after the callbacks. We post a note on our Facebook page, post the list here on our website, and send an email to everyone who auditioned, whether they were cast or not. So, if you auditioned and haven't heard from us, check your spam folder, and this web page.
Rehearsals
Rehearsals will begin in early August, and are normally Monday through Thursday evenings, 7:00-10:00 PM. We make every effort to effectively use our cast members' time; you'll be called for (e.g.) one-hour time slots depending on which songs and scenes you will be in.
Performance Dates
Performances will be during October; we can't confirm our exact dates until we receive calendar approval from our venue, Woodside Performing Arts Center. We hope to have this by the audition dates.
Next steps
Questions?
Feel free to ask questions about the audition process by emailing auditions@woodsidetheatre.com .