If you’ve never auditioned for a musical at LOHS you might be curious about the process. Going into the auditions seems a little scary, but once you know the process you might be relieved of some stress by knowing what to expect. 

In preparing for auditions, you should practice singing a song from a musical that’s from 16 up to 32 measures. If you happen to play piano, it might also help to play along. Additionally, auditions allow you to bring a piano score the day of, helping you feel more confident during the process.

When you first arrive at the auditorium, you’ll see students filling the lower front seats near the stage. Students fill the bottom front portion of the auditorium, Bob McGranahan, the director of the musical talks, then students go up in whatever order to perform a short piece they have prepared to sing. If you have a piano score for Signe Lusk, LOHS’ magnificent piano accompanist, then bring that with you for auditions. If not, there’s no stress, you always have the option to do it acapella style. 

When you go up to the stage, don’t panic about your performance, just go up there and forget nobody’s watching. If that still doesn’t help then it might help to wait until the end when there are less people are present. Whatever you do, have fun with it. The point of this part of the audition is to see your musical style and abilities. 

Now that’s day one out of the way, you can relax now since the worst part is over. 

Day two is dancing. You start off on the stage with everyone, and I mean everyone. It’s a little cramped but find yourself a space where you can see the teacher and have enough space to dance. If you can’t find a spot where you can see the teacher then watch the students in front of you for that time being. The choreographer, Laura Hiszczynskyj, will switch up the rows so everyone can get a chance to see her performing the movements. She’ll play it with music sometimes and always has a time to ask questions about the moves. After that you’ll wait for your turn to go up and show what you have learned. 

Keep in mind that these auditions are two consecutive days, each about two hours long. You will go up in the same order as with day one, but you won’t go up alone to perform the dancing, instead dancing with three other people or so. 

Day three is callbacks and if you’ve made it this far you have a pretty good chance of getting a speaking role. That said, you may have already shown enough of your skills the two days prior for you to have a role decided already. If you’re worried about getting into the fall musical at all, don’t! LOHS has the same standard as LOJ with musicals as in, everyone gets a role, whether it be a character from the show currently being performed or the ensemble. 

I myself, am more of an amateur actress so I’ve never made it to callbacks, let me know what they are like sometime!

So there you have it, the whole run down of auditions and what to expect. If you auditioned for “Chicago the Musical!” this year then that’s great. If not, I hope I’ve inspired you enough to audition next year.