You did it! You made it through auditions!

You gave it your all, pushed past the pounding heart and sweaty palms, and gave the performance of your life! Now you can relax…

Or not. Because guess what? You rocked that audition! And now, it’s time for callbacks. Hey, don’t get me wrong, it’s great you got a callback! That means they actually want to put you in the show! And all of that stuff the director said in the email about how if you didn’t get a callback, don’t worry because that doesn’t mean you aren’t in the show, just that they don’t need to see you perform again? Yeah, as you can guess, that’s crap. You don’t get a callback, you aren’t in. So congratulations! You even got called back for a few different leads! But now you have to do it all over again.

Kind of.

Call backs are going to work a little differently. You got called back for a named part, correct? Which means a few songs and some sides (a excerpt from the script, maybe not a full scene, but enough to mess around with on stage) were sent to you in your callback email, and you have to prepare them for callbacks- which are tomorrow, by the way. Don’t freak out, that’s very common of directors to do, make call backs so close to original auditions, so that they can get the casting out of the way and so everything is fresh in their minds.

Because this is a musical you are auditioning for, everyone will have to dance. You walk through the doors into the auditorium and are immediately split into groups and taught about 30 seconds of a dance. Then you are bustled around to go learn the singing that goes along with that dance. And now is practice, practice, practice, oh! Times up! Now to perform the dance on stage, and… done!

Seems like it went fast? That’s because the dance section always does. The directing team wants to see how you respond to being taught, as well as how you work with others and if you crack under pressure. Another reason the dance section seems to go so fast is because everyone who got a callback is there for that part, so the directors really want to get as many people as they can out of there fast.

Okay. So, that part is over. Now the director is telling you that if you were only called back for ensemble you may leave, and over half of the students there do. You, however, stay put. You were called back for a named part, after all. So sit back, and kick up your heels. Time to wait…