Audition Season is Here! How to Find Auditions

Ahh, September: falling leaves, pumpkin spice EVERYTHING, and back-to-school sales around every corner of the internet. It also marks the beginning of “fall audition season” — aka the time when regional theatres start booking their final shows of the year (i.e. holiday); Broadway is casting shows opening later in the ‘26-’27 season; and cruise ships are starting up their next nine-month contracts.

As a professional performer and bi-coastal voice teacher working with clients all over the country, I know first-hand how overwhelming it feels to stay on top of it all: finding auditions, making cuts, building books, taping material, choosing outfits, etc. etc. etc! Lions and tigers and bears got nothin’ on today’s actor hustle!

To help you focus more on prepping the incredible material you’d like to submit electronically or bring into the room, rather than stressing about where to find the deets of whowhatwherewhen, I’ve compiled my top-six favorite places to learn about upcoming auditions:

Broadway World (BWW) Broadway and Regional Theatre Auditions Alerts

Did you know you can sign up (FOR FREE!!!) to receive every EPA and ECC, announced right to your e-mail inbox? Yes, that’s right. At 11:59 pm ET on weekdays, BWW will send you the most recently announced EPAs and ECCs in the Eastern, Central, and/or Western regions. I love this tool. Instead of having to scroll through multiple sites, the jobs come straight to your inbox, and there’s a great calendar feature that lets you export all of the information from BWW right to your Google calendar or iCal.

Paid casting platforms

There are many different casting platforms out there that actors can use to search for commercial castings, non-union and union tv/film, low budget, vertical, feature films, student films, new works, Broadway, non-union and union national and international tours, regional theatre, new work festivals, cruise ship contracts, extra/background work, and more. Check out Casting Networks, Actors Access, Backstage, Casting Frontier, and Central Casting. 

Instagram handles...

like @thehustle_nyc and @auditioncornerofficial will do weekly or monthly roundups of what’s casting in NYC.

Follow casting offices in your region on Instagram

They will post IRL (in real life) open calls and virtual open calls! A few of my favorites: @heery_loftuscasting (Philadelphia); @zspiegelcasts, @michaeldonovancasting, @rbtcasting (LA); @castingbyarc, @thetelseyoffice, @thetrccompany, @whitleytheatrical, and @c12casting (NYC).

The Season Overview

Back in the day, you could buy a paper copy of this at The Drama Bookshop. Now, they’ve moved it online where they update it once a month. This is the be-all, end-all if you’re interested in doing regional theatre in the US. The document lists every theatre (organized alphabetically by state) and the most up-to-date information about their upcoming season (i.e. whatever they’ve made public). It’ll give you casting emails, details about the announced creative team, and the dates of the productions. Pro tip: Search the directory for the shows you want to do and then head to that theatre’s website — they may have a local audition listserv you can join or a place to submit your materials. I definitely recommend getting a copy in September, January, March, and May, as that’s when most theatres make their announcements. It’s $14.95/month — money well spent and you can cancel at any time.

Search by show

If you’re specifically chasing a certain show, you can search for which theatres have the rights to produce it. Search the databases of Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Music Theatre International, and Concord Theatricals to see who’s doing your favorite show, when, and where.

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of simplifying your search so you can optimize your performance. Minimize the places you look for auditions (or have them sent right to your email) so you can spend more time polishing your audition repertoire, wardrobe, and industry reach-outs!

Happy audition season, y’all! Go book it!

---

Jenna Pastuszek (she/her) is a bi-coastal actor, singer, voiceover artist, and Co-Founder of Innovative Voice Studio, and she's thrilled to take over this column. Onstage, her credits include Off and Off-Off-Broadway (most recently Hillary Clinton in 44: The Obama Musical at The Daryl Roth). A Carbonell Award nominee for Best Actress, she's appeared in productions across the country, most notably the LA and regional premieres of Elvis: A Musical Revolution, Because of Winn Dixie, It's All Your Fault, Tyler Price, and Diner, working with Tony Award-winning and -nominated directors including Kathleen Marshall, Jeff Calhoun, Marcia Milgrom-Dodge, and Kristin Hanggi. She's also the writer and star of two acclaimed solo shows, Get Happy! A Tribute to Judy Garland and People: Me, Myself & Barbra, seen at more than 50 venues nationwide, including Paper Mill Playhouse, Westport Country Playhouse, and Bucks County Playhouse. She's voiced national campaigns for brands including KIND Bar, Fisher-Price, Starbucks, and Target. As a teacher, Jenna holds a Master's in Vocal Performance and an Advanced Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from NYU Steinhardt and is an Estill Voice International Certified Master Trainer. Previous voice faculty positions include USC, The University of the Arts, NYU Steinhardt, and MTCA. Learn more, or book a lesson, at www.JennaP.com.