BWW Blog: The Zoom Where It Happened

It's September and you know what that means...audition season! Usually around this time, many students all over the world are heading back to school and preparing for the upcoming production season. But as we all know, this audition season will be like nothing we've ever seen. Having started school at Drew University about three weeks ago, I have already experienced the zoom audition, callbacks and casting process first hand. I'm going to share my experience, the different processes I faced and share some helpful tips so that you can nail your zoom audition!

Audition:

My school decided to have us send in audition tapes, preparing either a comedic or dramatic monologue under two minute depending on which of the three shows you were auditioning for. You can choose to audition for one, two or all three of the plays! After sending in your audition tapes, a few days later we were sent out callback lists for each show along with sides for callbacks (I got two!!).

Callback One:

At the first callback, we joined a zoom link and were placed in the waiting room. The host/director would send us a message telling us who they wanted to see for which slide and who was on deck, giving each person about three minutes to prepare. They would then take us out of the waiting room and into the zoom meeting. The production staff then muted themselves and turned off their cameras while we performed the side. We were then placed back in the waiting room and the process continued until everyone was seen.

Callback Two:

These callbacks started everyone who had a callback in the zoom meeting. The director then told us who was up first and who was on deck. They then sent those who were not currently called into a breakout room. After each group, they would bring us all back into the main meeting and repeat the process again. Once we got to the monologues, they put us all in a breakout room and would message us with who they wanted to see. This production team also turned off their camera and muted themselves.

Tips:

1. Be prepared for anything: Things are constantly changing and you never know when you'll be called or how auditions/callbacks will run, so always prepare beforehand so you're not caught off guard.

2. Be loud and have a good mic: A weird camera angle or a quiet mic distracts from your performance so try to get the best possible picture and sound!

3. Go big: On camera, you'll have to go even bigger and make bigger choices than you would in person for it to show!

4. Take advantage of every opportunity: If you have the opportunity to audition for more than one show, do it! I debated auditioning for all three shows, but if I hadn't, I would've never been cast! (I'm playing Woman with Gavel in Chamber Music!!!)

5. Don't let technology hold you back: We are all experiencing the same issues with online theatre but be sure to not let this new norm hinder your performance and hold you back from being the best you can be!