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Lydia Prendergast:   

      The tension in the air cuts like a knife. Somehow entering the music wing during audition and callback season leaves you feeling… tense, to say the least. This year, like so many others, nerves were on end as students of all grade levels clutched their audition packets and racked their brains to remember their monologues before taking a deep breath and entering the auditorium one by one, in hopes of bewitching the director. 

      The audition process goes as follows: you confidently sign yourself up for a slot on the audition sheet, obtain your packet of monologues, and playfully think about who you could be up on the stage. The path veers from here in two very different directions. In one, you immediately know who you want to be. You highlight your monologue, write yourself notes, and decide that it ultimately looks like you were a toddler at daycare who was just given new highlighters and pens to try. But you remain steady and focused. That packet stays in your clutches for an entire week before auditions as you memorize and choreograph every movement, every action, every blink of the eye. You approach audition day and feel ready, up until the moment they call your name to be on deck. 

      In the other direction, you procrastinate. You say you’ll decide which character you want to be the closer it gets, and stuff that packet into your already overflowing bag to worry about later… Until suddenly auditions are in an hour. And you have to figure out who you want to be and how you want to speak and whether or not you should move around on stage? Should you move around on stage?? Whichever path you take yields you the results of callbacks, callbacks, and ultimately cast list. A nitpicky, entirely specific, grueling process, you realize that this show is going to be just wicked regardless of what happens. And thus The Crucible begins. 

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