r/Theatre

Hey! So I’m doing The Wizard Of Oz musical, and I want to be scarecrow. But they don’t have scarecrow as an audition monologue.

Their thinking behind it is you‘re not auditioning for a specific role and they’ll give you call backs where they want you. I’m just having issues picking one to showcase by ability to act in a manner like Scarecrow, so I can get a call back for him. My options are Dorothy, Lion, Wicked Witch, Glinda, and The Wizard.

My vocal audition will be “If I were King of the forest” per their request. Plus I’m F. Please help me make a decision fast bc auditions are June 1st and I have lots to do lol! Thank you!

I'm trying to decide on my email address prior to my college applications. I was thinking of either name1@gmail.com, nameMT@gmail.com, or nameNYC@gmail.com. I think the MT one is the best since numbers don't seem professional, and I'm not sure if I'll be going to a college in NYC (my ultimate goal is to be on Broadway, though!). However, it seems that a lot of seniors in college use name+number@gmail.com... Why is that? Are my ideas solid? Do you have any other ideas?

Hi all! I'm currently writing a story whose plot is centered around two female leads in a college musical production.

I don't have any experience in theater, though, and I have some questions.

1. How long is the typical time frame between auditions and cast list postings? Where/how are cast lists usually posted at your college?

2. What is the process after cast lists are posted?

2a. My understanding is that there is a first read-through. How often do read-throughs happen? What do read-throughs involve?

2b. When do you typically start blocking? What does blocking involve?

2c. How many months does a group typically rehearse/prepare for a ~1.5-2-hour-long college musical?

2d. How often do rehearsals typically happen?

3. What are the typical "figureheads" in a musical production? (I know there's a director, a stage manager, a choreographer -- what are the other roles or important people involved in a musical production?)

Any other information you're willing to share about your experience in rehearsals (how grueling it is, how your relationships with your castmates developed or changed, etc.) would be much appreciated.

Even if you can't answer all of these questions, any information you do have is helpful. Thank you!!

I'm going to try to be as vague as possible but it's gonna be difficult given that the work this company does is extremely unique.

There's a company I love that does super immersive theatrical experiences. I've attended several of them and they always manage to blow me away. They post casting calls for new performers fairly frequently, and I've submitted every time, but nothing's ever come it. It's not a traditional auditon where you submit a self-tape or anything like that, so it's not like there's anything I could ask them for feedback on or do differently. It's also not something where I'm just not right for a specific character; the whole point is the character is kind of a blank slate that the performer brings their own thing to.

I just saw they posted another call on Playbill looking to switch up their current cast, and I'm debating just letting it go. As much as I'd love to work with them, I feel like there's nothing new I can tell them. If they haven't been interested, I'm not sure that would change now. If they ever happen to be casting for a different show, then I'll definitely try again, but it feels kind of pointless to keep throwing my name in this particular hat :/

I am considering an internship at Florida Studio Theater in Sarasota. does anyone have any experience and/or advice?

What an interesting experience. I went with a pal for free through his university, such an interesting show. It mainly revolves around losing his house in the Pasadena fires, "860" was the house number. He's as funny and charming as ever, truly. Really paints a picture of how the things we own actually truly are part of who we are as humans, and he tragically lost so much. Might be structurally clumsy at parts and a weeee tone deaf, but he really makes a set of it. Also was super open to discussion afterward, which was nice and unexpected.

Hi,

I’m a student working on an experimental physical theatre piece called 6A’R (Határ / Border), and I’m looking for advice from people who have experience with choreography, physical theatre, or devised performance.

The piece is built around six dream states: lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, nightmares, sleepwalking, surreal dreams, and awakening.

Visually and structurally, it’s very tactile and simple: paper, masks, puppetry, wind effects, plastic foil, and fragmented movement in space. The idea is to create something dream-like, but physically grounded, where the body and movement carry most of the meaning.

Right now I’m mostly looking for advice on things like:
– how to develop choreography in experimental theatre
– where to start researching physical theatre / movement creation
– how people usually build a devised, non-linear performance process
– how to keep a stage visually strong without overloading it

I know I already have a clear direction for what I want to do, I’m just trying to broaden my perspective and learn how other people approach similar processes in their own work.

If anyone has experience in this area, I’d really appreciate any direction, resources, or even just thoughts on where to look next.

Thanks a lot.

My foundation somehow end up on the back of my collar. Nobody can see it in the audience but I wanna keep as much foundation off as possible for techs sake. I already spray my face with a ton of setting spray and put a ton of primer before putting my makeup on. Is there any way to keep it off the back of the collar (when there's no makeup on the back of my neck)?

So I'm currently the lead in a 2h show by mark twain that is due to open on the 22nd. We recently got a new director who is used to working with more mature casts (so to speak) and didn't hound people to learn their lines. (As our old director did.) So essentially it's two days before the opening and multiple people are going to be on book. I am not and a lot of the others won't be, but the show isn't really a show in which you can rely on the rest of the cast to improv your lines for you. To be fair, we only had a month and a half/two months to put the whole thing together. Our director suggested a dramatic reading, which NOBODY wants to do. We put so much effort into the blocking, costuming and set, and it's imo pretty good. (Set and costuming are both pretty professional/intricate.) The issue is that people don't know their lines. Has anyone had experienced with fully blocked shows where people carry scripts? How do you make that sort of thing work well? Sort of a last ditch effort to ask on this sub but it's the first lead I've ever gotten and if we have to do a dramatic read I might actually lose it. There's much to say about what SHOULD have been done, i know, but does anyone have ideas on how to shove this back together? We would reschedule but it's not possible for a bunch of logistical reasons. Thanks.

EDIT: thank you all for the replies! I think the plan will be to have 1-2 people on book for the production. Our rehearsal today with most people off-book (besides 1-2 people) is going very well. Our director has conceded that if we feel comfortable putting on this show as is, then he won't stop us. Thank you all so much for the advice! Ultimately I think it'll be a great show, I just had to stop psyching myself out and get out of the mindset of memorization = good theatre.

Hello,

I will be directing a production of Curious Incident in Seotember. A sticking point I have come up on is not the dead dog, surprisingly, but the live dog that Ed gives Christopher at the end.

I have never worked with animals onstage before. We have a potential dog, but he is a dachshund mix and cannot be lifted out of the box like the stage directions state. I imagine those directions minimized the amount of training/risk that the dog posed in the original productions. The dog's owner would be sitting backstage with him for the whole show, and he seemed amiable to someone else leading him around on a leash.

Any advice for those of you who work with animals? The dog would be onstage for a minute maximum, and then would come out for curtain call and the cast meet and greet outside afterwards if the owner was alright with it.

Hey everyone,

I’m a theater directing student in Egypt, and I’m gearing up for a major "Alternative Spaces / Site-Specific" competition at my academy.

I want to take theater into raw, unconventional spaces—like a garden, a courtyard, or an old hall where the architecture itself becomes a character in the performance.

I'm on the hunt for a one-act play that fits this vibe. Here is the catch: it needs to be a comedy.

I'm looking for something that is:

• Intimate and human: Grounded characters with real flesh and blood, even if the situation is completely absurd.
• Smart humor: I love dark comedy, satire, or absurdist humor (think Ionesco or Beckett vibes, but with a fresh punch).
• Spatially flexible: A script that thrives on the "emptiness" or the quirkiness of an unconventional venue, rather than relying on heavy tech or backstage setup.

If you know of any brilliant short plays, underground playwrights, or even a script you wrote yourself that is just begging to be performed in a backyard or a raw space instead of a proper theater, please throw them my way!

I’m really looking forward to reading your recommendations. Thanks a lot!

I'm working on production notes for my play. The opening scene has a character with a life threatening head wound. A character is applying bandages to the wound and they are turning red as she does so. I'm wanting to put into the production notes some ways to accomplish this image.

One idea I had, but haven't tried, is having the bandages be made of a therochromic cloth. They are pulled from totebag - so putting an ice pack in there to cool the cloth can be done without the audience seeing. Ideally, the cloth would turn red from the actress' body heat alone. Then between shows the cloth will return to white in a refrigerator or the like.

Anyone tried this?

Any other ideas?

Should I even bother? This is being put in the afterword section of the document after the play itself along with other production notes. Part of my personality is I like presenting ideas to people to see which ones get picked up on.

I'm performing in a drag show in 3 weeks and the theme is "summer". I need to pick out a song ASAP but I can't think of anything.

I'm a baritone and prefer female alto/lower songs, but anything works.

Dear redditors, unfortunately through a very unexpected death we needed to cancel our London trip next weekend. This means we will have 6 tickets for the Lion King musical starting 19.30 on the 23rd for sale. The original ticket price is 90 pounds each. Since we already have quite some costs for cancelling everything we hope to still receive some of it. So if you are interested or know anybody who is, please let me know!

I have been auditioning for a the regional theaters in my area for years and I finally got a callback!!! i am so excited and i want to tell anyone who has been feeling down about rejections to just keep going!

another thing is I didnt get called back for the show I wanted to be in for their winter season. that's okay too. I'm happy and willing to be in anything. I'm happy for the opportunity and hopefully a role and a CHECK 🫪

I currently am in a production of sam Shepards "buried child." I wanna understand the show the best I can because we've got his family and publicist coming up and watching us, but I have some questions.

Question 1: is Vince the Buried Child? I have so many questions about Vince as a whole some character analysis make him out to be almost an angel of death/Life mentioning him to almost be a symbol like arch angel Michael. A symbol of death to the old and start of the new, but my question is, if he is the "Buried Child" or this "angel" like symbol how did shelly get here? If his life was fabricated to begin with what does shelly have to do with this? Maybe Shelly could have been an innocent bystander who was killed upon finding out about the death and maybe that's why she feels the house is familiar to her but again it raises a lot of questions for me.

Question 2: Do you think Vince is in love with shelly or is Vince stuck in a generational trauma loop and shelly reminds him of what Halie was like before the farm. I always took this show as a strong allegory for generational trauma, hence why Vince turns into dodge at the end of the show but I could be wrong.

Question 3: Why does Shelly start believing she lives in the house? Is the curse effecting her or is there something I might be missing. I know I read in an analysis sheet that she believes father Dewis is a charlatan hence her line "you believe in prophecy's don't you father?" but I personally interpreted that line as her begging someone to see the spiritual side of things with her cause she feels she's going crazy.

I might have more questions and some of these may seem dumb, but I wanna do my best to understand the show inside and out even if some of it will have to be my own interpretation. Thank you!

I have this problem while acting, Im anaylising myself in real time if this is the right gesture, How is the way i look, Am i using a natural voice, Am i sounding fake etc.etc. No matter how many plays i do no matter how much i face the camera it just doesnt go away... I can't be present in the scene, Even after trying so hard And in the end when im done performing i feel so disappointed, But the outcome is always decent or good enough but im never satisfied, and i hate myself for this i feel like a failure

For one of my finals, I'm directing a play on paper and my play is FOB or Fresh Off the Boat by Henry David Hwang.

One part I have to do is make a set design. If my (fictional)?theatre had the budget, the play would be expanded and set on a giant rotating stage where we have huge set designs and realistically painted backgrounds, but unfortunately this is budget theatre.

So, theatre in the round or a proscenium (picture frame theatre)?

I'm thinking proscenium, but I also want my actors to be able to move things around a lot, so I must ask, which is better for this?