Emilee Smith

EDUC 450
18 November 2018
Sound of Music Audition Reflection

On the 13th, 14th, and 15th of this week, I helped with the audition and casting process

of Sound of Music at Thompson Valley. Tuesday was ensemble and dance auditions, where we

learned how well student could dance, how quickly they could learn music, and how easily they

could hold their own parts when singing in a group of people. This part of the process was super

fun to watch because it was basically an extended choir rehearsal, and many of the students

auditioning were in choir, so it was nice to be able to talk and joke around with them throughout

the process. Wednesday was lead auditions, so every student that wanted to be considered for

a lead role was there. On the casting team were me, Bryan, Jill Tjardes, her former student

teacher Lauren Dolan, and her boyfriend (and choreographer for the show) Brian. We watched

54 auditions that night, which Bryan said was the most he had seen in his time at TV. The

auditions started at 4, and went until 6 ish. Afterwards, we all stayed and discussed who we

would call back for each role. That process lasted until 9pm. Then, Thursday, callbacks

happened. For this audition process, Spencer and Iliana (a former student) joined us and helped

take notes. The callback auditions were the most interesting to watch, because there was so

much to take into account that I hadn’t considered before. Not only were we paying attention to

their singing and acting skills, we were also paying attention to how much they had prepared,

their time conflicts with rehearsals, and how different students looked together. After all the

auditions finished around 7:30, we all went to a restaurant and decided on the cast list: a

process that took until 10pm.

Being a part of this audition/casting process was really awesome in many aspects. First

of all, it was fun to be on the other side of the stage, rather than auditioning. Secondly, it gave
me many more ways to connect with students who had auditioned; I could congratulate them on

how they did or on their call back. Additionally, it was fun to be included in the decision making

process, especially since I’ll be helping Bryan with the music director role next semester. Lastly,

I think the best part of being a part of this process was seeing how well everyone works

together, and how Bryan, Spencer, and Jill all have the same teaching philosophy when it

comes to high school theater productions. Seeing their thinking process about why they should

give one student the role over another because the first student could grow more, is the

complete opposite of what my high school theater program was like, so I’m very excited to learn

from being a part of this one.