Audition Preparation
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What to Prepare (Review All Information Below)
The most important thing to prepare for your audition is your audition material. We recommend that you select material that you are familiar with and can perform well. We also recommend that you dress in professional audition attire.
Students must prepare two contrasting monologues, such as a comedic or a dramatic monologue and/or a classical and contemporary at the student's discretion
For those who wish to be considered for the musical production(s), you must also prepare a song that shows off your vocal range/style and that best reflects the specific role you have in mind. A verse and chorus is an ideal length. We ask that you sing your song choice first before sharing your two contrasting monologues, if at all possible, the choice is yours. Please note that anyone singing at Megas must bring their sheet music in a 3-ring binder, marked appropriately as to where the accompanist starts and where they want their cut to end.
The total time allotted for your audition is as follows:
- Two minutes for Undergraduate Actors that are not singing
- Two minutes and thirty seconds for Undergraduate Actors that are singing
- Three minutes for Graduate Actors that are not singing
- Two minutes for Undergraduate Actors that are not singing
- Two minutes and thirty seconds for Undergraduate Actors that are singing
- Three minutes for Graduate Actors that are not singing
-Three minutes and thirty seconds for Graduate Actors that are singing.
You will be timed from the moment you finish slating your name and when you reach your time limit, you will be stopped and thanked for your audition.
You will be timed from the moment you finish slating your name and when you reach your time limit, you will be stopped and thanked for your audition.
Audition material may be from one or more shows in the UC Irvine Drama season, but you may also use material from other sources.
Please note we will be taking your picture as well for display in the Drama Office at Mega Auditions as well.
Audition Paperwork
Each student must:
- Sign up for an Audition Slot
- Complete a UCI Audition Form.
- Provide a Headshot and Resume.
- Submit items 2 and 3 digitally through a completed Digital Mega Audition Submission Form and bring hard copies to their audition (You need to be signed in with your UCI email to access the submission form).
It is imperative that you prepare and label your audition paperwork clearly and professionally.
You have 2 weeks after you sign up to submit your materials. You will received an email reminder one week after you sign up for a slot, if you have not yet submitted your materials. If you have not submitted your materials two weeks after you signed up for an audition slot, you will receive an email stating that you have been removed from your slot and will need to sign up for a new one.
For the Auditions:
Undergraduates bring FIVE HARD COPIES of your Audition Form, Headshot, and Resume
Graduate Students bring FOUR HARD COPIES of your Audition Form, Headshot, and Resume
Undergraduates bring FIVE HARD COPIES of your Audition Form, Headshot, and Resume
Graduate Students bring FOUR HARD COPIES of your Audition Form, Headshot, and Resume
You will NOT be able to audition without complete paperwork.
Plan to arrive 30 minutes early to your scheduled audition time to check your paperwork with a stage manager.
Please staple your materials together in the following order:
1. Your completed Audition Form
2. Your Resume
3. Your Headshot, facing backwards (so that your headshot is attached to the back of your resume).
Casting Show Information & Audition Requirements
Click the Show Title to see the Casting Show Information
*All casting information is subject to change*
Please sing 32 bars of a song in the style of the show. No songs from Cabaret, please.
Students should prepare two contrasting monologues: one of which is a Shakespearean monologue, preferably in verse. Please indicate if you have any stage combat or movement experience.
All seven second year graduate students will be cast in the show. Beside the two couples (The Smiths and the Martins) and Mary, there will be two (2) male students playing the Fire Chief. Which part will be played by whom will be decided during the first 2-3 rehearsals dedicated to a complex workshop.
As for the undergraduate students who will play the Spectators in Scene XII, they might prepare the monologue/poem The Fire. The requested skills would be movement, dance, singing and clowning. (A PDF of The Fire is linked here).
*A note from the Stage Manager: Our current script includes an alternate Ionesco ending that involves actors as audience members who are *shot by unseen weapons.
For all Thai characters we invite all Asian and Asian American actors to audition.
For those reading for Thai Characters: please prepare one 2-minute monologue from a 21st Century Asian American playwright (like Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Julia Cho, Lauren Yee, etc). Please select a monologue that shows your range. Please indicate if you have any special skills, like movement, dance, stage combat, singing, clowning, comedian, fluent in Thai, and or comfortable with Thai (conversationally, etc.), etc. You do not need to be fluent in Thai.
For those reading for Black Characters: please prepare one 2-minute monologue from a 21st Black American playwright (like Susan Lori-Parks, Anna Deavere Smith, Katori Hall, Inda Craig-Galván, etc) ). Please select a monologue that shows your range.
Please prepare a 32 bar cut of either an uptempo or ballad of your choice. It is OK to sing any song from The Prom. Most importantly, select a song you can sell well, making strong and bold acting choices.
For your monologue, we are interested in seeing contemporary, comedic material.
Direct all questions to Logan Brubaker, Audition Coordinator, at production@uci.edu.