On Monday, December 17 and Tuesday, December 18, Leesville’s theatre department hosted auditions for the spring musical, Chicago. On both Monday and Tuesday, students interested in being a part of the Chicago cast performed their prepared audition material for Ms. Tarson, director, Ms. Dickens, choral director, and Ms. Carr, choreographer.
Auditions material included a prepared monologue, song, and dance. Students auditioning have the option to choose their own monologue or use a stock monologue; however, everyone must perform the same choreographed dance in a group.
To help students prepare for auditions, there was a Monologue and Song Workshop after school on Thursday, November 29 in the Chorus room. During the workshop, students interested in auditioning received helpful information on how to choose an appropriate song and monologue for the musical. When selecting an audition song, the directors advised students to sing a song that exhibits a style similar to the jazzy music found in Chicago.
To learn the choreographed dance, students attended a Choreo Workshop after school on December 4, reviewing and rehearsing the minute long dance routine to the song “All That Jazz” from Chicago. Sophia Parsons–sophomore auditioning for Chicago— said, “The dance workshop was really helpful, I got to learn the dance and met a lot of people there that I could audition with.”
In addition to attending the workshops, many students spent the majority of their time out of school practicing their song, monologue, and dance before auditions. “I found a music teacher to help me prepare my song. I practiced in front of family members and friends to make sure I was really prepared,” said Parsons.
“It was a little nerve wracking, for sure, with Ms. Dickens, Ms. Tarson, and Ms. Carr all sitting there staring at you. But, I feel confident and hopefully I’ll get into Chicago,” said Parsons.
The Chicago cast list was posted following callbacks on Wednesday, December 19 in preparation for the spring performances.
