Musical Theatre Audition Information

Evaluating your talent

Admission to the musical theatre program is competitive. Each year 20-22 students, ranging in experience level, are accepted into the program. While exceptional talent is certainly appreciated, the department is not always looking for readiness for the profession, but the readiness to train for the profession.

During your audition experience, the department encourages you to:

  • Leave your ego at the door, be yourself
  • Allow the day to be an enjoyable one.

Audition purpose

The purpose of this audition process is to allow us to evaluate your training and our ability to educate you with respect to a career in the theatre. The process is also designed to afford you the chance to decide if this program is best suited to your goals and abilities.

Audition process

Since moving to a virtual audition platform because of the pandemic, the audition for the musical theatre program will include the following:

  • Monologue — Prepare a monologue from a play or musical, not to exceed 90 seconds. These selections should be drawn from contemporary, published theatre literature and should not require props. The selections should be appropriate to your age and be prepared and memorized. Please review the Audition Preparation Guide for helpful suggestions. You should also have a second, contrasting monologue prepared in the event the auditors need to see more of your work. The second monologue should also not be more than 90 seconds in length.
     
  • Songs — Prepare two contrasting songs, a ballad and an up tempo, each of them 60-90 seconds in length. Both of these selections should be from the American Musical Theatre repertoire. At least one (1) should be from the classic period, e.g. Rogers and Hammerstein, Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Lerner and Loewe, and the contrasting piece (2) should be contemporary, preferably written after 2000. (If needed, please have some alternate songs selections ready to sing.)

    Piano Accompanist: You will be responsible for providing either your own accompanist or recorded music.
     
  • Dance — Please upload into the Media tab on Acceptd any dance or movement with which you feel comfortable and confident. About one minute is sufficient. If you have dance training and feel that dance is an important part of your personal brand: approximately one minute of your choice of a ballet barre combination and one minute of a center jazz combination will suffice (two total minutes for the dancer types, one minute for the mover types). If you do not consider yourself a dancer or a mover, there is no need to upload any dance audition material at this time.
     
  • Interviews — You will be interviewed by members of the faculty to discuss skills and interests. An interview will allow you to talk informally with a faculty member and discover what Missouri State University and you have to offer one another.
     
  • Attire — You should wear appropriate audition attire. This means that your clothes should be comfortable and reflect who you really are. Coats and ties, dresses and heels, are not necessary unless you are comfortable in them and feel good about yourself when you wear them. No hats, please.
     
  • Acceptd — All students are expected to register for any recruitment venue through Acceptd and supply at least your headshot and resume in the Media tab. We encourage you to also consider providing audition materials on the Media tab. Even though we don’t require prescreens, having your audition material uploaded on Acceptd ensures that a review of your work will be readily available when we make our final decisions in the spring.

Additional audition considerations

Audition personnel may ask you to perform one or more of the following tasks, and may ask that some of these tasks be completed within specific guidelines or conditions:

  • Briefly discuss the plays and/or characters of your audition pieces
  • Perform a simple physical task without words
  • Re-perform one of your audition pieces with a different set of goals and conditions
  • Ask the interviewers some questions relating to the musical theatre program at Missouri State University.

2022-23 Virtual audition dates

Register to audition with us at any on these dates by uploading your headshot and résumé through Acceptd.

January 27 – 9 a.m. - noon

January 28 – 9 a.m. - noon

February 3 – 9 a.m. - noon

February 4 – 9 a.m. - noon

February 17 – 9 a.m. - noon

February 18 – 9 a.m. - noon

March 4 – 9 a.m. - noon

* Any potential transfer student who wants to begin classes in January 2023 is invited to submit a video via acceptd by November 11, 2022. Faculty will reach out if they need follow up materials. ​​​​​​

Other virtual recruitment locations and dates

We will have a presence at these other events. (You must apply with the sponsoring organization.)

  • CAPW: August 3-7 
  • STAM: September 22-24 
  • TXeta: September 21-24 
  • PA UNIFIEDS: October 8-10 
  • CAP: November 10-13 
  • IA Thes: November 11-12 
  • TX Thes: November 12-19 
  • Moonfields: November 17-20 
  • MO Thes: January 4-7 
  • KS Thes: January 5-7 
  • Chicago Unifieds: February 6-9 
  • AR Thes: February 9-11  
  • IL High School Theatre Festival: January 12-14