Virtual Auditions: The New Norm for JMU Theatre Students

JMU theatre and musical theatre students tackle the world of virtual auditioning in the search for professional theatre opportunities after college amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a pre-COVID world, JMU theatre and musical theatre students’ final semester consisted of traveling to NYC, D.C., and other theatre hubs to audition in person for opportunities. Now among safety standards and precautions, self-tapes are the new norm in the theatre community.

“I think self-tapes are a really great thing and have moved our industry forward in regards to auditioning,” Blake Mitchell, senior musical theatre student, said.

Self-tapes are auditions filmed wherever a performer currently lives and submitted virtually to a casting agency or show company. Auditions can include monologues, singing pieces, dance choreography, and other related theatre pieces.

“One of our alums booked a national tour and never auditioned in person. Everything was via self-tape, even their call back,” Kate Arecchi, the School of Theatre and Dance’s Musical Theatre Coordinator, said.

Amanda Willis, a senior theatre major with a performance concentration, said online auditions have created a new world of accessibility for performers. Before COVID, if a performer could not make it to the place the audition was being held, an audition wasn’t available to them.  “People who might not have the money to travel and stay places now can submit online,” Willis said.

JMU students can now submit auditions all over the world without having to leave campus, Colie Vancura, senior musical theatre major, said. This includes submission for both auditions under the Actor’s Equity Association and non-equity work, which was not as accessible to all performers’ pre-pandemic.

“It has been kind of great being able to submit online. I feel like I have a lot more control over what gets seen, instead of in the moment having to be perfect, one time,” Vancura said.

JMU offers a class designed for curating the skill of auditioning titled “Auditioning for Theatre,” and “Auditioning for Musical Theatre,” both currently taught by professional casting director and assistant professor, Kate Lumpkin. After the university went online in 2020, the auditioning class shifted from focusing on auditioning in person, to auditioning fully online. 

Every week, students of the class had to submit a new self-tape on Canvas, Mitchell said. This widened their portfolio of work to audition with, while also practicing for the virtual auditioning world. Lumpkin gave feedback on how to improve self-tapes to perfect them for submissions.

“[Lumpkin’s] been working as a casting director during this transition…  she can talk in real time as a casting agent to discuss what are the kind of things stand out to her when she’s casting a project and when she’s doing it over zoom auditions and video,” Arecchi said.

With classes specifically catered to the new auditioning world, JMU theatre and musical theatre students can adapt to the changes happening in and outside of the department. 

 “I have learned that in the auditioning world it should have been online a long time ago,” Willis said.