This week I am going to be blogging from the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). Yesterday my colleagues Jonathan Flom, JJ Ruscella, Jason Kaufman, and I made the 960 mile trip, by car, from Winchester, VA to Mobile, AL. SETC is the largest theatre conference in the United States. Each year over 3,000 theatre professionals, university faculty, university students, and high school students come together for four days of workshops, presentations, and auditions.

Professionals and university students have ninety seconds to present an audition package in front of 90 professional theatre companies who are casting summer stock, their regular season, theme park shows, and national tours.  After their initial audition, they hang out until callback lists are posted. Performers then spend the rest of the day running from hotel room to hotel room for callback appointments, often until midnight or later.

Two to three hundred high school juniors audition on Thursday for around 100 universities. Just like the professionals, they put together a ninety second audition package and then wait for the callback lists to go up. Callbacks for this group are a little different. At each conference there is one large room where all of the universities set up booths to meet and greet students. Students go from table to table to receive feedback on their auditions and to learn more about each program.

If you are a sophomore, you should start thinking about making a trip to SETC during your junior year. It’s a great opportunity to audition for almost half of the university musical theatre programs in the country. It is also a great way to get feedback on your audition package so you can tweak it before your senior year when the auditions really count.

More to come from Mobile, AL! Stay tuned.

SETC.org

~Matt