Students, Please Read the Whole Show Before Using It for Your College Audition

by Chris Peterson

Recently, I worked an audition and had the chance to speak with a number of students about the material they were using. Some were doing monologues from plays. Some were singing songs from musicals. Many were talented, prepared in the basic sense, and clearly serious about wanting to study theatre.

And then I started asking a pretty simple question.

“Have you read the whole play?”

Or, “Do you know the full musical this song comes from?”

The number of students who said no was honestly astonishing.

Not a vague no. Not a “I read most of it.” Not even a “I skimmed the plot.” Just no. They had found the monologue online, or pulled the song from a list, or picked something because a coach told them it fit their type. And that was that.

Students, I say this with all the love in the world: you have to read the whole show. You just do.

In many cases, a monologue is not a standalone speech floating in space. A song is not just a two-minute vocal showcase with a money note at the end. These pieces come from characters who want something, who have histories, relationships, contradictions, and choices happening before and after that audition cut.

When you only know the small piece you are performing, you are doing yourself a disservice. Because the people watching can usually tell.

They may not stop you and quiz you on Act Two. They may not ask you to explain the character’s full arc. But they can feel when a performance is built only on surface-level emotion. They can feel when the actor knows the words but not the world. And if they do ask a follow-up question, which happens, you do not want to be standing there trying to bluff your way through a play you have not read.

You are auditioning for college theatre programs. The whole point is to show that you are ready to take the work seriously.

That does not mean you need to deliver a dissertation on every scene. Nobody is asking you to become the world’s leading scholar on The Wolves or Spring Awakening before your audition. But you should know where your piece lives. You should know what happened right before it. You should know what changes after it. You should know who your character is talking to and why this moment matters.

So before you walk into that audition room, read the play. Listen to the full cast recording. Better yet, read the script while you listen. Look up the context. Understand the story. Make choices based on more than “this song sounds good in my voice.”

Talent matters. Of course it does. But preparation matters too. Curiosity matters. Doing the work matters.

And if you are not willing to read the whole show for a college audition, then maybe the first question is not whether the school is ready for you. Maybe it is whether you are ready for the work.