Theatre Teachers, Are We Teaching Auditioning, or Just Holding Auditions?

by Chris Peterson

Every year, theatre teachers across the country hold auditions for school plays and musicals. Students sing, read scenes, dance, introduce themselves, wait for results, and sometimes leave disappointed.

That raises a question more theatre educators should be asking themselves:

Are you actually teaching students how to audition, or are you simply auditioning them?

There is a real difference.

Auditioning is not just a matter of showing up and performing. It is a skill that requires preparation, confidence, self-awareness, communication, and resilience. Students need to understand how to choose appropriate material, how to present themselves, how to take direction, how to recover from a mistake, and how to handle disappointment in a healthy way.

Too often, students are expected to know these things without ever being taught them.

Theatre programs spend a great deal of time teaching students how to perform once they are cast. Those lessons are essential. However, the audition process itself is often treated as something students should already understand.

Many of them do not.

Do students know why one person may be asked to read again while another is not? Have they been taught how to select a song that fits their voice and the style of the show? Do they know how to prepare sides, introduce themselves, dress appropriately, behave in the holding room, or respond when given an adjustment?

Just as important, have they been taught how to manage nerves? Have they been taught how to process disappointment? Have they been reminded that not being cast does not mean they are untalented?

I think about this through my own experiences in theatre. Years ago, I remember watching a student leave an audition convinced they had done something wrong simply because they were not asked to read again. No one had explained that a director might not need to hear more because they already had the information they needed. That student’s takeaway was not about the role. It was about confusion, embarrassment, and trying to guess what the adults in the room were thinking.

That has stayed with me because some of the most lasting lessons students take from auditions are not about whether they got the part. They are about whether they felt prepared, whether they understood the process, and whether the adults in charge helped them make sense of the outcome.

I have seen how much confidence a well-run educational audition can build. I have watched students leave those auditions disappointed, but still steady, because they understood what happened and knew what they could work on next. They may not have received the role they wanted, but they did not leave feeling foolish or dismissed. They left with information. They left knowing that one casting decision did not define their ability.

I have also seen what happens when students are left to interpret the result on their own. A student who does not get called back may assume they were terrible. A student who is not cast may decide that the teacher never liked them. It is because no one helped them understand the process.

For many students, their first real audition happens at school, which means their first understanding of auditioning is often shaped by a theatre teacher. That is a significant responsibility. If students are being asked to audition, they should also be taught what the process is, what it is not, and how to handle both success and disappointment.

Some may argue that these lessons are best taught after the audition, once students have experienced the process and can reflect on it. Reflection matters, and post-audition conversations can be useful. But I do not think they are enough. If we are going to assess students through auditions, we should not wait until after the assessment to explain how the process works.

This does not require private coaching or a major audition unit. A short workshop, a class discussion, a mock audition, or a clear explanation of expectations can make a significant difference. Students should understand audition etiquette, material choice, feedback, casting decisions, and rejection before they enter the room.

The same is true after auditions. Posting a cast list may be standard practice, but students should also be taught how to respond to the outcome, how to ask for feedback appropriately, and how to understand that there are many meaningful ways to contribute to a production.

The goal is not to remove competition from auditions. Theatre is competitive, and casting is selective. The goal is to make auditions educational.

If a student leaves an audition only knowing whether they were cast, an opportunity has been missed. If they leave understanding what they did well, what they can improve, and how to prepare more effectively next time, then the audition has become part of their training.

That matters, whether or not a student continues in theatre. Auditioning teaches preparation, communication, feedback, and resilience. Those are valuable skills beyond the stage.

So before the next round of auditions, theatre teachers should ask themselves a simple question:

Have I taught my students how to do this?

If teachers are going to evaluate students through auditions, then they should also prepare students for the audition process. Otherwise, students are being assessed on something they may never have been taught.