Behind the Curtain at LOT: The Audition Process

One of the most important parts of our year as an opera company is our auditions.  We hold auditions at least once a year, usually in February or March, and it is one of the most exciting things we do.  If you have never auditioned for anything (or even if you have), let me take you on a little behind the scenes journey.

The audition process starts months before audition day.  The first step in the process is selecting our programming.  Our mainstage show is generally the anchor of our season and helps us to decide on the rest of the programming.  Traditionally for LOT, if we have an opera as our mainstage we will focus more on musical theatre for the other events.  This can be tricky for auditions because the vocal style can be so different depending upon the shows but generally we hold one set of auditions for the entire year of programming.  In 2025, however, we held two sets of auditions because our mainstage was Sound of Music.  That show is so beloved and so unique in its cast needs that we knew we needed to focus on it separately.

Once the mainstage show is chosen and the rest of the events are loosely programmed, we now know one of the most important things for auditions - what types of voices we are looking for.  This can range from a sparkling coloratura soprano singing Strauss in our mainstage show to a deep basso profundo for a selection from Mozart.  These same voices might also be chosen to sing a piece from My Fair Lady or an art song.  At LOT specifically we look for the most compelling storytelling artists – those artists that not only have gorgeous voices but that can use those voices and their acting abilities to pull you in and create a whole world for you, even if it’s only for a few minutes.

Now that the background is done – we can schedule auditions!  We send out the word and sign-ups come flying in.  If you’ve never auditioned before, think of it like a job interview.  In our case, audition day is like a first-round interview. You provide us your resume and show us what you can do by singing a song you’ve selected, and we decide which “job” or role you fit best.  

For certain jobs (our mainstage shows), you may be selected for a callback, or a second-round interview.  This means we like what the first round showed us and now we want to see what you are like in specific roles in the show.  Callbacks also help us gauge chemistry between artists and show us how individual artists take direction.  Both of these things are huge factors when it comes to casting.  

Once callbacks are complete, we can start on the puzzle of casting.  We are so fortunate to get to choose between so many talented artists and while that is amazing, it can also make things difficult.  There are so many factors that go into casting that have nothing to do with talent and two of the big ones are availability and artist preference.  Some artists only want to be in certain roles or don’t want to take on an understudy or ensemble role, which we at LOT respect.   

Once the puzzle of casting is done and the shows are cast, we call our artists to inform them they’ve been cast.  This is the second year I’ve been a part of making these calls and it is so much fun.  It is so great to hear the joy and excitement in the artist’s voices when they hear they got the job.  

Of course, we can’t cast everyone so notifications are also sent out to those we decide not to cast in this season.  Kelsie and I make it a point to get all casting info out to artists as soon as possible because we are both auditioning artists and understand that the wait is the worst part.  No matter what the casting decision is, we always encourage everyone who auditions for us to return the next year where the whole process will start again.

I hope you enjoyed this little behind the scenes glimpse of our audition process.  If you are a singing artist - we hope to see you at one of our auditions down the road!