We all know the nerves of trying out for a sport, but what is it like to audition for the school musical? It might seem like the audition process can be as cold as ice but it turns out it is filled with warm hugs.

“This community is just so tight and very welcoming with open arms. I am ready to have a positive experience and a positive environment that I can come to for the next couple of months,” Avery Laurens said as she was prepping for her audition.

There are many different processes for auditions depending on the type of musical. For this year’s musical, Frozen, the main features of these auditions are singing and acting but also includes a dancing section.

“For this show, we know the singing and the acting is the most important but you have to be able to move and move within the world of the particular characters,” Mrs. Andrea Roney, director of the musical, stated.

The first round of auditions includes everyone that wants to audition. For the vocal auditions, there are different songs to choose from depending on what suits their vocal range best. Choosing a song suitable for their voices gives the directors an opportunity to hear the quality of each singer’s voice. Dancing auditions include a dance routine, choreographed by Mrs. Buckner. The dancing auditions prove how quickly the material can be learned by the cast and how much experience they have. Finally, the acting audition includes different sections of the musical to see how well they can perform under the spotlight.

“The acting is also happening in the songs in the show, which usually is in musicals but it’s stronger. There’s very few spoken scenes in this play and a lot of it is done through song and movement and relating to each other so we want to see how people are doing that while they’re singing the song and relating to the characters,” Roney said.

The second round of auditions is callbacks. This allows everyone to do different scenes and try out different mixes of people and take note of the connections they have with each other.

“The spring musical brings out people who have never auditioned before, more sophomores come out than they do for the fall show, sometimes some seniors jump in for a particular show depending on what it is. It gives us an opportunity to see everybody now knowing a sense of what their vocal quality is and how they dance,” Roney explained. “By the time you get to that callback for acting, we’ve seen everybody do everything at least one time so you really get a sense of who’s in the company, and what talents and things they bring to the table.”

Seeing people work so hard for a part they want and turning them down is the hardest part of casting a musical. Not only that but making cuts can also be very stressful and overwhelming for both the directors and the cast.

“This is the worst part of my job. I love finding the company and seeing kids coming forward with their best work and trying so hard and being dedicated. That part is wonderful. The hardest part is having to say that you’re it and you’re not. It’s hard on us because we’ve been there. We know what it’s like. We’ve seen our name beside the name we wanted and we’ve seen our name not on the list at all. We know what it feels like and it doesn’t feel good,” Roney stated.

With around eighty people auditioning for this year’s musical, more people are coming out for this year’s musical making the competition tight due to the popularity of its name. Frozen brought out a lot of new people to audition because a lot of people are familiar with it.

“I have been taking a couple of vocal lessons with my vocal teacher, I’ve been meeting with a couple of friends to make sure that I got my scenes, and putting in the necessary work to make sure that I’m prepared,” Jamie King expressed seconds before he went into his audition.

With a rubric used when making cuts and each character having a range for their vocals, these necessities act as a guideline when deciding who falls under each character and finalizing the cast list.

“I feel pretty good. I had a lot of fun because most of my friends were here and I think it’s just a great experience overall. I love getting into the process and seeing how the whole show develops as a whole and seeing the general outcome of the show,” Michele Schwartz stated moments after her audition.

Once the cast list is out, moving on with rehearsals and being there for those that did not get the role they wanted is the main priority. Looking even further down the road, preparing and planning ahead is necessary to do early on in order to keep progress moving forward.

“I look forward to getting into the real nitty-gritty of the play. We’ve already done production meetings and talked about the set and what the designs will be looking like. Once we know who the company is, it is easier to get a hand on what the setlist needs to be, what the costumes need to be, who’s going to be walking on, and who’s going to be acting in them,” Roney said.

Disney’s Frozen is coming to you live. Love is shared all through the open door at North Penn High School and you are not going to want to miss it.