The spring musical is creeping up and that means so are auditions. This can be a scary and stressful time, but if you follow a few of these tips, you’re sure to do great.

1. Prepare. The biggest thing you need to remember is to be prepared. Write down what you’re planning on saying and practice it until you feel like you’ve got it down. You could even memorize it if you feel up to it. Then, if you have certain movements you want to incorporate, be sure to practice and prepare those as well.

2. Emotion and connection. When auditioning, you want to make a connection with your audience, whether it be one person or the entire auditorium. You should make eye contact and position your body language towards the audience. Another piece in making a connection is expressing your emotion very clearly. You can do this through your facial expressions, tone of voice, and even body language. For example, if you were supposed to be very sad, then you wouldn’t be smiling when performing, and you wouldn’t be saying it in a happy tone. You would look depressed and speak in a very somber tone.

3. Speak clearly. You could have the best audition ever with perfect expression and emotion, but if the person evaluating you can’t hear or understand you, nothing you did would matter. When you audition you want to remember the three -ions: Projection, articulation, and diction. Make sure you are speaking loud enough so that everyone can hear you, but not too loud that their ears hurt. Then articulate your words so that everyone listening can understand you, and use diction to make it even clearer. You also want to refrain from talking too fast or too slow. If you talk too fast then you’re words will just get jumbled together and the audience will lose what you’re trying to say. Then if you talk too slow then it will feel like you’re dragging your way through it, and whoever is watching will get bored or lose interest.

4. Channel the character. This goes along with having emotion and connections. Whether you are auditioning for the lead role or a tree, you want to be that character. When you are preparing for the audition try to think about what mannerisms your character would have. Would they have an accent? Do they walk funny or on all fours? Do they speak in rhyme? Are they human or abstract? These are just a few things to consider when channeling the character you are trying to portray.

5. Just relax and have fun! All of these things can seem very stressful and nerve-wracking, but theatre is supposed to be a fun place where everyone can be themselves. People who are relaxed and don’t worry so much are the ones who have the best auditions. If you constantly worry about it then you are going to psych yourself out, and you won’t do the best you could. If you get onstage and you’re shaky and nervous, then you aren’t going to do as good as you would have if you were calm and relaxed.