What was your experience with auditions?
What is the School of Rock the Musical Broadway tour? What is your role?
School of Rock the Musical is based on the 2003 School of Rock movie starring Jack Black about a down-and-out aging rocker who can’t pay his rent and dreams of winning Battle of the Bands. After the band he started kicks him out, he takes a call intended for his housemate, a substitute teacher, and shows up at a fancy prep school pretending to be his housemate and takes the job. He finds that the grade-grubbing kids in his class are also gifted musicians and then recruits them into his band for the Battle. He almost pulls it off, but not quite… Everyone learns that it’s best not to judge a book by its cover and also to be who you are, not who someone else wants you to be and never give up your dreams. Everyone is great at something!
The tour has been going on since 2017 and wraps up this June. I joined in January 2019 and have been in rehearsals since then. I am a swing which is sort of like an understudy, but I will cover 4 different male kid roles when the primary actors are out for whatever reason. There are several child and adult swings in the Company, some of whom know as many as 10 or more tracks or roles! My debut was March 13 as guitar whiz Zack Mooneyham. I was also on as Billy the stylist and then James.
The casting associates for the tour saw some YouTube videos of me playing guitar. They contacted my mom and invited me to send in a video audition. I learned the songs and a few lines and sent in my tapes. They then invited me to come to NYC for an in-person audition when I was about 8. It was my first time visiting the city! I got to the final 8 but didn’t get cast. It was disappointing, but they told me they would be calling for me again and they did, about 6 months later. I went back to NYC, auditioned again, got to the final 8 again, but didn’t get cast. Then I sort of forgot about the show and kept performing at home with my band and taking violin lessons. I got a couple of lead parts in my local theater’s productions of Willy Wonka, Jr. and Wizard of Oz. I worried that maybe my stutter was the reason I wasn’t cast, but casting is a complicated process and you just never know what all is behind the decisions.
To our surprise, just before Christmas 2018 my mom got another email from casting inviting me to return to NYC for another audition. This time, I made it to the final 2 boys and got the part!
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