Taking the stage

For most people, the new year begins in January. They make resolutions and prepare to start over.

For me, however, a new year begins each August when Southeast Missouri State University starts back up. I make plans for a school year of new plays, new musicals and new talent.

This new talent quickly gets put to the test. The auditions for university productions started Tuesday and continue through the weekend. In them, students have to professionally present their singing, acting and dancing skills in front of judges -- their professors -- and in an open audition such as Tuesday's in front of other students.

Sitting in Bedell Performance Hall, they were subjected to their competition, watching upperclassmen belt out up-tempo songs and recite monologues. In the atrium, students wandered the space, talking to themselves in character and making hand gestures to invisible scene partners.

The combined auditions for the musical "Once on this Island" and plays "Blood Wedding" and "In the Boom-Boom Room" drew 108 students, from freshmen to seniors.

The Department of Theatre and Dance requires students working toward a bachelor of fine arts to audition for all productions in their discipline: plays for actors, dance productions for dancers and everything involving song, script and for triple threats majoring in musical theater. And the department encourages everyone to audition for everything. The experience and practice is invaluable.

The students spend their four -- or four-and-a-half or five -- years at Southeast auditioning for everything, trying to land a part. College here is like a professional simulator, just as it should be. College is a learning experience, yes, but it should also be training -- training for a job. And part of getting a job is interviewing or auditioning for it.

As far as I have seen, the Department of Theatre and Dance at Southeast takes its job seriously, which explains the consistent high-quality productions and the talent of its students. The department's first production, the musical "Once on this Island," starts Sept. 29. Get your tickets now.