With the fall play out of the way, The Spotlight Players have turned their attention to the spring musical, “The Wizard of Oz.” Auditions for the musical will follow winter break and be sometime in January. Preparing for any auditions can sometimes be a lot of work for the thespians.

According to junior Rachel Fortney, auditions for “The Wizard of Oz” require a 30-second piece from a song and a one-minute monologue. She has a certain technique she uses to prepare for auditions.

“I’m just looking up as many things that would pertain to the part that I want,” Fortney said. “Dorothy in this one is an alto.” Therefore, Fortney is looking up songs in alto range and that pertain to what the play is about.

Fortney has already begun working on her audition pieces. She believes she has some good ideas for her audition.

“I have a couple ideas, but I’m still looking,” Fortney said. “I usually look up different ideas up until about two weeks before the auditions just to make sure I have the right one.”

Auditions take a lot of time and hard work to prepare for, but for a dedicated thespian such as Fortney, the work is worth it. She plans to spend much of her Christmas break practicing.

“To find the actual pieces, it usually takes me maybe four hours,” Fortney said. “Preparing it takes about a couple minutes everyday, overall maybe two hours.”

Junior David Tuttle has a similar idea as Fortney as to what makes an audition piece the perfect one.

“Generally, it’s the idea of the musical,” Tuttle said. “‘The Wizard of Oz’ is more upbeat at times, so you don’t want to pick something too dramatic, you’ll want a happier song. That’s kinda what I’m going with at this point.”

Tuttle and Fortney share both nerves and excitement as they prepare for the upcoming auditions.

“I want them to get here,” Tuttle said, “but I’m always nervous for auditions, because this is going to determine basically what I’ll do for the rest of the semester.”

Tuttle plans to set aside a majority of his Christmas break for rehearsing, but he also wants to make sure he still has time for holiday celebrations.

“I’ll have time with family, with it being around Christmas,” Tuttle said, “but a lot of my time is going to be spent preparing for auditions.”

As this downtime between shows drags on for Tuttle, he can’t help but to imagine how fun this show will be for the cast, crew, and audience.

“I think it’s a good choice,” Tuttle said. “It’s a fun show, it’s a classic for sure, and I think everybody wants to be in it or see it.”