Spring 2026 AUDITIONS
Register to audition for our Spring Mainstage Season below!
On your audition registration, you will be required to select one 1-hour time slot on one of the audition dates.
ELIGIBILITY: Actors must be in 6th-8th grade on the day they audition. More information about elementary school plays HERE!
SIGN-UP FORM: To secure an audition slot, you’ll need to sign up via our new registration system Hi-Sawyer using the widget above.
AUDITION MATERIALS: Everyone who auditions must prepare one of the short monologues provided. You can find the audition monologues HERE.
LOCATION: Auditions will take place at Mudlark Headquarters, 1417 Hinman Avenue in Evanston. The building is a community center known as the “Church House” because it looks like a church (it is not a church). Street parking is usually available in front of the building, on Greenwood Street to the south, or on Lake street to the north.
General Audition info
Practice your monologue! You don’t have to memorize it, but you should at least be very familiar with it. We want to see you act it, not just read it. You can find the audition monologues HERE.
On the day of your audition, try to arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled time. A Mudlark staff member in the front lobby will check you in.
If you forget to register online, you can still show up! We’ll have paper forms at the table for you to fill out.
How to prepare
When you audition, you will be in the room with a small group of other actors. The audition is structured like this:
Intros: At the start, we will all go around to do introductions, share our pronouns, and do a warm up game.
Monologues: In the course of the hour, you’ll have a chance to perform your monologue and then try out a scene from one of the plays.
Perform a Scene: We’ll assign and hand out the scenes at the audition and give you time to practice them with your scene partner(s). For reading accommodations, or to request a scenes ahead of time, please email production@mudlarktheater.org before your audition day.
the audition
Cast lists
Young actors should be prepared for the possibility that not everyone who auditions will get a role (see MUDLARK’S CASTING POLICY, below).
Whether cast or not, everyone who auditions will receive an email about their casting status at the contact emails provided during Audition Registration.
As a policy, Mudlark does not respond to questions about casting decisions until after the shows are cast.
Mudlark's Casting Policy
Although we do our best at Mudlark to accommodate as many actors as we can each season, Mudlark reserves the right to not cast everyone who auditions. We urge disappointed actors to remember that a cast list is not a judgment on you or a ranking of acting talent. Our goal is to ensure every actor in a Mudlark show has a meaningful role to play and we only have a certain number of parts in each show.
Casting is an imperfect attempt to match the actors who tried out to the roles in the script. Sometimes it just comes down to availability for rehearsals or shows. So if you try out and don't make it, please DON'T GIVE UP. Come back and try out for our next season. Sign up for a different Mudlark program. Or, to heck with us—look to other youth theaters and experiences. Theater is for everybody, and a cast list cannot define who you are or what you can become.
As a non-profit youth theater company not affiliated with the City of Evanston or the public schools, Mudlark must charge a participation fee in order to operate. The participation fee for an actor is $610. Unconditional scholarships for part or all of the fee are available. Scholarships have no bearing on casting decisions.
Participation Fee & ScholarShip Policy
Rehearsal Schedules
Not every actor will be called to every rehearsal. At the end of each week, the director will communicate by email about who is called for the following week.
With the exception of tech week, when attendance is ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY, we do our best to work around all schedule conflicts as long as they are listed on the audition sheet.
