Standing in Westview’s black box, Kendall Ratcliff (12) faced a table of four directors. With a nod of her head, she queued her backing track to play, and began her song “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight.” Auditioning for four different characters in the musical The Wizard of Oz: The Wicked Witch, Scarecrow, Lion, and the Wizard. She practiced this one minute cut of the song numerous times, but was still a little nervous.
“An audition is a super vulnerable thing,” Ratcliff said. “You go in there and you portray something that, for me, is a reflection of some part of myself.”
Ratcliff has been involved with Westview Theatre Company since her freshman year, yet she said every audition process is just as nerve-wrecking. The process, however, always starts the same: with the selection of a song.
“Usually, when I’m selecting a song, I’ll go for something that I think fits the vibe of the character, and sometimes I will straight jacket myself with that and I won’t pick a song that’s actually fun to sing,” Ratcliff said.
For this audition, Ratcliff found a song that showcased her vocal range and gave her opportunities to display her personality, choosing “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight,” from Camelot. From there, Ratcliff began trying to make the song her own.
“Once I found the right track, I practiced on my own in my room, in the dark,” Ratcliff said. “It’s nice to not have an audience, and also to not be able to see myself performing because I guess it gives me more confidence to experiment with the song.”
Throughout her years in WVTC, Ratcliff has come up with ways to cope with her nerves.
“I made myself a quiet playlist to help keep myself calm, which helped a lot.” Ratcliff said. “This is my best audition with the company yet, and I was really proud of myself.”
After auditioning, Ratcliff is left in a state of anticipation.
“After the audition, you’re sitting there for a week thinking, ‘Did they like that? Did they think I was a good fit?’” Ratcliff said. “It’s hard to separate your performance from you, so you sit there worrying about whether they liked you or not, but having school to focus on makes it a little bit easier.”
A week after auditions, theater teacher and director Robert Townsend sent out the callback list, telling castmates what roles the directing team was interested in seeing them in.
“For callbacks, people are either called back individually by role, or in groups to test stage chemistry,” Ratcliff said.
Before the day of callbacks, actors receive cuts of songs to learn, as well as sides, or parts of the script to learn. After receiving the callback list, Ratcliff devoted time to getting familiar with each role. She received a callback for three: Scarecrow, the Wicked Witch, and the Wizard.
“This time around, I ran over the callback sides and marked them up with what I thought the character’s thought processes were during each scene and made choices based on them,” Ratcliff said. “For songs, I rehearse over and over again using a backing track, and if I can’t find one, then I’ll plunk the notes out on a piano.”
Since she had to prepare for multiple different roles, Ratcliff tried to decipher specific characteristics she wanted to portray for each role.
Sitting in the audience of the theater after school, Ratcliff and the Wizard of Oz auditioning cast nervously waited to be called on stage. As each group came off stage, the rest of the cast would clap and cheer, encouraging their other cast mates, and settling their own nerves.
“Everyone was nervous at first,” Ratcliff said. “But after the group did dance callbacks, we started cheering on the small groups we each got separated into, and from then on, everyone was really supportive of one another.”
Ratcliff said she holds the theater community and people in it dear to her heart.
“We aren’t usually super competitive about who will get what part or not,” Ratcliff said. “Usually, we’re super supportive of each other, and there’s not really any enmity there and I really like that. That does make me feel more secure.”
Throughout the audition and callback process, many new underclassmen have joined the program.
“We have a really big set of incoming freshmen this year and it’s awesome,” Ratcliff said. “So I think that the future of this company is really bright, especially with the people that have shown up. There are a lot of really talented singers and actors.”
The night after callbacks, casting results were posted on the Westview Theater Company’s Slack. After spending hours reloading the Slack channel, Ratcliff finally saw her name on the cast: Kendall Ratcliff as the ‘Wizard of Oz’.
“I made a lot of new friends throughout the process, as did a bunch of other people that were there, and I’m excited to play The Wizard,” Ratcliff said.
