I have moved this page to the Past Project tab because I am no longer in Calgary so I am not maintaining this page. But I put a lot of effort into creating it and didn’t want to delete it.
If you were curious about how theatre auditions go down it’s like this. When an audition notice pops up you submit yourself to whomever is the contact. For paid professional theatre you’ll submit your headshot and acting resume by email. If they like you and want to see you they’ll contact you with an audition time. Bring extra headshots & resume’s to the audition just in case. In community/amateur theatre you will either show up to a general audition time (say 7-9pm at XYZ place) and you give them your headshot and resume in person or you’ll sign up for a time slot on a specific day.
To prepare for a theatre audition you should memorize 2 monologues that are different. You may not even do one, but you want to be prepared. Sometimes you will do a “cold read” which is reading a scene from the play you are auditioning for. It is called a cold read because you don’t prepare it or memorize it. You just show up, they give you a script, and you read the lines with another actor who’s auditioning. Most audition notices will tell you if they want a monologue or not, I say you should have it memorized because you may not have time to learn a monologue between the time you see the notice and the audition itself. You don’t want to miss an audition because you didn’t have time to memorize a monologue. That sucks, it’s happened to me.
The biggest bang for the buck is to follow Calgary ACTS and Theatre Alberta’s pages. You’ll see the most with the least effort as both of those pages list auditions from a lot of places.
You can sign up for email notifications on Calgary ACTS (Calgary’s Alliance of Community Theatre’s), I suggest you do. Sometimes I’ll get a notification about an audition I didn’t see elsewhere. I’ve gotten roles because of this. Click on Calendar of Events and then there’s an Upcoming Auditions link on the left. Some of the ACTS members I’ve worked with are Gas & Light, Dewdney, & Workshop.
Gas & Light Productions is a member of Calgary ACTS. You can see their upcoming auditions on the ACTS website or on their own page, they are not always in-sync so check both.
http://gasandlight.com/index.html
The Theatre Alberta page(s) don’t always refresh if you save the auditions page so you may have to go to the main page first to refresh the auditions page. Auditions are under the Resources tab on the right. Look in Classifieds – auditions, jobs, and more.
http://www.theatrealberta.com/category/classifieds/
http://www.theatrealberta.com/tag/auditions-yyc/
The Workshop Theatre page is easy to use, auditions are under the Auditions tab on the top.
http://www.workshoptheatre.org/
StoryBook Theatre auditions for their season and sometimes has auditions for specific productions too. I have seen their audition notices on but Theatre Alberta’s page as well as on their own page. StoryBook is pretty clear on their auditions as they have a separate tab at the top of their page labelled Auditions & Jobs.
http://www.storybooktheatre.org/
Theatre Calgary auditions once a year for their whole season. That means that if you get an audition, it will be Marchish, even though you may be cast for a play that is in December or January in their season. They are union (equity – whatever you want to call it) so that means they give auditions to union artists first. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get a call back because they have a limited number of audition slots and they fill up fast with union employee’s first. The auditions notice is posted under the Contact tab.
https://www.theatrecalgary.com/
ATP, Alberta Theatre Projects also auditions once a year for their season, the notice goes out around the end of February with auditions in March or April. My understanding is that they are also union (equity) so their audition spots also fill up before they get to non-union people. I could be incorrect on ATP though as there is no information on this topic on their website. There is no auditions section either, keep your eyes peeled for their audition announcement on Theatre Alberta’s website. ATP’s link is provided here in the interest of completeness.
Vertigo Theatre auditions once a year again with preference to union (equity) actors. Their auditions page is under the About tab on the top right. I have also seen their posting on Theatre Alberta’s site.
http://www.vertigotheatre.com/
Liffey Players is new to me. I received an email from ACTS about their audition so I am not sure if they post their auditions on their website. There is no section for auditions, however I am mentioning them on this auditions page in case they post their auditions on their main page and then take them down after the auditions are finished.
http://www.liffeyplayers.com/home.html
Actor’s Access aka Breakdown Express is for film acting. Unlike Theatre, where you submit yourself, in film, your agent submits you. This link is here because it is one of the tools commonly used by agents in Calgary and it’s free to use. You can set up your profile, add a couple pics and a slate (a slate is a 7 sec video where you say your name and agent) and you list your agent. If you pay an extra fee you are able to do some limited submissions on your own. Keep in mind though that any big roles will not let you submit, you will need an agent.