How to Audition for a Pantomime

The casting call says pantomime. Maybe it’s a touring Pinocchio, maybe a Cinderella at a regional theater, maybe your first Christmas season in the UK. It asks for a self-tape: a short side for the role you want, plus a song. You’ve done plays and musicals. But you’ve never had to pause for a room full of eight-year-olds to shout “Oh no he isn’t!” back at you.

Panto looks silly from the outside, and that’s exactly why people audition for it badly. They hear “big” and play a cartoon. They hear “comedy” and put on a funny voice. The people casting it want something harder: a performer who is huge, fast, and clear, and still means every word.

The short version: read the call closely and deliver exactly what it asks for. Play the character’s want at full size, never a comedy performance of it. Show you can talk to an audience, not just past one. Keep your cues tight. Pick a song you can sell even if you’re nervous. And come ready to do it again differently, because the note is part of the audition.

Know what the form is testing

Pantomime is a British family theater tradition, usually staged around Christmas and built on fairy tales and folk stories. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s history of pantomime traces its roots to Commedia dell’Arte, the 16th-century Italian entertainment of stock characters. After the Theatres Act of 1843 lifted limits on spoken drama, “witty puns, word play and audience participation” joined the mime and chase scenes. Perrault’s tales gave it Cinderella and Puss in Boots.

Today’s audiences know their part. Official London Theatre’s beginner’s guide to pantomime lists the calls: “He’s behind you!” when the villain creeps up, “Oh no he isn’t!” and “Oh yes he is!” when someone gets it wrong, and boos every time the villain walks on. The Dame is traditionally a man playing a woman, unconvincingly on purpose, and the hero is often played by a woman.

Put that together and you can see what an audition is really checking. Can you fill a big theater with energy and voice? Are you funny in rhythm with other people? Can you speak directly to an audience and hand them their cue? Can you sing? And under all of it, the same question every room asks: do you take a note?

Expect a side, a song, and a second take

A panto casting call can be very specific. Hopscotch Theatre Company’s open call for a touring Pinocchio, posted by Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, asked for a self-tape with “a reading of the corresponding side to the character” you wanted. It also asked for “an acapella version of a contemporary song no longer than one minute.” No backing track, and nothing older than contemporary.

Every call is different, so treat the call itself as your first direction. If it says one minute, a minute and forty seconds tells them you didn’t read it. If it says contemporary, a golden-age ballad is the wrong answer. If it names a role, tape the side for that role.

Sides tend to be short. Panto director and writer Ben Crocker, in his advice on running panto auditions, suggests excerpts “preferably no longer than two pages each.” He also tells directors to ask for a second reading with a simple adjustment: “more urgent, louder, or faster.” In a live room, you may get something like it. Your first read shows your choices. Your second shows whether you can change them on the spot.

So rehearse a second version before you go in. Pick one scene and run it four ways: as you’ve planned it, then faster, then louder, then more urgent. If the director asks for one of those, you’ve already been there. If they ask for something else, you’ve at least practiced letting go of your first version.

Play it big, but keep it true

Panto is a heightened style. Crocker compares it to Shakespeare: it “thrives on energy and projection,” and he wants readers to reach the back of the hall. Volume alone won’t do it, though. Our guide to projecting your voice on stage covers how to get there without shouting yourself hoarse before the matinee.

The trap is playing the genre instead of the person. In his piece on maximising panto comedy, Crocker writes, “Good comedy always involves some level of truth,” and adds: even in pantomime. He warns against actors giving their “comedy performance”: leering, pulling faces, using funny voices. His fix is to play what the character actually wants, using “much more of themselves.”

John Currivan’s guide to doing your first pantomime makes the same point about character. Roles should be “clear and well-defined without being ‘stereotypical’.” For example, a panto villain might want the throne, the money, or the girl, and want it badly. The Ugly Sisters want to be the belle of the ball. The comedy comes from how hard they want it.

Villains get an extra gift. York Theatre Royal panto actor Tommy Carmichael describes the job as being “mean and ridiculous while being booed and yelled at.” Both halves count. If you’re reading for the baddie, our guide to playing a villain will help you find the want under the sneer.

Practice talking to the audience

Many actors haven’t trained this. Plays mostly keep the fourth wall up; panto tears it down again and again. Currivan calls dealing with a panto audience “a real trial by fire,” and his advice is practical: “Be clear and big with any signals that tell the audience what to do.” Keep it “playful and light,” and read the house by its energy and focus.

Some roles live there more than others. Currivan calls the Dame “the strongest link between the audience and the actors onstage.” Other comic roles may talk out front too. If you’re auditioning for any of them, show it, even when the side is a two-hander. A single aside to the house, with a clear gesture that says “your turn,” tells the panel more than a page of good line readings.

Here’s how to practice it alone:

• Decide where the audience is before you start. In a room, it’s the panel. On a self-tape, it’s the lens.
• Pick one line in your side to deliver straight out, as a question or a complaint the audience can answer.
• Give the signal (a hand cupped to your ear, a look, a pause) and actually wait for the reply you imagine.
• React to that reply as if it surprised you, then turn back into the scene without losing the thread.
• Film it and check that the signal reads. If you wouldn’t know when to shout, neither will a child in row Q.

A catchphrase helps if the role invites one. David Leonard, who played the villain at York Theatre Royal for 27 years, is quoted in The Simple Things: his was “Thwarted! I’m thwarted!” You don’t need to invent one for an audition, but if the side has a repeated line, treat it as an audience cue.

Tighten your comic timing

Crocker’s line on comedy is short: “Speed is the ether in which comedy can flourish.” He has directors speed-run scenes and says, “Make them go much faster than they want to.” Panto lives on pace. A gap before your line that would feel thoughtful in Chekhov just lets the joke go cold.

Speed only works if you know the cue cold. You need to hear the last words of your partner’s line and come in on them, which means you have to be off book, or very close, even for a short side. Our guide to picking up cues has drills for this.

To drill this before a self-tape, upload the side to Offbook and pick your role; realistic voices read the other characters, then wait for you to finish each line before giving the next cue. Raise the playback speed so your scene partner talks faster, and you’ll have to come in quicker to keep up. When you’ve got it, bring the speed back down and keep the snap.

Crocker’s other note is about focus: “comedy relies on the Audience looking in the right place at the right time.” In practice, send the end of each line to the person it’s aimed at. And keep listening. He calls listening “the glue which holds everything together,” and actors tend to lose it once the lines feel familiar. Our guide to comedic timing for actors goes deeper on setups and laugh lines.

Practice with a public-domain Cinderella scene

If you want material to work on before the side arrives, try this. It’s from Florence Holbrook’s 1911 Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades, a classroom version of Cinderella, from the Project Gutenberg text. It isn’t a pantomime script. That’s useful: you have to bring the panto energy yourself.

CINDERELLA. But I’m fourteen. Sister Katherine, won’t you coax mamma to let me go?

KATHERINE. No, indeed, I’ll not! What would you do at a ball? a silly thing like you!

ELIZABETH. Don’t be a goose. Wait till you’re older and better looking. There’s no room in the carriage for you, and you are too young, anyway.

Florence Holbrook, Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades (1911), “Cinderella,” Scene I (Project Gutenberg)

Read Katherine and Elizabeth as panto’s Ugly Sisters. Here’s a way to work it:

• Play it straight first. Katherine is jealous and scared that her little sister might outshine her. Say the lines as if that were true.
• Now go big without changing the want. Louder, faster, with a body that takes up the whole room. The fear should still be there underneath.
• Find the line to share with the audience. “Better looking” is begging for it: Elizabeth can turn out front, preen, and wait for the boos.
• Do Crocker’s second takes: faster, louder, more urgent. Notice which version makes you laugh on playback.
• Swap roles and read Cinderella, playing her hope truthfully against the sisters. The principal girl has to be sincere in a show full of jokes.

Learn all three lines, not just one part. Knowing the cue that sets you off is a big part of comic timing.

Choose a song you can sell

Do panto auditions include singing? Many do: the Hopscotch call above asked for a song, and Crocker’s audition advice treats singing as part of casting. How much your voice decides depends on the role. Crocker writes that good singing helps a panto but isn’t essential for every role. Crocker says capable voices for the principal boy and girl, the romantic leads, can lift the whole show.

For the Dame, charisma can outrank technique. Crocker says a warm, funny Dame who can’t carry a tune can be worth more than a superb singer with no spark. That isn’t permission to skip preparation. It means you should choose a song that shows who you are, and sell it with the same audience connection you’d use in a scene.

Pick something that fits the call. If it asks for a short unaccompanied song, practice it unaccompanied and time it. Choose a key you can hit on a bad morning. If singing scares you, our guide to auditioning for a musical when you can’t sing has a plan, and how to act a song will help you treat the lyric like a scene.

Show you’re ready for the job

Panto rehearsals are short. Currivan warns, “You’ll likely get between two and three weeks to rehearse a two-and-a-half-hour show.” He adds that you may be doing 12 or more shows a week once you open. The panel is quietly asking whether you can survive that.

His advice for the rehearsal room is a good guide for the audition too: “Add detail and colour to your own character; don’t wait for specific direction.” Arrive with choices. Know your lines. Take the note fast and cheerfully.

If you book it, the script comes fast and you’ll need it in your head even faster. To learn it fast, upload the script to Offbook, hide your lines while the rest stay visible, then hide the whole script for a final test. Our free first-letter memorizer turns your lines into first-letter cues without an account. And for days when you’re handed new pages at the audition, our guide to cold reading has you covered.

Questions actors ask

Do panto auditions include singing?

Many do. The Hopscotch Pinocchio call, for example, asked for a reading of a side and an unaccompanied contemporary song of no more than one minute. Crocker especially values good voices for the principal boy and girl. For the Dame, personality and audience connection can count for more than a perfect voice.

What do panto directors look for?

Energy and projection that fill a big theater, natural comic timing, the ability to talk to an audience, and a performance that stays truthful at full size. They also watch how you take a note, because rehearsals are short.

Should I do a funny voice for a panto audition?

Usually not. Director Ben Crocker warns against the “comedy performance” of pulling faces and putting on funny voices. Start from what the character wants, then turn it up. A clear, committed want is funnier than a voice.

Do I need to be off book for a panto self-tape?

Aim to be, or very close. Panto depends on pace and quick cue pickups, and you need your eyes free for the audience and your scene partner. Sides are usually short, so learning them is realistic even with a tight deadline.

Which role should I go for?

Read the role descriptions and play to your strengths. Strong singers suit the principal boy and girl. Natural clowns who love the audience suit the Dame and the comic lead. If you enjoy being booed, read for the villain. Some calls, like Hopscotch’s, ask you to tape the side for the role you want.