# How to Audition for Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) > TYA casting wants grown-up craft for a young audience: challenging material, real children instead of cartoon ones, and an actor who can play three parts and help load the van. What the notices ask for, how to pick your pieces, and how to play a child without talking down. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-audition-for-theatre-for-young-audiences - Published: 2026-10-30 - Last updated: 2026-10-30 Picture a notice for a touring season of family shows. One track reads "Cat Kid, Molly & Others." Another lists Geppetto, Fox, and Donkey as a single part. Picture the audience as second graders at ten in the morning. You're a grown adult with a conservatory degree, and you're trying to work out whether to bring your Chekhov monologue or something with a talking animal in it. Bring the Chekhov, if it's strong. Theatre for young audiences, usually shortened to TYA, is professional theater made for children and families, and the people casting it are looking for the same craft any company wants, plus a few things most auditions never test. The short version: read the notice for the job behind it (touring, doubling, singing, set work), pick challenging, well-written material rather than "kids' material," play children and animals as real people who want something badly, and never talk down to the room. The panel is imagining a few hundred young faces watching you. Show them you'd hold that audience by telling the truth, big and clear. ## What TYA is, and what the job asks of you In the United States, TYA has its own union agreement. Actors' Equity describes its [Theatre for Young Audiences agreement](https://actorsequity.org/resources/contracts/TYA) as covering plays "expressly written, created or adapted to be performed for children." It notes that performances are usually given during regular school hours and are limited to two hours, and that both local and overnight touring are allowed. That tells you a lot about the life: daytime shows for school groups, travel between venues, and audiences who react out loud the moment they're bored or delighted. In a 2017 interview with [American Theatre](https://www.americantheatre.org/2017/08/17/jonathan-shmidt-chapmans-vision-for-young-audiences/), Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, then the new executive director of TYA/USA, said training programs sometimes treat TYA as an "other," and that many young artists don't see it as a career option. If you walk in treating it as serious work, you're already ahead of the actor who sees it as a fallback. ## Read the notice for the job behind the audition TYA notices can say as much about the job as the role. Read every line, because each one tells you something to show in the room. Take the [TheaterWorksUSA call for its 2024-25 tours](https://www.broadwayworld.com/equity-audition/TheaterWorksUSA-2024-25-season-tours-TheaterWorksUSA-2024-42661). Every tour performer was on an Actor/Assistant Stage Manager contract, expected to lift scenery and sound equipment at daily load-in and load-out and to help put up and take down the set at every venue. The company traveled daily by car and van to theaters and schools. Most roles required singing in tight harmonies, and no roles would be understudied. Now look at how roles are listed. That same notice names tracks like "Cat Kid, Molly & Others." The [Children's Theatre Company's 2026-27 Equity call](https://www.broadwayworld.com/equity-audition/Children-s-Theatre-Company-2026-27-Season-Children-s-Theatre-Company-2026-50045) describes its *Pinocchio* as adapted for four actors, and lists Geppetto, Fox, and Donkey together as one track. Put that together and the panel is asking a few quiet questions: - Can this actor change body, voice, and point of view fast enough to play three people in one show? - Can they sing in harmony, not just carry a solo? - Will they stay present and generous through a long tour, sometimes with no understudy behind them? - Are they someone the company would want in the van? You answer those with your material, with how you take an adjustment, and with how you treat the person at the sign-in table. For the room itself, our guide to [audition room etiquette](https://www.offbook.com/blog/audition-room-etiquette) covers the basics. ## Choose material that isn't "for kids" A common worry is that you need a monologue from a children's play. You don't. The Children's Theatre Company notice asks for a 32-bar song and two contrasting monologues, and it says it plainly: "Choose challenging, well-written material." It adds that there is no need to select exclusively from works written for young audiences. The point is that they want to see you act. A well-written scene from an adult play shows depth, and a comic piece shows timing. Two pieces that sit far apart, one grounded and one bigger and funnier, show the range that a doubling track needs. If you're building a pair, our guide on [how to choose contrasting monologues](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-choose-contrasting-monologues) walks through it, and you can browse our [monologue library](https://www.offbook.com/monologues) for options. The song matters as much as the speech when the season is musical. The TheaterWorksUSA call asked for a short, contemporary, uptempo musical theatre or pop song that showed your mix and belt range. That's not a ballad call. Pick something with drive and a clear story, and cut it cleanly. Our guide to [cutting 16 bars](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-cut-16-bars-for-an-audition) covers how to choose and mark a cut, and the same method works for 32. A few things to leave at home: - A "kid voice" version of an adult monologue. It reads as a bit, not a choice. - Material that's mainly shock value. Contrasting doesn't have to mean explicit. - Props and costume pieces. Let your body tell them who you are. ## Play the child, not the idea of a child Sooner or later you'll be asked to read a child, an animal, or a toy. This is where TYA auditions are won and lost. The trap is "playing young": a high voice, a bouncy walk, wide eyes. It looks like an adult doing an impression, and children in the audience can tell. One director put it the other way around. In [a 2019 article on why adults play young characters](https://encorespotlight.com/why-arent-young-characters-always-played-by-young-actors/), Hannah Schoettmer reported that Brandon Ivie, casting *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee*, looked for adults who could play childlike characters while keeping them grounded in reality, with youthful energy and optimism but without caricature. Brynn Williams, then playing Violet in a production of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, said actors "take that energy and put it in a kid form," which Schoettmer describes as changing speech, energy, and physical details. Neither show is TYA, but the lesson carries straight over. Here's a scene to practice on. It's the moment two children wake up in the night in Maeterlinck's *The Blue Bird*, a play whose two heroes are children. > TYLTYL: Hullo!... Mummy's forgotten to put out the lamp!... I've an idea!... > > MYTYL: What?... > > TYLTYL: Let's get up.... > > MYTYL: But we mustn't.... > > TYLTYL: Why, there's no one about.... Do you see the shutters?... > > MYTYL: Oh, how bright they are!... > > TYLTYL: It's the lights of the party. > > *Maurice Maeterlinck, The Blue Bird, Act I (1909), translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.* Don't play "a child." Play what Tyltyl wants: to see the party across the street, right now, before anyone stops him. Play what Mytyl wants: to go with him, and not to get caught. The youth comes from how badly they want it and how fast the want changes, from mischief to awe in three lines. All those dots are thought, not pauses for cuteness. The same goes for a spider, a pig, or a pigeon. Find the creature's body first, then give it a want as clear as any human's. Our guides on [playing much older or younger](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-play-older-or-younger) and [animal work](https://www.offbook.com/blog/animal-work-in-acting) go deeper on both. ## Never talk down to the room Big is fine in TYA. Fake isn't. Marc Mac Lochlainn, artistic director of the Irish company Branar, which makes work for children, put it simply to [The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2023/09/09/how-to-put-on-a-show-for-kids-encourage-the-imagination-avoid-audience-participation-and-never-dumb-down): "Never talk down to them." He warns against perky voices too, and the piece notes that kids "can spot insincerity a mile off." His notes on reading a young audience are useful in an audition too. Silence, he says, means they're in. When children start looking over their shoulders, the actors are talking over their heads, to the adults at the back. A panel that knows TYA is watching for both mistakes: the actor who plays down to the kids, and the actor who plays past them. In practice, that means: - Make your choices bigger by making them clearer: one sharp want, one sharp change, played all the way through. - Keep the energy in what you want, not in the volume or the pitch of your voice. - Let the stakes be real. A child losing a toy feels as big as an adult losing a job. - If you get an adjustment to go bigger, go bigger in commitment, not in mugging. Taking that adjustment well is half the audition. Our guide on [how to take direction](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-take-direction) covers the second take. ## Show you can switch characters fast A doubling track means your audition should show more than one person. If you can, let your two pieces live in different bodies: one grounded and still, one quick and physical. Change where you breathe, where your weight sits, and how fast you think. Know your pieces cold. You may be asked to redo them with a note, sometimes in a very different way, and you can only play freely with words you aren't reaching for. In Offbook you can hide your lines while everyone else's stay visible, or swap them for first-letter cues, and say each line out loud from the cue until you no longer need the page. For a monologue, our free [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer) does the cue part without an account. Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07) If the callback gives you sides from the show, expect a scene with several characters, sometimes all in the same track. Our guide to [learning lines when you're doubling roles](https://www.offbook.com/blog/learn-lines-when-doubling-roles) covers how to keep them apart, and the one on [cold reading](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-cold-read-for-auditions) helps when the sides arrive on the day. ## Before you go Run through this the week before: - Read the whole notice twice and write down what it says about touring, set work, harmonies, and understudies. - Pick two contrasting monologues of real quality, and time them. - If there's a song, choose an uptempo cut that fits what the notice asks for and mark it clearly for the accompanist. - Read any play in the season you're right for, especially the source books for adaptations. - Practice one piece as a child or an animal with a clear want, so a redirect doesn't throw you. - Bring your Equity card if you're a member; both notices above asked for it. - Wear clothes you can move in. A movement or animal adjustment is possible. ## Questions actors ask ### Is TYA a step down from "real" theater? No. In the US, Equity has a dedicated TYA agreement, and much TYA is professional work, for audiences that are honest about whether you've got them. The skills it trains, like doubling, clarity, and stamina, carry into every other kind of work. ### Should I use a monologue from a children's play? You can, but you don't have to. The Children's Theatre Company notice says there's no need to choose only from work written for young audiences. A strong, well-written piece from any play works; it doesn't have to be a children's play. ### Do I need to be in Equity to audition for TYA? It depends on the job. The calls quoted here were Equity calls, and each notice says which contract it's under. Our guide to [Equity and non-Equity theater](https://www.offbook.com/blog/equity-vs-non-equity-theater) explains the difference. ### Do I need to sing? For a musical season, yes, and often in harmony. For a season of plays, a notice may ask only for monologues. Read the notice, and if it lists both, prepare both. ### How big should I go? As big as you can while staying truthful. Clear wants and clear changes read across a gym full of children. A sing-song voice or a cartoon face doesn't, however loud it is.