What to Expect at an Open Call Audition

The notice says “open call, 10 a.m.” You show up at half past nine feeling early, and the hallway is already full. There are people stretching, people humming, people with binders thick enough to stop a door. Someone you’ve never met tells you people have been waiting since before the building opened.

Open calls can feel like chaos the first time. They aren’t. They run on rules: who signs up where, who gets seen first, how long each person gets. Once you know the rules, the day stops being something that happens to you, and you can spend your energy on the minute that matters.

The short version: find out what kind of call it is, because union and non-union actors are seen in different orders. If you’re signing up on the day, get there early, sign only your own name on the official list, and expect to wait for hours. Bring a stapled headshot and resume, music marked for the pianist, and two short pieces you know cold. In the room, be prepared to be cut short, and walk out the same way you walked in: calm and friendly.

What an open call actually is

An open call is an audition where anyone who fits the notice can show up without being invited by an agent or a casting office. You’ll also hear it called a cattle call, which tells you something about the crowds. Three versions come up again and again.

• Non-union open calls are run by the theater or production itself. Community and regional theaters often hold them, and the notice sets the rules.
• Equity Principal Auditions (EPAs) are calls for principal roles held by producers working under Equity contracts, with an Equity monitor on site.
• Equity Chorus Calls (ECCs) are the same idea for the ensemble. Backstage’s guide to your first EPA notes that chorus calls hold separate calls for singers and dancers.

Don’t confuse these with a theater’s season “generals.” Some companies hold those only by invitation. Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, for example, has actors submit a headshot and resume to be considered for its general auditions. Read the notice twice before you go: it tells you whether you can simply walk in.

How the sign-up lists work

At a non-union call, the theater decides how sign-up works. The notice will say whether it’s first come, first served or by time block. At an Equity call, the order is set by the union’s procedures, and it decides how long your day will be.

If you’re an Equity member

Members can book appointments. Equity’s published EPA procedures have long divided the day into 20-minute slots of six appointments each, with four booked online in advance and two kept for sign-up in person on the day. Check the current rules on Equity’s member portal before you book, since procedures get updated.

Keep your appointment time. Backstage’s EPA guide says to check in with the monitor at least 10 minutes before your slot or you lose it. If your time is gone, there are alternate lists for members waiting to be fit into a gap.

If you’re not a member

Most non-Equity actors can’t book appointments. Equity’s procedures make an exception for members of AGMA (the opera and dance union) and of Canadian Actors’ Equity, who can check whether they qualify to book like Equity members. Everyone else, under Equity’s appointment procedures, waits on a separate list that is used only when no Equity actors are waiting. Being seen also depends on casting being willing to see non-members at all. Some days that means a lot of auditions. Some days it means none.

Two recent changes matter. In April 2025, Equity stopped honoring the unofficial lists that non-union actors used to start outside New York audition studios, some of them at midnight, as BroadwayWorld reported. The only list now is the one on the monitor’s desk, it opens when the building does, and you may write only your own name. Writing names for friends can disqualify the whole list.

Then, on May 8, 2026, Equity Membership Candidates lost their audition priority under Equity’s phase-out of the EMC program. As American Theatre reported, EMCs lost their priority access and are now seen like any other non-Equity actor. If an older guide tells you EMCs go first, it’s out of date.

Chorus calls add one more rule. Casting can type the call: look at everyone and keep only the people who fit the show physically. Equity’s chorus call procedures say typing has to happen before the first member goes in, and once it’s announced, no non-Equity actors are seen at that call. Being typed out is about height, look, or casting needs. It says nothing about your talent.

What to bring

Pack the night before. Everything on this list has a reason behind it:

1. Headshots with your resume attached. An 8x10 photo with the resume trimmed to the same size and stapled to the back. Backstage’s headshot guide suggests a staple in each corner so nothing comes loose. Bring more than one copy. Our guides to acting headshots and writing a resume with no experience cover what goes on each.
2. Your music, in a binder the pianist can use. Put the pages in a sturdy three-ring binder with non-glare sheet protectors, mark clearly where the cut ends, and cover anything the pianist shouldn’t play rather than crossing it out. Backstage’s sheet-music advice (one example) also suggests separate copies when your 16-bar and 32-bar cuts end in different places. Our guide to building a musical theater audition book covers marking cuts in detail.
3. Two pieces you could do in your sleep. A monologue, a song, or both, depending on the notice. Have a shorter cut of each ready too, and time your monologues with our free monologue timer so you know where each version ends.
4. Your membership card or ID. At an Equity call, members show a paid-up card to the monitor.
5. Water and food. BroadwayWorld’s guide to open calls points out that they draw far more performers than scheduled auditions and can run for hours.
6. Something quiet to do. A book, your script, headphones. You’ll be sitting a long time.

Dress so casting can picture you in the show, and so you can move if there’s a dance combination. Our guide on what to wear to an audition goes through the details.

How long an open call takes

Plan on the whole day, and be happy if it’s shorter. Backstage’s EPA guide (written in 2019) says the Equity monitor arrives an hour before the call starts, and to plan on the whole day.

The audition itself is short. Equity’s EPA procedures leave it to the casting director to decide how long each actor gets, with a minimum of one minute. Backstage notes that EPA notices usually ask for a two-minute monologue, a 32-bar song, or both. Other theaters set their own limits; Warehouse Theatre, for example, asks for a single 60-second monologue.

Expect the length to change on the day, too. At chorus calls, Equity’s procedures let casting change the cut it wants during the call, for example from 32 bars down to 16. If you only know the long version, you’ll be cutting it in your head in the hallway. Prepare both a 16-bar and a 32-bar cut of your song.

How to use the wait

Most of an open call is waiting, and the wait is where it’s easy to lose your audition. They chat for four hours, eat nothing, and walk in flat. Or they run their song full-voice in the hallway and tire themselves out.

• Stay near the monitor. If your name is called and you’re not there, you can lose your spot.
• Eat and drink on a schedule. Have a small snack every couple of hours, whether or not you feel hungry.
• Warm up quietly. Hum, stretch, and run your piece silently or under your breath. Save the full voice for the room.
• Read the first and last lines. Those are the lines that slip under nerves. Our guide to audition room etiquette has more on how to behave in the holding area.
• Be friendly, then focus. The actors around you are your community, not your rivals. Say hello, then let people get ready.

The minute in the room

When you’re called, the work is the same at every kind of open call. Backstage’s open call tips boil it down: walk in with your book, not a pile of bags, greet the room and the accompanist, and have a clear beginning, middle, and end to what you do. Then thank the panel and go. Don’t linger to explain or ask how it went.

With the pianist, take five seconds. Show them the start and end of the cut, and set the tempo by singing or tapping a line, not by snapping at them. They are on your side, and they’ve already played for a long line of people today.

If they stop you early, take it in stride. Being stopped early is common at a long call, and it doesn’t mean you did badly. If you stumble, don’t apologize or explain. Backstage’s audition advice (on mistakes casting directors notice) makes the point that the room watches how you recover. Pause, find your place, and keep going.

Know your material before the day

The open call is the wrong place to discover you only half know your piece. Hours of waiting, a cut that changes at the last minute, and a stranger at the piano all eat away at memory that isn’t solid. Learn the words weeks ahead, so that on the day all your attention can go to the room.

Offbook makes that part easier. Upload your monologue or sides, then test yourself with your lines hidden or replaced by first-letter cues, which show only the first letters of each word. When a call asks for a scene, realistic voices read the other characters, and Offbook listens through your microphone and plays the next cue when you finish your line.

If you’re still picking pieces, start with our monologue library and the guide on how to choose contrasting monologues. Then learn them early, cut them both ways, and let the open call be a day you’re ready for.

Questions actors ask

Can non-union actors go to an Equity open call?

Yes, if casting is willing to see non-members, but there’s no promise you’ll be seen. Non-members wait on a separate list that’s used only when no Equity members are waiting and casting agrees to see non-members. If a chorus call is typed, no non-Equity actors are seen at that call at all.

What time should I get there?

If you have an Equity appointment, check in at least 10 minutes before it. If you’re signing up on the day, arrive when the building opens: at New York’s Equity calls, since April 2025, the official list on the monitor’s desk is the only one that counts, and it opens with the doors. For a non-union call, follow the notice. If it doesn’t say, arriving before the stated start time is a safe habit.

Should I go if I don’t fit any of the roles listed?

Usually not. Backstage’s open call tips advise skipping calls where you don’t fit any listed role. Your time is better spent preparing for a call where you do.

Will there be a pianist?

Often, but not always. Alliance Theatre’s invitation-only generals, for example, have no accompanist, so singers there sing a cappella or bring a speaker. Check the notice, and bring your binder either way.