Baltimore Musical Improv House Team Auditions

​Feb 15, 11am-1pm
Location: Highwire Center
400 S. Conkling Street. Baltimore, MD 21224

​Baltimore Musical Improv is forming their first ever house team! This house team is formed by a selection committee, and includes an audition. The audition will last 2 hours, where you will perform several fairy tale sets. The selection panel folks will be evaluating performers on certain skills that are essential to good musical improv.

​This house team will have regular practices with a coach, and will have various performance opportunities around Baltimore such as with BIG and Highwire. It will also provide an environment to improve your musical improv skills with a group of other dedicated performers.

​At this audition, you will:

• ​Hear more about the house team process and expectations
• ​Schedule + expectations
• • ​Selection criteria (3 categories)
  • ​Audition rubric (today)
• ​Warm up as a group
• ​Perform in 1-3 practice Fairy Tale sets
• • ​aiming to have different performers in different roles

​If you would like to prepare for this, you could:

• ​Review the BMI standard fairy tale format (the format you’ll audition with), which you can find on the BMI website’s Resources page
• ​Attend a jam or workshop
• ​Practice with some friends
• ​Reflect on past performances you’ve been a part of, with an eye towards the Audition rubric criteria. What are your strengths you want to showcase? What are some areas you’d like to improve on between now and the audition?

​A house team is a team run by the organization that is expected to practice regularly and perform regularly. To get on the team, you must

• ​Audition and get accepted
• ​Remain in good standing with the team
• ​Commit to a practice schedule
• Twice a month, the team will have a two-hour coached practice
• ​Individuals must attend at least 1 practice each month
• ​Commit to a performance schedule
• • ​Estimated 1 performance per month

• ​For performers. Many people want to practice musical improv, join a team, and perform regularly, but there can be a lot of overhead to that! We are creating a house team to make it easier for folks to get this opportunity, where the organization takes care of some of the coordinating for folks.
• ​For the organization. We want to support people to develop more skills, to create more stage opportunities for performers, and to foster more camaraderie among our community members.

​Required:

• ​Introduction to Musical Improv (or equivalent)
• ​“Spoken” Improv 201 / Level 2 (or equivalent)

​Suggested:

• ​Some stage experience (any kind)

​If you don’t make it on the team, that is perfectly alright. There are tons of musical improv opportunities in Baltimore, and there will be future iterations of BMI auditions.

​There are many other ways to get stage time that aren’t the house team:

• ​Perform in a musical mashup performance (open to anyone who has completed Intro to Musical Improv)
• ​Join/create an indie team/show
• ​Take other musical improv classes (most have showcase performances)

​If you have any questions about your audition evaluation, you are more than welcome to reach out to a judge(s) to get notes.

​We will choose people for the house team based on three categories:

1. ​Stage audition, stage skills
2. ​Meeting team expectations, soft skills
3. ​Needs of the team

​

​The selection panel will review performers based on three broad categories:

• ​Song Structure + Musicality
• ​song structure | transitions | melody | volume | endings
• ​Scenework + Narrative
• ​yes, and | CLEAR | philosophy | narrative structure | character | stage presence
• ​Backline + Support
• ​background characters | walk-ons | harmonies | dancing | chorus support

​In addition to following the BMI Code of Conduct, house team members are expected to:

• ​Attend the majority of practices and shows
• ​Show up reliably and on time to practices and shows
• ​Pay share of coach dues, split evenly by the team and must be paid by everyone, even if absent
• ​Communicate clearly and kindly with the team
• ​Be attentive (and not disruptive) during practices / shows
• ​Respect each others’ boundaries

​These are expected for continued membership on the house team.

​During the house team selection process, past behavior on teams may also be considered.

​We are not just evaluating you as a performer — we’re focusing on making a balanced team. We will consider how your particular skills and dispositions fit in with the rest of the teammates, such as:

• ​Balance of voice parts (high, low, etc)
• ​Faster players vs slower players
• ​Thinking (robot) vs impulsive (pirate)
• ​Strength with a particular skill the team could use
• ​Different life experience, viewpoints
• ​More “yes” inclination vs more “and” inclination

Highwire Improv
400 S Conkling St, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA

Parking Information

First-come, first-serve street parking is available. Payment is made either by coins or by card.

Accessibility Information

The Highwire Center is an indoor venue located on the first floor and has an ADA-accessible entrance on the far side of the building, along Bank Street.

Ramp access can be made available upon request.

One of the two bathrooms is fully ADA-accessible.

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Host or Publisher Baltimore Musical Improv