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Editorial

Today we are excited to announce a new partnership with TheaterForms.com. This company provides web services for theaters and theater people and their first product – AuditionForm – is something we think many in our community will find a long-needed service.

David Durkee is the owner and creator of TheaterForms and has over thirty years of professional experience in software development. He was a software engineer at Adobe for twelve years. David has always preferred to work in areas where technology can support creativity. He is a board member of the Eden Prairie Players community theater, and he worked on prototypes of the online audition form for that group’s productions for two years while also developing and bringing Comic Strip Factory to market. When I met with him back in February to find out more about his company I was impressed by his methodical approach to solving the challenges of large scale auditions.

What is it?

An AuditionForm is a full digital site for managing all the aspects of your audition. Some of the key features are:

  • Collecting Headshots and Resumes – auditioners can upload their files directly OR they can simply include a link to their talent profile.
  • Capturing scheduling conflicts – you define your rehearsal schedule and then auditioners fill in their conflicts when they are registering for an audition
  • Audition scheduler – many companies have been using services like SignUp Genius to digitally manage the audition schedule. TheaterForms has this feature built right into the system.

Because it is all contained in one site you can manage all the phases of your audition from this one form – capturing pertinent info during the signup process, managing the review of audition materials and the in and out of people during the audition, and then reviewing schedule conflicts and role choices after the audition when you are ready to cast.

With automated emails sent by the system to auditioners when they sign up and then at a time selected by you prior to the audition, you don’t have to remember to remind folks. It is an elegant system that automates many of the things a volunteer or board member may have been overseeing in years past.

Working with Playlist

With minnesotaplaylist.com as the number one location theaters promote their auditions it made sense to look at a partnership with TheaterForms. We have now included a field in the classified for your AuditionForm URL. We recommend either creating your classified and then saving it for later so you can add that URL, or start with your AuditionForm and then come and build your whole classified. Either way your classified will have a link built right into it so that people interested in auditioning can follow it to your AuditionForm.

I think that TheaterForms is a great service that will help many theater companies have a more clear and consistent audition processes. More and more things are going digital. The ability to run your entire audition from a laptop or tablet is now even easier with the use of TheaterForms. This new partnership with Playlist is just the beginning. David and I are looking at providing more integration into the two sites in the future.

I encourage you to use an AuditionForm on TheaterForms for your next audition. Try the process out and send us feedback via email or social media. If you want more info on using your classified in conjunction with TheaterForms check out our Vimeo Tutorial.

Headshot of Damon Runnals
Damon Runnals

Damon Runnals is the co-founder of Swandive Theatre with Meg DiSciorio, benevolent overlord of Minnesota Playlist, a local D&D Dungeon Master, and father to two amazing girls.