Three months before the final production takes place in May, Carlsbad High School’s theatre department held auditions for their 2015 spring musical, “Ghost: The Musical.”

“This year’s spring musical is based off of the 1990s movie with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore,” junior and theatre member Alison Pateros said. “It is about a couple who are finding their way through life. The main male character cannot tell his girlfriend that he loves her, dies in an accident and becomes stuck in between the spirit world and the real world. In this stage of life he has to help his past girlfriend because she runs into some trouble.”

Two high stress level events went on at once for those trying out for the production: musical auditions and finals week.

“I think Mrs. Hall holds auditions during finals week to audition more people in the same time frame of a week since school lets out at 12:15,” Pateros said. “Auditions are in January so she can start rehearsals in February and get a solid three or four months into practice before the performance.”

Several students developed new study habits during the week to successfully prepare for class finals as well as their upcoming audition songs and dances.

“I would take breaks from studying to listen to songs from the musical and try to always be productive with my time,” junior and theatre member Ryan VanDerLinden said. “Rehearsing, whether I was practicing or watching the movie, became my reward for studying.”

Full-time commitment to the production is required of those auditioning; the process takes preparation and dedication. The first step of auditions required signing up for a time slot for the individual auditions, which in this case was singing.

“Mrs. Hall picks song selections for the girls and different ones for the boys- you can choose either a song with a lower range or one with a high range,” Pateros said. “When it is the day of your audition, you go in and sing the song of choice to Mrs. Hall and our music director. After you sing your song, you have to wait for the four other people to go within your same time slot to finish and then you all go around the piano and sing harmonies. All of that goes on during finals week and the following week we have after school dance auditions with our choreographer who teaches a dance combo which we learn all together, practice and then go into the theatre in small groups to perform the dance.”

As for auditioning for any theatre production there are the same basic similarities, but auditioning for a musical brings in one more vital aspect: the voice.

“The difference between auditioning for a musical versus just any other play is mostly the people who come to audition,” VanDerLinden said. “For the musicals we get a lot more people from choir auditioning. Another different part is that to be in a musical you need to be able to both sing and act which makes it more difficult.”

For the many theatre members coming back again and again to audition for Carlsbad High School’s theatre productions, the hard work pays off and the process is always an eventful one.

“I decided to audition for this year’s spring musical because I love doing musicals with Mrs. Hall and I love how she directs,” Pateros said. “The plays are always so much fun because it is always a big ensemble and it is great to work with everyone in the casts.”