If you have not auditioned before, then you may be surprised at how easy the process is. You do not have to learn anything in advance or worry about remembering lines.

Here's a short film of the Auditions in London on 28th January 2007.  

When you arrive, you will need to present your registration form (see Where and When) and your passport sized photographs. There will be somewhere you can wait with everyone else and, if you have parents or carers with you, they can wait while you are having your audition. There will also be people around to answer any questions you may have: one of these will be a parent of a young person who has already taken part; the other will be a young person who has been on one of the courses.

All our auditions take the form of taster workshops with about 20-30 young people taking part at the same time. You will learn a song together and you may be asked to sing a few lines on your own; you will learn a dance routine together and perhaps improvise movement in small groups; and you will re-enact a short scene, again in groups.Your audition will last 2 hours.

At all our auditions you will be seen by a director, Kath Burlinson, a choreographer, Vincent Manna, and a musical director, Jan Winstone. Kath is an Associate Director of YMT: UK. She has run Studio courses for us, written and directed Goblin Market at the Edinburgh Festival, Missing Melanie in Edinburgh and London, Persona in Belfast and Rare Dreams in Somerset. Vincent has worked on our courses abroad in Korea and also auditions young people for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA); Jan has run Studio courses for us as well as MDing large West End shows and work at the National like Coram Boy.

It's all meant to be good fun and you will probably want to come back the following year for another workshop, even if you do not get offered a place this time. When you come to the audition, you will need to make sure that you wear the right sort of clothing, loose top and trousers, trainers or comfy shoes, no jewellery. You should also bring a bottle of water as you will probably get thirsty during the audition. There will be an area at each audition centre where you and your parents can wait before and during the audition.

Not everyone can be be offered a place in the company this year. This may be for many reasons, but there are a limited number of places (about 260 actors and about 30 instrumentalists) and we cannot offer one to everyone. Sometimes we cannot offer places to even the most talented young people because the productions and courses require participants of a certain age or gender.

If you do not get a place, do consider joining a Studio course. These take place across the summer and offer you a chance to really improve your skills and to have a great deal of fun at the same time. If you want to ask other young people how they have enjoyed them, click on the Discussion Forum . For further information on The Studio, click here.

Once the last audition day has taken place on 25th February, the staff decide who will take part in which projects and will contact you in about two weeks to let you know if you have a part and, if so, in which production or workshop.

For details of the venues, audition times and how to book click here.

For more information on what happens if you get selected for a project click here.

For instrumental musicians information click here.

For Stage Management information click here.

For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) click here.

If you don't want to audition but still want to join click here .