Into the Rabbit Hole of Alice by Heart Auditions

Every year, Sequoyah students have the opportunity to audition for the Theater Program’s musical. This year, students auditioned for Alice by Heart, a musical about the London blitz of World War II. The musical is based on Lewis Carroll’s renowned book Alice in Wonderland, and depicts the life of Alice, a teenager living in a London Tube station shelter during World War II, who reads Alice in Wonderland to her ill best friend, Alfred. As an escape from the tragedy around her, Alice enters the world of the book, where the characters mirror the people in her real life. The musical shifts between two different worlds and offers many roles for students to fill.

The casting process for Alice by Heart was divided into two main phases, with students auditioning in front of Arden Thomas, the musical’s director and the head of the Performing Arts department at Sequoyah’s high school, and Emily Shisko, the music director of the show. The process began with individual auditions and was followed by two days of callbacks where students auditioned for specific roles in small groups. All students who were called back met in Ross to sing and perform short scenes for the characters they were auditioning for.

The initial audition asked students to prepare two songs and a monologue from the show. Jenna Nouri ’27 prepared “I’ve Shrunk Enough,” a song sung by the show’s lead, Alice, and “Isn’t It A Trial,” sung by The Queen of Hearts. This was Nouri’s first time auditioning for a show at Sequoyah, and she was nervous. To prepare for the auditions, she practiced with her parents and explained that anytime she made a mistake her parents would make a buzzer sound. This practice method helped Nouri memorize the lyrics and melody of the song. Although practice helps ease nerves, Nouri expressed she was still “super nervous.” But despite pre-audition jitters, as she began to sing, nerves turned into excitement.

For many people, auditioning can be scary–but not for Eli Regardie ’25. This was Regardie’s eighth time auditioning for a show at Sequoyah, making him an expert. Participating in two shows a year, Regardie is very used to the audition process. However, this year was different. “Usually we can pick whatever song we want,” Regardie explained, but this year students had to sing songs from the show. Despite the difference in the audition process, Regardie was not nervous, noting that since he has been in so many shows, Thomas and Shisko were already familiar with his skills.

Although this was freshman Mardi Shearer’s second time auditioning for a Sequoyah show, she was still nervous. Shearer explained that to audition for Black Comedy and Breaking Badly, which comprised the fall play, “All you did was read some stuff [in the script] and then [Thomas and Regardie, the directors for Black Comedy, and Atlas James ’25, the director for Breaking Badly would] decide [who to cast].” Shearer admitted that the Alice by Heart auditions felt more intense than that of the fall play because she had to memorize a monologue and two songs. Shearer preferred the more relaxed style of auditioning for the play to the musical, as it felt less nerve wracking.

Nouri was called back for the role of Alice and was asked to sing a duet called “Afternoon.” She sang the duet with students called back for the role of Alfred, and said the experience of practicing harmonies was amazing. Nouri noted that the initial audition nerves were over, and the callbacks allowed the cast to connect and bond with each other.

The third and final day of auditions was a lot smaller than the previous two. Only a handful of students were called back, this time just for the leading characters. Students were asked to perform short scenes and songs for the characters they were being considered for. This was Thomas and Shisko’s last opportunity to see students perform before announcing the cast list.

The day after the third round of auditions, the cast list was finalized. Shearer explained that typically, waiting for the cast list takes a while and is very nerve wracking; however, Thomas had a very fast turnaround time, and the cast list was emailed just one day after auditions ended. The speed of the casting was also appreciated by Nouri and Regardie, as it minimized the anticipation that waiting for the cast list often entails.

Now that the show is cast, the rehearsal process has begun. However, this year the rehearsal schedule is a bit different. Typically the musical is staged in April with rehearsals beginning in January, but this year, rehearsals began in November for the show in March. This rehearsal time allows students to hone their skills and practice their performances for the opening. Alice by Heart will play from March 19th through 23rd, and is a great opportunity to see Nouri, Regardie, Shearer and the rest of the amazing cast in action.