The Karns High School musical theater auditions will take place this Thursday, after school, in the KHS auditorium. These auditions are an opportunity for students to show off their singing abilities, dance it out, and get into character. The audition requirements are as follows: students must sing a song of their choosing, learn a dance, then perform it in a group.
Mr. Tinsley is in charge of the musical theater program. He holds auditions, comes up with various plays that the students will put on that year, and works to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that all students are entertained along the way.
“I feel excited and slightly nervous,” said Brenleigh Hankins, a junior in her third year of musical theater, “But I know that it will be a great year, and I am excited to see how everything will come together.”
It’s a given that someone would feel all of the emotions, especially nervous and excited. Hankins feels that she is a last minute kind of person, so she hasn’t picked what she will be doing for her audition, but she’s hoping that whatever she picks she can add her own little spin and a whole bunch of personality to it.
“Musical theater means a lot to me because it’s a place where I can be myself,” said Kamarin May, a sophomore in her second year of musical theater, “It’s a place where I can meet new people, try new things, and connect to my school and peers.”
May is an early planner, so she already has some song ideas for her audition. She is between the songs of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music” and “Part of Your World” from “The Little Mermaid,” but she is leaning towards the second song because she believes that it will make her stand out more.
“The theater department was shut down in 2009 when I went to high school here…” the Karns High School theater director, Seth Tinsley said, “So the previous theater teacher decided to give us an opportunity to have a musical theater program, and I took over for her when she left to be a stay at home mom, and I kept going.”
Tinsley deeply cares for this kind of program at KHS. Since the program has been built back up, they have done very well budget wise, experience, and the overall production value. Since there was no theater department anymore, they wanted to give the students the opportunity to experience something that requires more performance.
“I have a deeper connection with it because I used to be a part of the program,” Tinsley said, “I felt like that in high school where something that was really important to me and my upbringing just got ripped out from under us… so, I am so thankful that I got to take over the program, and I am very proud of how far we have been able to take it so far, and we are still growing.”
Students still get to have the theater impact that was once here at KHS, but now they can expand their performance by singing and dancing. Just like how he put so much effort into theater when he was in high school, he is putting so much effort into getting the program where it is today, and how it will grow in the future.
The plan for the 2025-2026 musical is “Bye Bye Birdie,” by Michael Stewart. Tinsley recently put the rights into the musical, and he is hoping to get it so that he can start putting this entertaining musical together. This musical keeps the trend going of KHS performing happy and cutesy musicals over the years.
If you are interested in auditioning for musical theater at KHS, don’t hesitate to audition. Musical theater is a place where you can really be who you want to be, and do what you want to do. You can try new things, but you also don’t have to do anything that you aren’t comfortable with. Just remember, don’t think, just do!
