The Rep Book: How to Find, Choose, and Prepare Successful Audition Songs

Prepping songs for Musical Theatre auditions can be more stressful and confusing than a bad production ofSweeney Todd... but this book can help.

How do you find the right songs, and in all the various genres? Where do you get the sheet music? How do you edit it down to make your 16- or 32-bar cut? What even is a 16-bar cut?! Relax, diva: Your Rep Bookhas the answers to all these questions and so many more.

Adam Wachter has taught courses on audition repertoire selection at top conservatories in the US and UK and spent years accompanying and sitting ＂behind the table＂ in auditions for everything from university programs to Broadway shows. This friendly and accessible guide is designed to answer all your questions and help you stock that rep book with tight cuts of great songs so you can walk into your next audition and totally nail it.

Including a foreword by Broadway casting director Rachel Hoffman and an afterword by Broadway and West End star Caissie Levy, Your Rep Booktakes its readers step-by-step through the strangely mysterious process of building your audition repertoire portfolio (or ＂rep book＂ in industry jargon). Leaving no stone - or showtune - unturned, it helps you identify what songs you need in which categories and explains where to find them, how to source and cut the sheet music, and even how to communicate effectively with the accompanist and act your song. Whether you’re a high school student auditioning for college MT programs or the ink is still wet on your recent BFA, or even if you’re a seasoned pro dusting off those old charts, Your Rep Bookis here to help!

Adam Wachter teaches musical theatre performance at the renowned Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, UK, and prior to that spent three years on the faculty of Point Park University’s musical theatre BFA program. His varied body of work includes experience as a composer, lyricist, music director, pianist, and educator, and the Hollywood Reporter called him a ＂breakout star＂ for his music direction (and quips) on the Disney+ series ＂Encore!＂. He has led and taught workshops with Broadway Dreams, Broadway Weekends, Broadway in South Africa, British Theatre Academy, LAMDA, NYU, University of Chichester Conservatoire, Directions to Broadway, and Take It From The Top. Before starting his academic career, Adam was based in New York, where he was a first-call Broadway audition accompanist at Telsey + Co Casting for over a decade and played in the pit orchestras of War Paint, Allegiance, Finding Neverland, and The Addams Family.