Join the Cast!

Auditions are invited for our second Season of 2022 : Come into the Garden Maud

In this concert series we will celebrate the era of the Drawing Room Ballad, once a central component of British, and indeed, Australian, musical life, and one which was directly parallel with the age of Gilbert and Sullivan. We will return to a time when the ability to sing after dinner – or at any time – was a form of social entrée. Said Sir George Sitwell: “nothing makes you so popular”.

“Come into the Garden Maud” will re-tell the story of this body of once-famous music, one which endured in the memory of the English-speaking world. From Mendelssohn to Vaughan Williams to Frederic Clay, from Prince Albert to Eric Coates to Arthur Sullivan himself, the writers of drawing room ballads immortalised all the major social preoccupations of their time with music that was remembered for generations. These are songs of love, hearth and home, soldiers and sailors, the sea, exotic places, disaster, death, and childhood, many of which are of excellent quality and require skilled execution. They charmingly bring to life the ambience of Victorian and Edwardian society in a unique manner and are still very enjoyable today. In the wonderful garden setting of “The Knowe”, “Come into the Garden, Maud” promises to be a delightful evocation of a lost era.

Auditions will be held on the 14th and 15th December from 7:00pm. We will allocate an audition time slot to you when we receive your application.

Auditions and Rehearsals are held at SPAAC, Cnr Hunter Dve and, McCracken Ave, Blackburn South VIC 3130 unless otherwise advised.

You can sing anything you like, preferably in English. Please bring copies of your music for our Accompanist.

Proposed Rehearsal Schedule.
February – Monday 21st, Wednesday 23rd, Monday 28th – evenings
March – Wednesday 2nd,  Monday 7th, Wednesday 9th – evenings
             – Saturday 12th (at Sassafras – staged rehearsal run-through – daytime)
             – Monday 14th, Wednesday 16th – evenings

We will be rehearsing and performing under the required Covid-19 Public Health Guidelines. Proof of full Vaccination and use of QR code check in / sign in will likely be required. We may also require you to provide a Working With Children Check card/Teacher accreditation if we have anyone under 18 in the cast (this can be applied for, at no cost, at the Post Office).

It will be an intense, amazing, and fun adventure. We look forward to receiving your Audition Form, and welcoming you into the Production.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the society by email. auditions@gsov.org.au

Please make sure you are familiar with our General Audition Information.

If you have a current headshot, we would appreciate you sending it and any other supporting information/performance CV to the auditions coordinator by email – again auditions@gsov.org.au

Audition Form: