ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — When it comes to auditioning, the Asheville Theater Alliance would argue it’s better to hit eight casting directors with one stone. The ATA has announced the first annual Asheville Regional Theater Auditions, a free, unified audition connecting actors, singers and dancers with several local theater companies at once.
The ARTAs will be held Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 2026 in Asheville. Registration is now open for ATA members at www.ashevilletheateralliance.org. Registration will open for non-members on Jan. 1, if spots remain available.
Collection of companies
At a unified audition, performers are invited to show off their talents for a group of theater companies, many of whom may cast their entire slate of shows from what they see at the event.
“They will have two minutes to show their stuff, either by doing a monologue, or a song, or a monologue and a song, or two songs, what have you,” explained Jeff Catanese, co-founder of ATA and artistic director for Attic Salt Theatre Company. ”We’ve got 10 companies who are committed, and they range from all the way down south in Hendersonville, all the way up to Mars Hill and every place in between.”
Currently, eight local theater companies are listed on the ARTA website: Attic Salt, Different Strokes, Dogged Utopia, HART Theatre, Hendersonville Theatre, Montford Park Players, Nemesis Theatre Co. and The Sublime Theater.
Several companies have already announced their 2026 seasons, including the Montford Park Players, who could find the next stars of “Romeo & Juliet,” “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and “Othello” at the ARTAs.
Catanese and his ATA co-founder, Rose Pillmore, hope even more regional theaters will join in for the annual unified auditions in the future, unloading some of the burden of organizing individual audition sessions.
“The companies get to meet the performers, the performers get to meet the companies and the performers get to meet the performers.”
“I hope when people see what the possibilities are, when organizations see what the possibilities are, that they will, perhaps, forgo their own auditions at some point and say, ‘We can do all of our casting from the unified audition,'” Catanese mused. “That would be fantastic, because actually, organizing auditions and holding auditions, even if you’re doing your whole season all at once, is very difficult.”
Catanese is passionate about the community-building possibilities of the ARTAs. For one, digital audition tapes will not be accepted.
“The secondary thing about holding these auditions is that the companies get to meet the performers, the performers get to meet the companies and the performers get to meet the performers,” Catanese said. “So, to just open it up to video auditions kind of defeats that secondary purpose, and everybody might say, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna show up. I’ll just send a video.’ But we want people to show up, because we want there to be communication between all the performers, all of the organizations.”
For more information about the Asheville Theatre Alliance or the Asheville Regional Theatre Auditions, visit www.ashevilletheateralliance.org.