Are You Ready?
OIO utilizes YAPTracker.com to manage all auditions.
You may audition via video recordings, or via live auditions in select cities. Post-deadline auditions are also considered so be sure to read the detailed instructions. If your audition is accepted, you will be notified by email from the Ops Director.
Once accepted, you will be required to sign a Performance Agreement and an online form collecting important information prior to the OIO Program start date. You’ll complete your community profile, upload your bio and headshot, and be connected to the entire OIO online community. Before you arrive, you will receive information you need to make your travel, room and board arrangements.
Your Opera Experience
Emerging Artists
OIO Emerging Artists are cast in the principal roles of the three mainstage productions and sing three to four performances of each role during the four-week festival season. Many artists perform multiple roles but because roles are only double cast, artists are assured of the opportunity to grow into their roles through multiple performances. Emerging Artists also sing in the chorus (but are involved in only two of three productions) and the Broadway Cabaret. Many contribute to OIO outreach activities. A trio of singers may be invited to participate in pre-season outreach programs with beginning early/mid-May.
Studio Artists
OIO Studio Artists are the younger, not-yet-as-experienced company members, undergraduate vocalists but by the end of the summer, they no longer lack lots of significant performance experience. Studio Artists are featured in the very popular, one-hour outreach production (2025 production is TBD) which is performed for hundreds of children and families throughout Northwest Arkansas. Previous productions have included Monkey See, Monkey Do, The Magic Flute, Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, Jack and the Beanstalk, Pinocchio, Cinderella, The Opera Games, When Toys Talk (adaptation of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges) and The Pirates of Penzance.
Studio artists are often cast in secondary or featured-chorus roles in the mainstage productions, sing in the chorus and are featured in the Broadway Cabaret. They partake fully in lessons, classes and all other enrichment activities at The Point.
ALUMNI MEMORIES
Jennifer Zetlan
2004 Alum Jennifer Zetlan recalls the special experience of in her development as an opera singer
Daily Life & Work at Inspiration Point
Daily Schedule
Life at Opera in the Ozarks is busy, stimulating, and fulfilling. Our season divides along lines of four weeks each of rehearsals and a month of festival performances and enriching activities.
There are three daily rehearsal periods of three hours each: morning, afternoon and evening. Each main stage production (examples as X, Y, Z below) will have scheduling priority for one of these periods. The Studio Artist production has its first performance during the second week of June and rehearses in the same rehearsal block as one of the other shows. Private vocal instruction, coachings, chorus and other rehearsals, costume fittings, etc. are scheduled around the priority blocks. The artistic director and production stage manager assemble the next day’s schedule and is posted by 11:00 P.M. A long-range master calendar is posted on the main bulletin board for reference.
Sample Schedule
(XYZ blocks rotate to different times every 3-4 days)
8:00 Daily movement and stage skills class (company divided into two groups so all have six classes per week until dress rehearsal week).
10:00 – 12:30 Rehearsals/coachings: Opera X has priority in scheduling
12:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:25 Production Hour*. After all shows have opened at the end of June, there are frequent staff-lead sessions on a variety of topics.
2:30 – 5:30 Rehearsals: Opera Y has priority in scheduling
5:30 Dinner
7:00 – 10:00 Rehearsals Opera Z has priority in scheduling
Production work
All artists participate in assigned work, supervised by the staff, to assist in preparing our operas for performance: set construction, costumes, props, wigs/makeup, etc. Each day all vocalists participate in Production Hour–an all-hands-on-deck effort for an hour before the afternoon rehearsal. Artists leave OIO with an appreciation for the technical aspects of opera production.
Rehearsal & Practice Facilities
Along with a beautiful 300 seat auditorium and large performance stage, new dressing rooms, green room, production office and costume shop, our new theater offers a 2800 sq ft. rehearsal space and 4 new vocal practice rooms. The Langley Rehearsal Building houses two rehearsal studios of nearly the same dimensions as our theater stage, restrooms and a stage management office/props storage.
The dining hall is a center for study and socializing relaxation; the resident voice instructor and orchestra use adjacent rooms for rehearsals and lessons. This building also houses the main coaching studios. There are also 6 air-conditioned practice cabins, with pianos or electric pianos.
ALUMNI MEMORIES
Joel Burcham
1996 and 1999 Alum Joel Burcham on his experiences at Opera In The Ozarks
Travel, Room, Board & Community
Dates, Fees & Transportation
All vocal artists will be in residence at Inspiration Point from DAY/DATE until the morning of DAY/DATE. The cost of the 8-week program is $AMOUNT for the Emerging Artist program, $AMOUNT for the Studio Artist program. Scholarship assistance is available. The tuition covers accommodations and meals. Transportation to Opera in the Ozarks is the responsibility of participants.
Dining
With professional chefs in the kitchen, we eat like kings and queens at Opera in the Ozarks. Three meals a day, 7 days a week are included in the program fees. For vegetarians, vegans and those with special needs, our kitchen is more than accommodating with creating tasty alternatives.
Housing
Artists live in the air-conditioned men and women’s dormitories, two to a room, with communal bathrooms. The living is close, but so are the artistic bonds and friendships developed at Inspiration Point. In 2021, to assure a safe experience during the COVID pandemic, significant improvements were made to the dormitories’ inner structures and ventilation systems.
Outreach, religious services & civic club engagements
OIO artists may be involved in various outreach performances, and church and civic club engagements. Many local churches love to feature our singers on Sunday mornings (which are always free of rehearsals).
Relaxation & Recreation
Other than a weekly day off, during the initial month-long rehearsal process, there is little downtime. However, once all operas and casts have opened there is more opportunity for some swimming in nearby Beaver Lake, canoeing/tubing and trout fishing in the White River, visiting Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge or exploring the beautiful Thorncrown Chapel and beautiful Eureka Springs.
