Houston Grand Opera
ANNOUNCES AUDITIONS FOR
SHOW BOAT
Corps Dancers
Sunday, October 4, 2026
at the Wortham Theater Center
in downtown Houston
Houston Grand Opera is seeking 8 Black and 8 non-Black dancers for its spring 2027 production of Kern & Hammerstein’s Show Boat. Choreographers Eric Sean Fogel and Eboni Adams are seeking dancers with strong jazz and musical theater skills. Because race and segregation are central to the story, dancers will be cast according to the racial identities called for in the work.
Director Francesca Zambello’s dazzling production of Show Boat is a monumental work of classic musical theater. Set aboard the floating theater Cotton Blossom, the groundbreaking musical traces the intertwined lives of performers navigating decades of love, loss, and prejudice—backed by a sweeping score that is influenced by genres from spirituals to ragtime to jazz. HGO’s production celebrates the centennial anniversary of the piece, which premiered in 1927 at Broadway’s Ziegfeld Theatre.
Auditions will take place on Sunday, October 4 at the Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston in the following groupings: 10:00a-1:00p non-Black female and male dancers, 4:30-6:30p Black female and male dancers. Dancers should wear form-fitting dance attire and jazz or character shoes.
Register for the audition via this link.
The production period is March 22, 2027 – May 16, 2027.
Performances are as follows: April 30, May 2m, 4, 6, 8, 9m, 14, 15m, 15, 16m.
Rehearsals will be pre-scheduled and take place weekdays, weeknights, and weekends. Daytime availability is required. A full rehearsal and performance calendar will be shared with auditionees. Dancers must be available for all rehearsals and performances.
Dancers will be compensated at corps dancer rates according to Houston Grand Opera’s collective bargaining agreement with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA).
● $30.05 (regular) or $22.81 (associate) per rehearsal hour.
● $285.90 (regular) or $233.78 (associate) per performance.
Regular corps dancers are appearing in their third or more Houston Grand Opera production. Associate corps dancers are appearing in their first or second Houston Grand Opera production. All dancers must have work authorization to work in the United States to participate in this production as a corps dancer.
If you have any questions, please write to auditions@hgo.org