Audition Update is a free crowdsourcing website that serves as an outlet for actors to anonymously share important information.

The page was created by Tom Lapke in 2010 with the "sole purpose of helping actors get through their difficult day with a little more ease and information." It is now owned and run by Backstage.

Actors typically flood the site to update and receive information on the status of current auditions and callbacks. They can also write and read reviews on working at a specific theater, ask anonymous questions about the industry, give advice and insight, and even crack some corny jokes here and there.

However, it was recently announced that Audition Update will be officially moving to a new platform.

Backstage released this notice on the forum.

Hello Everyone,
You’ve heard us talking about it all summer, and we’re finally ready to show you what we’ve been working on. I’m proud to announce that AuditionUpdate.com is moving to its new home on the Backstage Community.
What are the benefits of this new location? It’s anonymous, it's mobile-friendly, it’s easier to police spam content and fake accounts, and best of all, it has collapsed threads! In addition, our developer team will be able to make changes, fix bugs, and implement new features much faster and easier on this new platform.
You’ll notice there’s a banner across the top of the screen here advertising the new location. If you click through that link, it will bring you to the registration screen where you can create your account and automatically receive the “Veteran” flair for being an Audition Update user. Even if you already have a Backstage account, clicking through the link will grant you the flair automatically so everyone will know you’ve been here a while and know what you’re talking about.
We’ll be decommissioning this forum slowly over the coming weeks, so you should save any threads or details that you want to reference later at your earliest convenience.
We know this will really help to improve things here at Audition Update, and we want to thank you - the community - for being here with us through the whole process.

Why the move?

According Backstage Customer Experience manager Chris Knowles, the new location is brimming with improvements: it is much more mobile friendly, is far easier for our development team to create and deploy new features for the community to use, and easier for us to police spam and other bad behavior.

What will be different?

In the new location, Backstage we'll be able to keep the quality content up and remove the bad content surgically rather than deleting entire threads.

You'll be able to read what has been said previously when crafting your replies instead of going to a whole new screen.

There will no longer be a ‘Bitching post’ page as there was on the old Audition Update. Instead, several topics on the Backstage forums will serve in its place.

The ‘Working Actor’ is for all things about the business of acting. All the "have you heard of this agency" or the "whats your opinion on this casting" type of stuff would fit there.

In addition, the page is ‘Getting Started’ for any people new to acting to ask any of new people type questions.

Lasty, the ‘The Green Room’ page will be used as a catch-all for things unrelated to acting.

What will remain the same?

Just like Audition Update, Backstage forums have a search feature so you can find exactly what you're looking for.

Using these forums is 100% free. No subscription required, just be sure to click on the re "Register" button, or start replying to a thread to start your free forums account.

Perks of the new site

Backstage will be paying several members of the AU community and other actors like yourself to go to auditions and report on what’s happening on-site. You’ll see these threads pop up throughout the week made by active AU users whom you may be familiar with, ensuring that you’re getting the best information on what’s going on at auditions, right on Backstage.

Interesting in also working as a freelance reporter? You can apply using this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflAVY9spIvJYK85XsMY__vo_L-Jxtrpoo8on7qLwALaa1jeA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Happy auditioning!