Puppets and col­lege plays are not two things that usu­ally go together.

That is, unless your school is per­form­ing “Avenue Q,” a raunchy com­ing of age story that is equal parts musi­cal and pup­pet show. Described by some as a very grown up “Sesame Street,” “Avenue Q” will be Ferris’ spring show, and audi­tions are tak­ing place Jan. 23, 24, and 25 in the Williams Auditorium.

Director Katherine LaPietra described the play as “both funny and thought pro­vok­ing and more than a lit­tle con­tro­ver­sial.” The fact that this show is racy and a musi­cal may con­tribute to a smaller audi­tion turnout than for most shows, but LaPietra remains optimistic.

There were around 40 actors signed up to audi­tion. There are eight main roles to fill in addi­tion to many other smaller roles for a total of about 20 roles.

Kate Schwartz, FSU senior in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion and assis­tant stage man­ager for “Avenue Q,” said some may be turned off by the adult con­tent in the show.

“Some peo­ple aren’t will­ing to be a part of some­thing that is so con­tro­ver­sial,” Schwartz said. “There are many debat­able top­ics that the show cov­ers from gays to racism.”

This can be wit­nessed just by some of the con­tro­ver­sial song names, such as “The Internet is for Porn” and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.” One thing that makes “Avenue Q” dif­fer­ent from any other play put on by Ferris is that most of the cast is made up of puppets.

Schwartz said the most dif­fi­cult part of the cast­ing and audi­tion­ing process is that there is “too much tal­ent.” Many tal­ented actors show up and audi­tion, but there are a lim­ited num­ber of roles.

“It gets very hard to see five peo­ple fit for the same role but can only cast one,” Schwartz said. “This is good for the the­atre, but makes it hard on casting.”