• C.6 Auditioning
If you are planning on being a
performer, professional or
amateur, you will be doing a truck load of auditioning in the next few
years. The only
actors who escape the
activity are people like Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep, and others of
their
magnitude: they don’t audition because casting directors
already know what they
do. Therefore the
famous are generally
not allowed to grow and transform themselves without major power
brokering on
their part, which at times contribute to their image of
egocentricity and contrariness. So,
audition, audition, audition.
Auditions send some people into major
bouts of traumatic
stress—none of us like to be scrutinized and measured, after
all—but it’s
generally true that, as in all of life’s events, the more you do them the less
“dangerous” or “fearful” they
seem. You
can actually come to the point of having
fun with the process.
Two notions are of greatest
importance in allowing you to
control your auditions. Convince
yourself of these and you’ve got it made!
1)
You are not
doing the
casting. That’s
the casting
director’s job, and it’s fraught with any number of
pressures and anxieties of
its own. Your job is only to present
yourself. You
should not be like a hard-sell
salesman, but
you do need to demonstrate what you have to offer at this point in your
career. So you need
to place your
consciousness entirely on your topic—that’s your
performance material!—and not
on your emotions or the casting director.
You
can only be responsible for your skills and
your attitude. You
can’t immediately control your age, your
vocal range, your physique, your personality.
You can only present them in the best light. And, most importantly, you
cannot control the
others who happen to audition with you, their abilities, or how you mix
with
others in casting combinations.
2)
Do not think of auditions as a chore. They are performance
opportunities in and of themselves, something you want to do. Prepare for them as
carefully as you would any
performance. Just
keep the production
elements simple. Select
the right
material, interpret and rehearse it appropriately, leave your jitters
backstage, and give it your best try.
You’ll never have a better audience.
The person or persons you play to are sympathetic with you!
They’ve been here, remember.
Casting
auditions are difficult
work for those watching as well as those on the platform, with long
periods of
intense focus in which one must be friendly but not overly
encouraging,
careful not to betray too much of what’s going on inside. This is made all the more
difficult when,
after they have been through several sessions, they can discover in the
first
forty-five seconds of an audition most of what they need to know.
So, with those two precepts in mind,
let’s look at some
specifics of the auditioning process.
Obviously, what is offered here can only suggest some
concerns for
additional investigation.
Entire books
are available on the auditioning issue.
You are urged to acquire some and keep informed as to how
the process
changes or is restructured.
Next
Section: C6a:
Your Personal Conduct
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