C.6.b Audition Techniques.
What can be provided for you here
must be couched in terms
of suggestions rather than mandates, because you must be a selective you in an audition setting, and you need
to find your own means of expressing that factor in imaginative (not
necessarily novel) ways. Generally,
apart from seeking appropriate players for their characters, casting directors observing your audition
presentation will be looking for four things as follow:
1)
Does
this person possess a strong sense of stage
presence?
You
need to look as if you belong on
the stage. As in
any acting role—usually this is a
product of long and careful rehearsal—you need to attract
your viewer’s
attention and hold it by efficient and purposeful choices. You must know your
material so well that
there is never a suggestion of uneasiness.
Your must identify with your material, and want others to
do the
same. You must
exude confidence in your
abilities, filling the stage with your imaginary world and speaking
with
supported voice and careful enunciation.
Command the performance and the attention of your audience! But let your command come
from honesty and
identification with character and lines.
Above all, show confidence that the casting directors want to know you and your work.
Appear
as if you have thought your
presentation through, which is easiest to do if you have. When your name is called,
move confidently
and put on a pleasant demeanor. If
you
need furniture, place it with care and don’t fuss with
adjusting it. Don’t
drag props into place. Carry
them.
Address your audience in a friendly fashion and, not
wasting words on
peripheral concerns, name yourself, your audition number if required,
the
characters and plays you will be quoting if
appropriate. Pause
a bit to make the
transition from actor to character, take the stage as if you
“dwelt” there,
pause for a transition back to the actor, perhaps repeat your name, and
walk
efficiently off, no matter how well you think your audition went. In brief, you present
yourself as yourself, yourself as a confident performer and as a character, and yourself as yourself.
Maintain this efficient manner until you
leave the audition building.
2) As a performer your movement
choices are of extreme importance in your audition. Centering your body
language and your verbal
message so that the two are putting out cooperative cues shows much of
your
ability in both stage presence and acting.
And, obviously, choosing your character movements
illustrates your
techniques for sending important artistic cues.
If
you have done your work well,
the casting director should be able to clearly distinguish between your
own
movement and the choices you have made for characterization purposes. This is to be much desired. Make sure all your
characters moves are
justified through the given circumstances and emotional actions of the
scene. Incorporate
several crosses in
the scene to allow the audience to see you move as the character, but
be
cautious of become too busy in your activity.
This becomes annoying and distracts from your delivery of
the language
of the scenes. Move
because you can
justify it from the material.
Usually
a chair will be provided. It
is not a good idea to spend your time
addressing an imaginary character seated in the chair, because the
audience
will automatically focus its attention on that
“character” rather than you.
Also, it will force you to tilt your head
downward, hiding your expressions from the evaluators.
It is more useful to “place” the
imaginary
character down stage, between you and your auditors.
Likewise,
it is unwise to incorporate movement
which requires you to kneel, sit, or lie on the floor.
Not all auditions are made in a raked seating
setting, and a flat floor may well take you out of sight if you have
several
casting directors observing your audition.
Also, moving toward the floor is not a strong action
outside of a
well-developed plot line (death scenes for instance) and the job of you
audition is not to tell a story, but to show off your abilities.
Be
sure, as well, that you provide
sufficient aesthetic distance between you and the casting director. Keep this a formal and
performance
situation. Professional
distance is
required. Drawing
too close to the
evaluator is the action of an individual, and is not viewable as a
performance. Get
overly-close and you
enter the other’s personal space, and consideration of you as
a performer
becomes even more difficult.
3) You will be making impressions
concerning your communication skills as
well. Generally
this means that you must pay
careful attention to your vocal delivery.
This may well be difficult, since most undergraduate
performers do not
have extensive training in vocal skills.
However, a few common sense concepts are of enormous help.
·
Project.
That we understand. Breath
support, placement, volume.
·
Enunciate.
Make careful use of your articulators
(tongue, lips, teeth, palate) to provide as crystal clear a
vocal presentation
as possible.
·
Avoid
dialects. You
have far too little time
to allow your audience’s ear to adjust to the unfamiliar
sound of
dialects. Save that
for
performance. Only
do them if requested
in call-backs.
They
want to see if you can control
yourself on stage, whether you understand the implications of movement,
whether
you can be heard, and finally:
4)
Does this
person have any real acting ability? You are given only a very
short time in which
to prove it. Don’t
worry too much about
it because all casting directors understand well the
impossibility of the
task.
In Summary
It is important for you to make very strong choices about
characterization long before coming
to the audition. Choose
very clear
character movement and line readings.
Find one or two flamboyant
character things
to do without becoming overly theatrical or self-conscious. Base these things on very
precise character
analysis of character as character, not a part of the storyline action. Actions and possible
readings will come
almost automatically with line-by-line analysis, perhaps
enhanced by careful
cutting of the extraneous plot-motivated material.
You’re after a coherent character, not a
creature of the storyline: a character complete in and of itself.
Complete control
of
material will free you to focus and concentrate while
auditioning. Stay
focused on achieving an objective and
you won’t have time to be thinking of your audience response. Auditioning is distinctive
in this way:
ordinarily you want to focus on audience response during performance,
while in
this case you want to achieve complete believability of
characterization while
not worrying about carrying your audience along with you.
And remember, everyone knows the
audition setting is a false
theatre setting. Theatre per se is not the goal, but
demonstration of performer and
performer acting skills is. So
don’t
fuss about being over scrupulous about attempting to show the character
as
complete.
Next
Section: C6c:
Selecting Your Material
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