Complete Guide to Acting Auditions - Part 4
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Make Every Audition Awesome
In auditions the only one you can really control is you. Your aim is
to do an audition they will never forget. ALWAYS. No matter how jaundiced
you may become. No matter if it is already cast. Never let yourself
and your talent down. Always go in to kill. Do not shoot yourself in
the toe. Do a brilliant audition. You owe it to yourself. There is no
excuse for failure to do a smashing audition. NONE.
This does not mean being rude, or nasty, or cold, or smart-ass, or clever,
or funny. It means having an inner energy, poise, confidence, presence,
charm, passion so powerful that it surrounds you without your having
to say much of anything. Auditioning successfully is an attitude of
utter and quiet strength and knowing. You do not have to be gorgeous
(male or female) to quiet a room. It can be done with sheer inner power.
Don't think, "I must get this role." Or, "I'm not good enough. My competition
is better, taller, thinner, better known." Instead, get this tape going:
"I am going to let my ability shine. For those 15 minutes or two minutes,
I am not going to be afraid, depressed, inhibited, defeatist. I am going
to give a killer audition."
And most of all, remember that it is your dream to act. You are waiting to go into the audition room because
you chose to. No guns to your forehead. Allow your full talent to come
alive at every audition. Take that as your challenge. Instead of thinking
in terms of an acting need, think in terms of a "being" need. Fight
to be the best you are capable of and then go past that capability.
Energy, passion, comets, lust, forked lightning. JOY. Joy in self. Joy
in the act of acting.
Develop the Ability to Self-Evaluate
There is only one person who can make your audition mediocre. That person
faces you in the mirror. If you have a so-so audition, find out why.
And the only person to ask is yourself. An actress I have known for
ten years raves about her "fabulous" auditions and how the casting people
just "adored" her. In ten years she has been cast in three projects
where she didn't already know the producer. Something is wrong with
this person's ability to self-evaluate. She is not untalented. She lacks
the skill to audition and the skill to truthfully self-evaluate. Being
cast in something every three years has got to send a message to an
actor.
A side note: Do not self-evaluate during the audition. That splits
your focus. You must review your audition, and review it truthfully
but after the audition is over. Not while. Oops that note was off, oops
that phrase was labored, oops that passage lacked energy--these comments
belong outside the door after the audition.
Your preparation consists of numerous tasks and choices. Your post audition
evaluation consists of determining how many of those tasks and choices
you fulfilled. If the answer is "all of them," and you are continually
losing roles, then you better reexamine your tasks and choices and be
sure they are intelligent, imaginative, fascinating -- not just appropriate.
Doing the expected is not a winning choice.
In your post-audition review, once you have examined the "acting" part,
examine the "self" part. Ah, there's the rub! Discover your vitality
quotient: your energy, your sense of self, your pride of self. How alive
are you during an audition? People race cars because that is what makes
them feel most alive. Get that aliveness in auditioning/performing.
If you cannot truly say that acting is when you feel most alive, then
settle for a mediocre audition. People say, "Have fun" when you perform.
Try instead of having "fun" have lust, light, energy, life, vitality
-- those inner qualities that are so difficult to define. You can't
just be "outstanding." You have to be "unique." Demand nothing less
from yourself.
[Back to Part 1] [Continue to Part 3]
Article re-published with the permission of Inverse Theater Company
Inverse Theater, a New York Company dedicated to producing new American verse plays, was voted Best Downtown Theater by the New York Press.
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