Successful Audition Technique

Observing The Details:

When you’re auditioning, it’s important for actors to follow the script regarding details given to you about the scene, where it takes place and the emotional state of the character. That seems simple enough, but often an actor skips some important details, such as: the scene takes place in a restaurant. The environment is critical to creating the reality of what’s happening and, if ignored, the tension or romance or argument won’t be played according to what’s going on in the story. So when you audition, if you haven’t observed that the argument is taking place in a restaurant and raise and lower your voice to create the awkwardness in that environment, we miss a lot of what has to be there for the scene to work.

Think visually

If you start to think visually about where you are and how that effects the moment, whether you’re in acting class or on an audition, more interest and impact will be created in your work. If the scene takes place on a street while it’s raining, there’s a certain discomfort that must be observed to fully do the scene justice.

What I have observed

One of the things I’ve observed in teaching scene study, audition technique, and on camera classes is the lack of specifics needed to make the character a real person and not just words on a page. Not enough time has been spent understanding who the person is and what is important to that individual that defines them in a very clear way. If the actor fails to discover what’s important to the character at any given moment, he hasn’t found the human being yet. The character, for instance, may have a big problem when someone doesn’t do what he or she promised to do whether it’s meeting for lunch or going to the gym. If the plan isn’t kept, your character may become extremely annoyed. The actor may find that silly and not give it the same value that the character does. In that case, the story on the page isn’t told as it was written. You have to put your judgment aside and find the importance it has to the character and why. We all have areas that are sensitive, or have more importance than what another person may appreciate, but it doesn’t stop us from feeling the way we do. In a scene, that’s where the emotional life is and that opens the door to more depth and humor.

When you put the environment there with some specific details about the person’s life, you start to come alive as the character and the work becomes exciting. So open your eyes and discover a brand new world that you live in as the character and see the difference it makes with your auditions!