The Actor and The Actress: Episode 21 – Training In Acting Class Will Change Your Auditions

Max and Emily had been working on the emotional life of their characters from a scene in “What Dreams May Come” for the past three weeks and were going to perform it in their scene study class at the acting school they both attended.

The first time their teacher, Mr. B had watched the scene, he determined that the emotional life they had so diligently worked on, came from over- analyzing the scene and not discovering a real connection to the characters. In other words, he told them, analyze until an emotional spark occurs then pursue that fully. It’s your talent that you must pay attention to—your instincts, your heart, your creative impulses that lead you on your journey of finding the character, the story, and your voice in all of that.

After seeing the scene this time, Mr. B said the experience was completely different. It was an emotional ride that captured the viewer and didn’t let go until it was over. How did that occur?

It was because they began to pay attention to each little reaction they personally had as they read the script and said the lines out loud. By starting with the tiniest drop of feeling, it can lead you to finding more and more emotion if you pay attention to what’s happening inside you as you ride your own wave and find your voice as the character.

Each impulse is your talent trying to make its way into your work. If you don’t listen and encourage all of those feelings and see where they lead you, you’ll miss what you would bring to the piece that makes it distinctly yours. It’s your talent. Pay attention to it.

The same goes for auditions. Bring yourself to the character because there isn’t time to create a full-blown character in the time you have to prepare before a reading.

The casting director wants to see you in the part and not a lot of ideas or second-guessing. Casting director, Michael Shurtleff has said, “I find the success of the actor in auditioning is in direct ratio to his willingness to give up searching for another character and to use himself. I don’t mean your everyday real self…it’s about being in unusual predicaments, where what happens is out of the ordinary: so it naturally follows that your reactions to what is happening are going to be out of the ordinary too.”

The more you work in acting class finding your voice as an actor, the more it will affect your auditions in a positive way.

© 2015 Lynette McNeill Studios