The audition doesn’t start with your monologue. It starts with walking into the room. Interacting with the people who are running the casting is every bit as important as what you do with your monologues. The reason? This is your optimum opportunity to establish open access. If you don’t do it now, you’re not likely to do it once you start performing your monologue.
In the last post I said that access can be either simple or difficult. It all depends upon how you’re thinking about it because how you’re thinking about it is how it will happen.
If you think that the auditors are judging you, then they will seem judgmental.
If you are unclear what’s supposed to happen in the interview, then you will be confused and bumble through the interaction. You’ll say things that in hindsight seem forced or inappropriate to the situation.
If the auditors seem distracted or disinterested and you take it personally, then you will attribute their disinterest to your presence in the room.
Forever, actors have been coming back from auditions telling me that they were weirded out by something that the auditor did. “They didn’t look at me at all when they were talking to me.” “They seemed preoccupied and unresponsive.” “One of them gave me a really fake smile.”
The confusion triggered by these kinds of occurrences usually causes the actor in question to break contact with the auditor. Suddenly, there’s an awkward distance between you and the people you’re trying to impress. To the auditor, that awkward distance feels like you’re pushing them away. Obviously, this is counterproductive to engaging them in your performance.
Here’s the irony. When you walk into the room, all you really have to do is be available. Be open to interaction and let the auditor conduct the interview. Do not second-guess them. Don’t try to give them what they’re looking for because you have no way of knowing what they’re looking for. In fact, they are looking for you just as you are. They need that access to you in order to get the full impact of what you will do in your monologue.
Next… Keep it simple
Labels: Audition Monologues