Getting to your mark in the performance space and finding your visual mark is nonverbal action. As such, it can either work for you or against you depending upon how you use it.
Most actors I've seen in auditions don't use the nonverbal at all. They treat their entrance into the performance space like a necessary evil that stands between them and saying their first line.
As mentioned in the previous post, you should be “sensing” your audience as you move through these functions. These nonverbal actions also provide an excellent opportunity for summoning up your character for the monologue.
Both sensing and going into character culminate in a short nonverbal moment before you say your first line. A lot can and should happen in the brief three to five seconds before you speak, so let's breakdown what goes on in that silence.
The most important thing to be doing is sensing your audience because you want your first line to land when they're ready to hear it. This will give your first utterance believability and impact. If you don't grab your audience with your first line, it's going to be far more difficult to grab them with you're second line. When the first line doesn't land well their attention begins to wane instantly.
During these nonverbal moments you should also be responding to the person that you're supposed to be talking to in the context of your monologue. This response (or short series of responses) allows you to engage the casting director's attention even before you've said your first line. Your response(s) orients your viewers in the world of the character and is absolutely essential in setting up your first line.
All kinds of studies have proven that you form an impression of a person that you're meeting for the first time in mere seconds. In the case of a monologue audition the casting director is forming an impression of you as an actor in those precious seconds before you speak that first line. If you don't make an impression before you speak, you're not likely to make one after you start speaking. Establishing yourself nonverbally is absolutely essential to doing an impressive monologue audition.
Next… The line that's sunk millions of auditions.
Labels: Audition Monologues