The reason why the first line of most monologues “crash and burn” is because the line seems to come out of nowhere. In other words, there has been a failure to capitalize on the nonverbal resources that I've been writing about in the past several posts.
In most auditions the interview ends, the actor goes into a kind of mental fog and drifts into the performance space. They don't establish their physical presence or visual mark. They project little or no sense of character. The only thing they are sure of is their first line and they go for it like a drowning man grasping for anything that floats.
No matter how well you speak the line, it will seem false because there is no human context for what is being said. The line plays like a flat recitation because that's what it is. Once this happens, you are “screwed” (pardon my French) for the following reasons.
Since you were not sensing when your audience was ready for your first line, you're not likely to sense when they're ready for your second line. So, you blurt that line out too. Because you never established contact with your audience, your third, forth and fifth line play with the same painful artificiality. Effectively, your audition is over. In the old days of the theatre the director would have been yelling “Next!” Unfortunately, that tradition is no longer in use and you are condemned to keep trudging to your last line even though you know you are toast.
I can hear you thinking, “But what if I do recover from a bad first line.” As unlikely as this may be, it is not impossible. This can limit the damage but it also creates an uncertainty for the casting director. Because your first line was blown, they may not trust your recovery. Maybe you just got lucky. It calls the consistency of your skills into question.
Next… It's just talking!
Labels: audition monologue casting director