Monologue Auditions: What are you looking at?

So you've walked into the performance area and accomplished the first crucial function. You've picked a good place to stand.

In the process of finding that mark, what have you ended up looking at? You guessed it, the mark on the floor. So yes, from the perspective of your viewers you are basically looking down. This is the moment before the curtain rises on your performance and provides another opportunity for your character to come on line. It gives your viewers a moment to absorb your presence, to acclimate to this new person standing in front of them. If they've had access to you up until this point, this brief moment can further fuel their interest.

What do you look at next? Logic dictates that you're going to look at the person that you're supposed to be speaking to in your monologue. Here's where things get confusing.

Almost without exception, the casting director does not want you to look at them or for that matter any of their assistants. The reason is simple. If you visually contact them they will feel that they're being engaged as a fellow actor. This will hamper their ability to simply observe you, as if they were theatergoers sitting in an audience. On very rare occasions they may give you a production assistant to look at but this almost never happens.

So you can't look at any of the real human beings in the room. This means you have to find a visual mark to focus on. That visual mark is meant to be the person you're talking to in the context of your monologue.

Remember you've just arrived at the mark and you're looking down. As you look up, you need to be actively searching for something to look at. That something should be a detail that your eye can easily hook on to (an exit light, a picture, a light switch). Don't try to find a mark in the middle of a blank open wall space. You're eye can't do that. It needs an obvious detail to focus on.

The ideal positioning for this mark is behind the casting staff and to the left or right of where they're sitting. If they're sitting on the same level as your performance area, your line of sight will likely be a couple of feet above their head level.

Here's the reason why you don't want to pick a visual mark in front of the casting crew. Let's say that you focus on a hat rack to one side of the stage. Since your viewers can see the hat rack and see you speaking to it, it will look as if you're talking to a hat rack. Even if they suspend their disbelief this is still going to look strange and continuously remind them that you're not really talking to anyone.

Next… See what you're looking at.