Suprise the auditioners to receive a callback.
The basic defiance for an auditioning actor is to receive a callback. That way you are asked to return to discover, improvise and spend extent with the Industry's Employer and other decision makers. Getting a callback puts you on the short list of people who might be cast for the part. To get one, you have to do something that marks you as one of the better actors at the audition, as well as shows that you are right for one of the roles.
Instructions
Choose the Right Monologue
1. Choose material that you couldn't forget if you tried. Your audition may run very smoothly, but don't underestimate the effects of adrenalin or something unexpected happening. Schools used to teach the ABCs and the Pledge of Allegiance by rote, requiring children to recite them over and over everyday. If you learned your ABCs this way, chances are you will still remember them in front of a firing squad. This is how well you need to know your monologue.
2. Pick a monologue by a character who is your age and type, at least roughly. "Castability" refers to your ability to be cast effectively. "Auditioners" is a word the theater community uses for the director, producers or other decision makers who watch your audition. Auditioners want to see you in your castability niche--not how much of a stretch you can make. Most of the time they will cast according to type. Never use a dialect or accent unless the audition notice requested it.
3. Wear something that hints at the character you are auditioning to play. Know what first impression you make on a stranger and choose a monologue and outfit in that vein.5. TheatreSports founder Keith Johnstone trains actors to include "emotional noises." These are revealing, nonverbal sounds a person makes in the course of everyday life, sounds most beginning actors struggle to keep out of their acting. His advice: put them back in. Blow air through your lips, make an "mmmm" sound, hiss or make a faint gag sound if disgusted. These are sounds we make spontaneously and automatically when we are not performing.
Surprise the auditioners by bringing something to your monologue that goes against type: think in terms of opposites. If you are auditioning to be the sweet young girl, find the line in the monologue where you can add fire, strength, defiance or sarcasm--something they don't expect to see. When 20 pretty blond girls compete for a part, the one who brings the most dimension and humanity has the best chance of standing out. Similarly, add a moment of quaking fear to the hero, a dash of paralyzed indecision to Lord Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet." Give the auditioners an experience that will wake them up and challenge them.
Wear flattering street clothes, not a costume or anything that looks like one.
Add Surprises
4.6. Making noises can release tension from your body and invigorate the words and emotions in your monologue. Note: Use noises judiciously. Too many noises can indicate the actor's neurosis, not the character's inner life.
Keep It Positive But Vulnerable
7. Show your best self. An audition is a job interview. A dramatic monologue full of darkness, curses (literal or not) and despair usually comes well into the plot of a play. Without the time for that dramatic build, auditioners aren't prepared to see you melt down.
8. Remember that you want to show range, but also professionalism. It isn't polite to be too intimate at a first meeting. The same is true at an audition. Auditions are artificial situations awkward for the auditioners as well as for actors. Make the auditioners comfortable with you by showing poise as you begin, then letting your vulnerability and humanity show through the character's behavior.
9. Be very prepared, very brief and very polite going in. The auditioners may ask you questions before or after your monologue. Here's where you can let warmth, friendliness and enthusiasm shine. Practice giving positive, upbeat answers. What have you been doing lately? "Enjoying a summer at the beach," not "Working at a crummy crab shack."
Sit In On An Audition
10. Find a way to be behind the table at an audition process for something you won't be in. This will open your eyes to what auditioners go through to find effective actors.
11. Write down what you see actors do in two columns marked "Always" and "Never." You're struck that the actor says, "Nothing, really," when asked what she's been up to? Write down, "Apologize or diminish yourself," under the "Never" heading. You're moved when the actor starts to laugh during her monologue about death? Write, "Allow unpredictable emotions to come out," under "Always."
12. Continue to put the great moments you witness in the "Always" column and egregious behaviors in the "Never" column. You've probably done these things and not known it, but now you do. Use this list as a primer the next time you audition.
