What I want to talk about now is the cold reading. A lot of auditions, you're
going to be asked to come in to the audition and read from the script. You'll
be working with a partner - maybe several people will be up on stage at the same
time. There are some tricks to doing a cold reading that I want to go over that
may help you have a better audition. It's called a cold reading, because you
haven't had a chance, supposedly, to read the script. This is
especially true with new plays. But, they are going to have, at the audition, sides.
In other words, scenes, for you to read. They may have scripts for you to read.
When you arrive at the audition, and get there early, when you arrive, ask if you
can take a look at the sides, or ask if you can take a look at the script.
Directors want people to do well at the audition, so they're not going to try to
hide this from you. They want you to have a chance to read through it, so that you
will do better for them. The last thing I want, as a director, I want to sit through is -
are terrible auditions. I'm rooting for you; I want you to do well. So, get there
early, and ask if you can read the sides. If at all possible, if they've put the
sides online, or they've been made available ahead of time, take advantage
of that. Make sure you look at the stuff that you need to read. This way, you can
look up words that you don't know, and make sure you have all the
correct pronunciations. That's one way I can tell somebody didn't really want to
roll: they show up for the audition, and they can't - they don't know how anything
is pronounced. If I'm there early, and I see that there's a word that I may not
know, ask. There's nothing wrong with asking someone, the stage manager, or even
the director, if they're available, ask them. "Is this how you pronounce this?"
And that way, you'll get a better audition.
If you're auditioning on film, ...
..it's extremely important that the first line of dialogue is memorized, and the
last line. That's because it will allow you to look directly into the face of
the person you're working with, or directly into the camera, whichever they
have you doing. This also can be very helpful on live performance. I want to
look up as much as possible. What happens, in a lot of auditions, is people get the
script, and they spend the whole time looking at it. So, if I'm playing the
scene with you, "there are all kinds of fanatics in the world... before I knew
Jesus, I was a disco fana-" they're just, they're playing all their energy down
into the script. And what I want to do, is I want to look [at] you; I want to make eye
contact as much as possible. This way it allows me to play my objectives
stronger. And if you're going to do this, decide what the objective of this
character is: What do I want, and then work to get that as I play off the
person I'm acting with. It allows the director watching me do this see my face -
see me make these choices, which I can't do if my face is totally into the script.
Okay. So, I would come in, I look at this piece,
"there are all kinds of fanatics in this world... before I knew Jesus, I was a disco
fanatic." Okay, I memorize that. Then, I put my finger by
the next line - my thumb - it's marking it. So now, we start the scene.
"There are all kinds of
fanatics in this world. Before I knew Jesus, I was a disco fanatic. I
started disco to see-" and now, I can look down at the script, look down, and I
come back to you. But at least I got the first two lines directly to the camera -
directly to the person that I'm acting with.
I follow the script with my
thumb. I just go line by line down, so while the other person is speaking, I
will look down quickly, drop my thumb down to the next line that I have, and
then look back at them. Responding will make you have a better audition. In other
words, the more I'm giving this person, the more I'm looking into their eyes as
they speak to me, the better I'm going to look to that director. And one of the
problems that a lot of people do at auditions is, while the other person is
speaking, you're down there looking at your script - looking at your next line
instead of listening to them. Trust me, you will do much better listening to
that other person speak, when they finish, look down and then talk back to them.
Don't be looking at your script while they're speaking.
Make strong choices.
I once read that the mark of a great actor is making strong, interesting, and
intelligent choices. I believe that's totally true. I don't
want to do my audition the way everyone else did it. I'm going to choose to do
things in my own way. I'm not going to play it safe. Take chances.
The more chances you take, the more stage presence you'll seem to have, and the
more you'll be remembered. I would much rather an actor, when I'm directing, I'd
much rather an actor make some choices that were totally wrong for the
character, but they committed to those choices. This will allow me, as a director
then, to give them some notes, and ask them to do it a different
way. And then, you look brilliant. If all of a sudden you do a complete change,
taking the directions that you were given, and do it the way the director is
now asking, that makes you look like a much much better actor, and the kind of
actor that directors will want to work with. Take chances. Listen to that other
person, try to keep your face up as much as possible, know what you're saying, and
go after whatever objective that you've decided that character wants. If you do
that, you're going to do better reading at auditions when you do your cold
readings. More later.