Miss Erin asked to hear more about my acting classes, so here we go.
This past session we studied the audition process, and how to be prepared for an audition. Not just memorizing a monologue, but finding a monologue that fits you and your type and being prepared for cold readings.
Question: Why is it I can act when I'm doing a play but can't do that in a reading?
Answer: You can. It's a matter of asking the right questions. Hence, the following guideposts.
1. Relationship: What is my relationship to the other character in the scene I'm about to do? Facts are never enough. How do you feel about this person?
2. Conflict: What are you fighting for? Who is interfering with you getting what you want? Find variety in fighting for your motivation.
3. The Moment Before: It's up to you to provide what comes before the scene. Not just thinking about it, but immersing yourself in the moment before in order to come into a scene fully in character and prepared.
4. Humor: Humor isn't just "being funny." Humor is an attitude with which we are able to face the serious things and life and get through each day.
5. Opposites: Whatever you decide as a motivation, the opposite is also true. (ie, in every human there exists love and hate, happy moods and sad moods, etc) Opposites develop conflict and therfore drama, and therefore interest.
6. Discoveries: Every scene is filled with things that happen for the first time. They can be about you, another character, or just about anything. Always ask yourself: What is new?
7. Communication and competition: Acting is a task of communication. It is not enough for an actor to feel if that feeling is not being communicated. All dramatic relationships are competitive, there's alot of resistance.
8. Importance: Plays are written about important moments in people's lives. An actor must look for something ususual going on. We don't go to see plays to see people living everyday humdrum lives.
9. Find the events: Ask yourself, "What happens in this scene? What are the changes?"
10. Place: It's up to the actor to create a place, which leads credibility to your acting.
11. Game Playing and role playing: Not insincere! For each situation we play a different role because it is a different genre. (ie, teacher student; friend friend; husband wife) Every relationship we have demands a different role. when we want to change, that creates conflict.
12. Mystery and secret: Finally, add to these what you don't know. For example, no matter how well we know another person, there are always things going on in his mind that we can't know. No matter how well we explain ourselves, there's always something hidden and unknown in us. Don't play the end before the end. Play what you dream or hope the end will be.
These guideposts come from a book called Audition, by Michael Shurtleff. He's a casting director in New York and wrote the book to help actors. I highly recommend it. It goes into the guideposts in more detail, as well as other topics of interest. There was ALOT of stuff in there that I hadn't known but completely made sense.
Ramin Karimloo is BACK as Phantom in Milan, Italy
6 months ago
4 musings:
Dude! There's twelve more of the many reasons I limit my acting to obnoxious imitations of members of my own family.
I would like to audition for the position of Jack in Lost, and I do not need a book or acting class to tell me how to do it! Here is my monologue:
":It's been six days. Six days, and we're all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don't? We have to stop waiting. We need to start figuring things out. A woman died this morning just going for a swim. He tried to save her and now you're about to crucify him. We can't do this. Every man for himself is not going to work. It's time to start organizing.We need to figure out how we're going to survive here. Now I found water. Freshwater, up in the valley. I'll take a party up there at first daylight. If you don't want to come then find another way to contribute! Last week most of us were strangers. But we're all here now. And God knows how long we're going to be here. But if we can't live together--We're gonna die alone."
Thanks for sharing!
I just got that book (AUDITION), so I can't wait to read it.
I took an audition workshop in the spring that was really good and helpful. It helped me out a lot for my Fiddler callback.
piningforthefjords: Eh heh heh...Like who would you be talking about? Ummm....yeah.
PMF Superman: I suppose that's accompanied by facial contortions of all kinds?
Miss Erin: I have actually never been to a callback audition. I've always either been chosen on the only audition day or not. One thing that the book said that I found interesting was to always wear the same thing to your callback cause that's one of the ways they remember you. Interesting isn't it?
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