Acting Techniques for Auditions

Acting Techniques for Auditions

I think acting monologues is harder than acting scenes. Why? Because my own acting technique relies heavily on getting feedback from my scene partner. But in a monologue, you have no scene partner. You have to imagine them.

Luckily, we humans were blessed with vast imagination. Without it, we wouldn't have thought of books, the wheel, or story-telling. And actors are story-tellers. (Here are some acting exercises to get the juices flowing.)

Start by making choices; choices about what?

·                      Relationship: How do you feel about your scene partner? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Or maybe both?

Notice I didn't ask, "How are they related to you?" It doesn't matter that they're your mother, brother, sister, cousin, rabbi, or your bookie. What matters is how you feel about them.

·                      Conflict: It's the basis of every story. That's what makes it interesting. No one wants to watch happy people for two and a half hours. It wouldn't sell tickets. As an actor, your job is to find the conflict in the scene. You want something, she wants the opposite. And only one of you can win. Play into that.

·                      Moment Before: It's true that every scene has a beginning, middle, and end. But for the character, there's no such thing. So you've got to create a moment before. What was the character doing, thinking, and feeling right before the scene started?

·                      Place: Where are you? Whose territory is this? Are there other people around? Is it well lit, or really dark? Do you feel safe, or threatened?

So why should we make choices about these things? Because the more specific you can be when answering these questions, the morespecific your behavior will be during the cold reading. And that's acting.

Be specific. Generality is the enemy of art.

A Good Monologue

A well-written monologue makes them remember you. Good audition monologues will:

1. Be less than two minutes. Two minutes is more than enough to show your stuff. In fact, the auditors have already made their decision after 30 seconds, maybe even less.

2. Have a clear objective. You can't just stand there and talk. You have to be actively talking to someone you've imagined, and you must be trying to get something from them.

3. Have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. A beginning: A strong first sentence to capture attention. A middle: Lots of juicy content. An end: A strong finish. When your monologue has structure, the auditors are more likely to remember you.

4. Contain conflict. Drama cannot exist without conflict. Who wants to see a play about everyone getting along? Boring...