Auditions are your opportunity to make the best first impression possible. If you are an aspiring actor and nervous about an upcoming audition, it’s important to recognise the techniques that can help you stand out from the crowd.
Learn your lines
Though learning lines may be an obvious aspect of having a successful audition, learning your lines is something you must never overlook. It is vital that before your audition you take the necessary time and preparation to learn your lines to the best of your ability. In an audition, the panel or casting director watching you will know the script or monologue like the back on their hand and will instantly be able to tell if you haven’t learnt the lines to the required audition standard. Forgetting lines in auditions can occasionally happen and it’s a lot more common than you may think, when this happens try to stay in character and do not panic, close your eyes take a deep breath and try to keep going, even improvise if you need to, it’s all about maintaining the flow.
3 useful tips for learning lines for an upcoming audition:
- Record your lines and listen to them back: Reading the same line over and over isn’t everyone’s cup of tea , recording your dialogue on your phone and using your earphones to listen over it, may be a useful tip for learning lines if your getting bored of reading over them constantly.
- Use a friend or family member to help: This works great with scripts or monologues, when you start to feel more confident with your line learning, if you hand your script or monologue to a friend or family member and read it back to them off book, they can help tell you where in the script or monologue you’ve gone wrong. This technique will also allow the person helping you to provide any necessary feedback.
- Line repetition: Simply repeat any lines you’re struggling to remember over and over again saying it out loud. Other forms or line repetition might be to write the line you’re struggling with out on a piece of paper a few times, or you might sing your lines and create a catchy melody involving the lines. You may associate your lines with an action, you may decide to repeat your lines whilst running on the spot or even skipping around the room.
Have a plan of what to say
A casting director is always on the lookout for something different, they want to see what you, yourself will bring to the table. It’s so important that you showcase and let your personality shine through. The casting director may want to get to know you a little, or they may ask you some questions about yourself or the character you are playing. A casting director may ask you for an interesting fact about yourself or you may want to tell them a funny story if the subject comes up.
Be sure to do your research by creating a character profile, now it is unlikely that a casting director will ask you a variety of questions about your character but it doesn’t hurt to have the answers, and creating a character profile will massively benefit yourself. Remember the more you know the character the more you will become the character.
What a brief character profile should contain:
- Name/nickname/age/Zodiac sign/ DOB.
- Height/weight/style
- Relationships: Frieds/family/enemies
- Likes/dislikes
Take direction in the audition
Every audition is a learning curve, if you receive any feedback after or during your audition it’s important to take note and apply it to what you do next. You could be asked to repeat a line in a different way, whether this be a change of tone or with an added movement, casting directors love to experiment with the actors and are keen to find out what will work best for the both of you. What’s going to make you stand out is ultimately taking the correct direction through the notes and feedback you may receive, this will leave more doors open for opportunities, Always remember that the second audition will likely always be easier than your first and as you progress with more auditions and garner more experience the more comfortable and less nervous you’ll be.
