Auditioning: An Actor-Friendly Guide

Auditions can only be as good as your perception of their possibilities. If you accept
auditions for what they are an opportunity to reveal your ability to play a particular role
auditions can be rewarding rather than punishing. Joanna Merlin

A. Basic Elements Directors look for at auditions:

Concentration: The most basic and important tool for an actor.
Feeling of truth: You project authenticity; everything your character says and does is believable, within
the style of the play.
Spontaneity: The audition happens; you are in touch with your impulses and feelings, and you play
the scene from moment to moment.
Specificity: You are not acting in general or playing a mood. You have made acting choices that are
particular to the scene and the character.
Energy: What you do should never be static, passive or casual. It should manifest creative energy,
either inner, outer or both.
Humour: You know where it is and how to play it.
Courage: You dont give a safer, neutral audition. You commit to your acting choices, inhibition, and
are willing to take risks.
Skill: You have the technique and taste needed to deliver all of the above.


B. Monologues

Typically what happens at a general audition is that an actor performs two contrasting monologues of
his/her choosing. A monologue may be a soliloquy in which the character speaks to himself/herself, or it may
be a speech taken from a scene in which the character addresses another character at length and without
interruption, although the other character is not physically present and must be imagined by the actor.

Choosing Monologues:
Choose a number of contrasting monologues to have in your repertoire. It should include at least two
classical pieces, one comedic and one dramatic (one should be in verse), a contemporary comedy, and
a contemporary drama.
Choose your monologues carefully. Choose ones you connect to, love and can use them for a long
period of time. A good monologue is like a one-act play, with a beginning, middle and end. It should be
well written; it should develop and take you on a journey where something happens to you.
Monologues should be 1 minute. Stick to this or you may get your monologue cut off by the auditors.
Choose a monologue that is more or less age appropriate.Stay away from characters that are much
older or much younger than you are.
Beware of monologues that are narrative in form. They may tell an interesting story but may not allow
you to make acting choices that will reveal your acting ability.
Beware of monologues that, taken out of context and performed on their own, become melodramatic.
Beware of monologues that are too familiar.Popular monologues are heard by auditors numerous times
and get boring after a while. Also, if you are going to tackle Hamlets To Be or Not to Be you better
bring your A-game to dazzle them.

Preparing your Monologues:

In preparing your monologue you need to use actable choices. What is an actable choice? It is a
choice, rooted in the text that incites you to act; a choice that marshals your intuition, imagination, senses, and
reason to help bring the text and the character to life. The following are questions that will help you navigate
the text and lead you to actable choices:

1. What are your first impressions, your immediate intuitive responses to the scene?
Enjoy the first reading. Treasure your first impressions without analysis and honour your intuition.
What are the images, feelings and ideas the play arouses in you?
2. What is the world of the play?
Your acting choices should be determined in part, by the visual and sensory images of the period
and place represented, and the unique quality and tone of the piece.
3. What is the scene about?
What are the given circumstances of the scene? They are events that happen right before the
scene begins that help define what happens in the scene. Read the whole script, if you can, to get
this information.
4. Who is the character?
Explore the main similarities and differences between you and the character. An immediate way to
evoke the physical life of the character is to imagine the way the character might walk. Finding
polarities in the character qualities opposite from the characters principal qualities may help you
give more dimension to your audition.
5. What is the characters objective?
A character cannot exist on stage without wanting something. As an actor you need to decipher or
decide on what the character wants or needs in the scene, even if the character is not consciously
aware of it. Active verbs define objectives. They need to be strong enough to propel you through
the scene.
6. What is the obstacle to achieving the objective?
Obstacle is something or someone, external or internal, that stands between the character and
what he/she wants. If there are no obstacles, there is no conflict. If there is no conflict, the audience
will fall asleep.
7. What are the relationships in the scene?
The relationships between characters will always inform and deepen the scene in some way. If you
are working on a monologue where you are speaking to an imagined person, you need to make that
person real to the audience so that your relationship and conversation appears believable.
8. Where are the moments in the scene?
Choose the moments that illuminate the scene or character. They might be transitions, humorous
moments, climatic moments, etc. Look for the possibility of humour in every scene.
9. What is the atmosphere of the scene?
If the scene itself provides atmosphere, it will trigger your sensory resources and inspire your
acting.

Asking these actable choice questions will provide a way for you to explore and animate the scene or
monologue. The answers should enrich what youre doing, or focus your work in a better way, or fill in a
moment more specifically.



Scoring a Script/Monologue:
Scoring a script is dividing a script into units (BEATS) and intentions (OBJECTIVES) using actions
(ACTIVE VERBS) that are directed at your partner.

BEATS are sections within a scene or monologue. Every time that there is a change in dynamic, emotion, or
purpose, there is a change in beat. Deciding where the beats are in your monologue is an important step in
deciding how you will perform your monologue. Changes in emotion and purpose are what make acting
interesting. Mark initial BEATS with a /. When you have marked all the BEATS you can find you should
SCORE the script.

ACTIVE VERBS - TO HELP YOU IN SCORING
This is not a complete list of workable verbs. You may or may not find a verb here that works for your character

The Character is attempting to. EXAMPLE OF SCRIPT SCORING
Accuse Annihilate
Attack Awaken
Beg Belittle
Berate Bombard
Build Challenge
Comfort Convince
Counsel Crush
Dare Dazzle
Demand Destroy
Encourage Engage
Enlighten Fascinate
Help Hurt
Ignite Implore
Incite Inspire
Manipulate Mock
Nag Order
Overwhelm Persuade
Prepare Preserve
Reassure Relent
Ridicule Scorn
Seduce Submit
Tease Test





Also, note on the margins of your
script the actable verbs and
actions ie. Implore, Convince