Cindy Lyndin
ON AUDITIONS, IN GENERAL
STOP THE TREADMILL. Do whatever it may take to get them to actually stop and look at you and acknowledge you as an individual. Tricks are allowed. I have heard of people dropping an audition notebook with the pages "accidentally" loose, engendering sympathy and help (both useful feelings) in and from your auditioners. I have heard of umbrellas mysteriously refusing to close. I have seen people do exactly the opposite of what is expected for the character or situation. All right, it was me, and each one got me noticed enough to get me the part. There are hundreds of stories of how now-famous actors first got noticed, and many of them have little to do with their acting. Barbra Striesand once made a great show of trying to figure out how to dispose of a piece of gum she had been chewing, and subsequent examination of its final destination revealed that the gum never existed. You can be very loud, very happy, very anything but polite and easy-to-forget.
Rule Two: Plan an event, or lots of events for after the audition--something that will allow you to forget about it altogether. Don't let the audition be the only event, or even the most important event of the day, and when it's done, forget it--pretend it never happened. If you get a call-back, it will be a nice surprise. If you don't, you won't even think about it because the audition is long-forgotten.
TIPS
1. Let them know you like being there--belong there--want to be seen and heard. And remember, they are not your enemies--they want you to be good, they want you to do your best. It will save them time in auditioning people if you can be what they are looking for. And always thank them for the audition as you leave.
2. If given a direction, add it to what you've already been doing--don't subtract anything.
3. Use stage directions in an audition script only when they are useful to you.
4. Make a strong choice and go with it. To hell with whether it's right or wrong. Keep faith in your choice and plow right ahead; make a strong choice and keep it strong.
5. Feeling nervous? Got a headache? Want the part desperately? Whatever you're feeling at the time of the audition, try to use the feeling in the scene rather than cover up your real emotions with what you think should be there.
6. "To find a way to...", "To find out..." Phrasing your "motivation" in one of these ways will keep it and your performance alive and interesting. Repeat the phrase silently in your mind often during the scene.
7. Never apologize, either by look, word, or action for an audition. Keep a cheerful, positive demeanor, and save your eye rolling, groaning or apologies for outside the door. After all, they may think you were wonderful, and your indications that you feel otherwise could change their minds!
A Special Note about Singing Auditions . . .
Through many years of coaching actors for singing auditions, and from my own experiences and what I have read of the audition traumas of now-famous actors of stage and screen, it has become apparent to me that, for most people, the terror factor is much higher for singing auditions than for speaking ones. This seems to remain true regardless of the amount of experience an actor has, and despite the passage of years.
My theory on the reason for this is that we are less likely to feel we are truly inside a character when we sing, and so are exposing ourselves—our delicate underbellies—more than in a spoken audition, where character is the primary focus. Although it’s highly possible that the fear of singing in front of people will not go away even as you become older and more experienced, here are three steps to help you take control over your mind and body despite the nervousness:
1. REHEARSE, REHEARSE, REHEARSE! Go through a complete rehearsal of your song with focused concentration on how you get through the difficult passages, on character, motivation, inner monologue, and whatever else you’re using a hundred times. Or more. No joke. Get someone to play the accompaniment onto cassette tape for you, maybe two or three times back to back. If you know the song so well it’s almost built into your brain, you have less to worry about. And much of the song will happen by automatic pilot while you’re thinking about how scared you are.
2. Click on the link below called “Especially for Monologues” and read item 2—the “4th Wall”. This is an invaluable tool for placing your focus somewhere other than on the fact that people are watching you sing. Be absolutely sure you have objects clearly “hung” around the room before you nod at the accompanist, and when you feel panic rising, focus out at them.
3. It’s crucial that you practice the first breath of the song each time you rehearse it. You should begin your inhalation during the introduction, four to eight beats before you start to sing. Mark this spot on your sheet music as you’re learning it so that it becomes part of the song. Inhale through your nose (only here at the beginning of the song!) slowly and send the air deep into your back, letting your lungs expand fully. When you start to sing, the air will just be there, and it will seem to your audience as though it was there by magic, no breath having been evident.
This does many things for you: it makes you look very professional in your vocal technique, it gets you fully prepared to make sound, and it serves to center your thoughts and relax your body as far as possible. As I said, you must make this part of the way you always sing the song by practicing this breath every time you sing it, because your breathing is the most likely thing to go awry in an audition and the most important thing to keep under your control.
WHETHER YOU ARE PERFORMING IN AN AUDITION OR A POLISHED PERFORMANCE, REMEMBER THESE THINGS:
“When you walk onto a stage, take it.”
Communicate that you want to be there, that you like it there, that you belong there.
The people in the audience are no longer in charge of their emotions. You are. And they will feel what you tell them to feel. The may be a hundred feet from you, but they need to feel as if you’re right in their face. They’re yours—manipulate them.
Imagine you are standing on an electrified metal plate that allows you to send power through your eyes and your hands out into the house so that the audience feels what you send them as strongly as if you’d grabbed them. Change them.
This emotional moment is the most important moment in the life of the character you are playing.
Break a leg!