Audition Technique
Why We Fail in Auditions
How come some talented actors never make it? Some very talented individuals, who are amazing in class, do incredible work on stage, really nail it on camera, but when end up in the audition room, or in front of a casting director, they simply fail – they fall to pieces.
It’s the audition or casting session when it really counts, because you can be the best actor in the world, but if you fall flat on your face in the audition, you’ll never get the chance to show your skills off.
With all your sacrifice, your devotion, your hard work and training, you are well prepared to do the work, but there is still one thing that gets in your way.
Call it self-sabotage, call it neurosis, call it freaking out or being nervous – but we do this to ourselves. We arrive without adequate preparation, we’re perhaps a ‘little’ late, we’re full of excuses, well okay, and we’re full of shit. We try far too hard, we end up looking desperate, we end up putting them off, and we end up turning them off with our repulsive neediness.
When we leave the audition, we end up feeling empty. But it’s okay, because we’ve already given ourselves an excuse, we didn’t really try all that hard, so we didn’t really fail. It’s a rather ugly way of protecting ourselves, because we didn’t risk it all, we can persuade ourselves that we didn’t actually fail.
We tell ourselves that if we had really tried, we’d have gotten the job. We give ourselves a get-out. We condone our own failure.
We tell ourselves that it will be different next time, but we know inside that it won’t. Sooner or later, we persuade ourselves we just aren’t any good at auditioning. You give up, all that hard work, dedication, training and everything is thrown away because you’ve self-sabotaged yourself.
So… what would I suggest? How could we fix this problem?
It will take a serious change, but it’s worth it. It’s really worth it, if you want a REAL and fulfilling career in acting for stage and screen, you need to make that change.
You need to cut the shit. Look at yourself. What are the bad habits that you’ve created to self-sabotaged your career? What causes them? Why are you late for auditions? Why don’t you put time aside to prepare properly for auditions? Are you lazy? What’s holding you back? How does all your self-sabotaging fit together? To get past this problem, you need to really take a hard look at yourself, look at what’s REALLY stopping you from getting what you want, make a list and go after it, change your behaviour.
But the real key is this. If you really want to be successful in your auditions, you need to attract success. How do you do this? You take every step you possibly can to attract it, create the expectation of success by the actions that you take. SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW AND MAKE A LIST OF 5 BAD HABITS THAT ARE PREVENTING YOU FROM SUCCEEDING. Next to it, write what you WILL do in 2010 to change those habits. Now start taking action.
Or you can keep running away from the real world, keep giving yourself excuses and end up in one of those safe jobs that will allow you to say to anyone who’ll listen ‘I coulda have been an actor, you know’.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Contrasting Monologues for Auditions
For people that have been asked to do two contrasting monologues, they often feel that it means one comedic and one dramatic.
However,the contrast is also in tone, style, subject and deliver. Remember this and the following advice when deciding upon your contrasting monologues.
Picking contrasting monologues is vital to showing off your capacity as an act. Look at what occurs in each piece and see if they are truly different and contrasting.
Contemporary and Classical don’t necessarily contrast. They might be similar characters, from similar backgrounds with similar concerns or objectives. The same can be said of the dramatic and the comedic, they are not necessarily contrasting.
When you look at your two pieces, try to make a list of the similarities and differences in the pieces, are there more differences than similarities?
Try to contrast the situation that the character is in, is one talking aloud about their thoughts and feelings and the other mid-flow in the crisis of the drama.
Are the pace of the two pieces different?
Are the topics similar? When you think of the theme of the pieces, do they actually contrast?
Contrasting monologues are two very different characters with two very different goals in two very different situations, in two very different plays and two very different genres of dramatic literature. Contrast is black and white, night and day, not differing shades of gray.
Contrast can exist in:
- Character
- Objective
- Genre
- Situation
- Type of Language
- Movement Demands
- Emotional Range
- Mood or Tone of the Speech
- Accent
The more differences, the more contrasting. But be sure that the heart of each speech is actually different. I’m surprised by how many people bring me very similar monologues without understanding that they are almost entirely the same monologue, just wrapped in different paper.
Contrasting monologues show your dynamic range and capacity. If you need help, you know where to find me.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Don’t Be Desperate in Auditions
Nothing is more repulsive to another as the sounds of desperation. Please… please please cast me, please cast me, please give me a place on the course, please let me come to drama school, please like me… yuk. If you want something, do not transmit your desperation because it will repulse people, it will put people off you. You might not realise it, but it isn’t pleasant at all.
Instead, you must transmit to the director or the auditors that you are an exceptionally professional person, with a good character and most or all of the following qualities:
You’re Well Trained - You’ve had the best training you could get and it has served you well, you demonstrate this by being a professional and knowing the ropes so to speak.
Prepared - Probably the most important element, are you prepared or do you request the indulgence of your audience? Please forgive my lack of preparation and see how wonderful I am. Imagine the door slamming in your face whenever you even consider failing to prepare. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Energetic - Does anyone want to work with a tired, dour, docile actor? Bring your energy, but don’t be a lunatic.
Maturity - Regardless of your age, you should be mature.
Team Player – You’re not in this just for yourself, you’re an ensemble player, it’s not just about you.
Enthusiastic – Demonstrate that you’re excited and enthusiastic about the project, combine this with research and preparation, so you’re ‘in the know’.
Reliable & Committed – They can count on you. (Often demonstrated by arriving on time, being prepared and ready to go with the flow)
Fun to Be With - You’re not difficult, nor desperately fawning, you’re fun to be around, you make work feel like play.
Did you see anything in these qualities? Are they just the qualities of being a good actor? Yes! But they’re also the quality of being a good human being. The most important character to play well, is YOU. Your character is essential.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
FEMALE MONOLOGUE AUDITION PIECE
Okay, I don’t know whether this is a bit of shameless self promotion, or genuine act of benevolence on my part, but I’ve decided to offer a monologue from my play The Emotional Life of Furniture to the Internet as a potential audition monologue for female actors with a casting age around 23. If this is useful to you, I hope it brings you success, if not, well, there’ll be another blog tomorrow 
)
The Emotional Life of Furniture by Mark Westbrook
The part of Katie was first performed by Ceejay Watt at the Tron Theatre in October 2008.
Katie is talking to David, another patient in the psychiatric unit about how she ended up in the hospital.
KATIE:
The Greeks invented psychiatric medicine.
Did you know that? Smart bastards.
They prescribed three things: Quiet. Occupation and Herbal Purging. I like the sound of the first two. The last one’s a bit like doing a shit.
I’ve been ill before, before this time I mean. Well, actually I was ill twice before this. But this once, this one time, I got quite sick. I couldn’t do much for myself. I had to remind myself to get in the shower. I had to have a shower at the beginning of the day. I had to start my day with a shower or there was no shower. And then there was a smell. There were sores and then there was the smell of the sores. It smelled like erm…. vagina for want of a better smell, sweaty skin and wet hair, but…more disgusting. Not that there’s anything disgusting about vaginas….They’re quite lovely and everything. I’m not into vaginas though. Well, that’s not true, I quite like my own, which is quite odd for a girl.
I was numb. I was distant from others. People said I was distant. And the smell usually kept people away I was distant from myself mostly. Mainly from myself. That was the main thing. I didn’t do much. But it was quiet And no one bothered me. I had to ask myself – What was so terrible about this? So what if I was a bit mental? I liked it, it was….quiet. But I couldn’t read and eventually the sick pay ran out and I had to go back to work.
It was fine for the first day, there was no one there
But on the second day everyone was there. But no one spoke to me. And I was clean and everything. No smell, I’d been showering for weeks and going to the gym and showering there too. Actually I was feeling much better by then but no one spoke to me. No one. They went for lunch, went for coffee, went for tea. But no one spoke to me. And they gave me stupid crap to do, like you’d give a work experience girl. Then one day, this guy Dr Tony, one of the lecturers, he asked if I’d go down to Physical Resources and ask them to sort me out a long weight in one of the lecture rooms. I was like fine..No problem. I waited for four fucking hours. Four Hours. A very long wait. One day, I waited for them to go for coffee, then I did a shit on their desks. It was really hard to do three big shits like that one after the other – but I managed it.
They asked me to go after that, I’d been there five years. They had a party when I left. I wasn’t invited.
With special thanks to BellaLuce, keep reading 
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
A reality check before you apply to Drama School…
For those of us that already work in the arts, we can quickly forget how difficult it was to gain acceptance to this club. Well, it’s hard, it’s very hard and I want to prepare you, I want to give you a reality check, I’m sorry, it’s not pleasant, but faced with the facts, you can make the decision for yourselves:
REALITY CHECK ONE: It was reported a few years ago that there are around 12,000 people applying to drama school each year. There are 1550 places available at the 22 accredited training institutions in the UK. That’s roughly a one in seven chance of getting a place at one of the top actor training schools in the country. That’s a 14% chance. You’ve got a better chance of getting into Oxford University.
If you want to improve your chances, then get some experience and get a coach to help you with your audition preparation.
REALITY CHECK TWO: According to American Equity (and it’s probably worse in the UK) – only 5 years after graduating drama school, only 10% of actors are still in the business.
If you get into this business, you’ve got to stay in it to make it work.
REALITY CHECK THREE: Few other training institutions (outside the arts) offer you a training that prepares you for a job you *might* get, if you’re lucky, perhaps.
REALITY CHECK FOUR: Despite the number of channels increasing and digital film making democratising the process of production, the number of jobs for actors in theatre, film and television is decreasing every year. On the other hand, the number of jobs at Tescos and Sainsbury’s is increasing.
If you’re going to get work, you’ll need to be the best, consider getting some coaching to keep yourself in tip-top condition.
REALITY CHECK FIVE: If you worked at minimum Equity rates all year round (the chances of which are highly unlikely) you wouldn’t earn as much as a Postman and significantly less than a fire fighter.
If you’re going to get into this, it has to be for something other than the money.
If I’ve put you off, I’ve done my job, if I haven’t put you off, I’ve done my job.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Audition Advice for Actors
Audition: Love it or hate it, as an actor, it’s your only chances of getting work, so here’s some useful advice that I’ve learned in my career that should be of help to actors out there:
ONE: Don’t focus on the expressions of the audition panel, it’s not an accurate indication of what they are feeling and you’re making yourself more self-conscious. I know this, because I’ve got a horrible, thunderous, you’re shit expression, which does not reflect what I’m thinking. Focus on your task. Don’t know what that means, send me an email, I’ll help you out.
TWO: Don’t bring in props, just mime it. They make you look stupid.
THREE: Cleavage. These are not assets that you should be showing off in the audition. Have the sense to put them away and keep them away. The reason for this is simple. When you enter the audition room and your chest comes first, this is likely to occur: The gay men on the panel won’t thank you for it, the straight men will be appreciative but as this is a professional audition, they will either spend the entire time trying to avoid looking at your tits – in which case, they won’t be paying attention to your audition, OR the straight men will be staring at your tits, which means they won’t be paying attention to your audition. The women on the panel will immediately lose respect for you and you can’t afford to do that. Get cast based on your abilities, not your breasts.
FOUR: Don’t be everybody’s friend, lighting up the room with your effervescent personality, they’ll smile to your face and hate you when you go. Don’t go on about the writer or director’s work, they’ll think it’s false, you won’t get the part. If you want compliment the writing, then do it justice. Do it well even if it’s the worst crap you’ve ever read, if you want the job, make it come to life, treat it like it’s Mamet, Coward or Shakespeare, do it as well as you can and go.
FIVE: No matter who you know on the panel, keep it professional.
SIX: Do not change the tiniest part of the script. Most writers spent a long time on their script, if you want to write, writer your own script.
SEVEN: Just do your audition. Don’t ask for direction before the audition or ask if they want to see it different. If they want to see it different, they’ll ask for it.
LASTLY: Be GREAT. That’s all they want. All other audition tips are basically void when compared to this instruction. Go in and be great. Easier said than done? Well, that’s your job, don’t moan about it.
Of course, there are many more things I could tell you about auditioning, but you’ll have to be a patient!
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
What should I wear to my audition?
For our profession, it’s all about image. Not beauty, but image, no matter what that image be. And Actors are trying to present the best possible image of themselves at their auditions. And so, they often wonder what they should wear, how they should dress, how should they present themselves. Well, here are some top tips for what to wear and how to appear at your next audition:
WOMEN:
TIP 0: Be Yourself. First and Foremost. Above All Other Tips.
TIP 1: Always wear comfortable shoes and unrestrictive clothing.
TIP 2: Only wear very light, natural make up, they want to see YOU.
TIP 3: Don’t go in costume.
TIP 4: Pull your hair away from your face. Pin your hair up away from your face.
TIP 5: Don’t bother with any jewellery.
TIP 6: Wear clothing that isn’t too bright or patterned or distracting.
TIP 7: Don’t dress provocatively.
TIP 8: Keep perfume to a minimum.
MEN:
TIP 0: Be Yourself. First and Foremost. Above All Other Tips.
TIP 1: If you have long hair, tie it up or brush it well.
TIP 2: Don’t wear hats. They cause a shadow on your face.
TIP 3: Don’t wear make up.
TIP 4: Forget jewellery.
TIP 5: Don’t wear a jacket or a big baggy sweater.
TIP 6: Don’t wear anything loud or offensive.
TIP 7: Wear unrestrictive trousers, avoid trackies.
TIP 8: Wear comfortable shoes.
You do want to stand out, but always for the right reason.
Take a look at your wardrobe in advance of the day. Look at some different outfits and see which one presents the best you. Try them on and take a look at yourself in the mirror. If you need to buy something new, then you’ll have plenty of time to choose something.
To You, The Best!Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels. His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
Ten Quick Audition Tips
I’ve written a lot of audition tips, but these are simple and memorable:
1) Breathe. Yes, I mean it. You think you know about breathing, but under pressure you stop and it hampers everything you do. Breath is at the core of everything you do and the success of everything that you do. Breathe. You practice it all day, you should be good at it by now.
2) Don’t try to be funny.
3) Don’t tell anyone anything bad about yourself unless you feel it shows something important about you. At my drama school interview nearly ten years ago, I told the panel that I learned the most from badly misdirecting Romeo and Juliet. I got a place. Only bring up ANYTHING negative if shows something positive about you. And even then, think about it first.
4) Don’t mime, you look ridiculous.
5) Smile and make eye contact, under stress, you’ll struggle with both, but it helps build rapport.
6) Admit to yourself that you’re going to be nervous, then go and down your absolutely best.
7) Don’t TRY. Mamet says “I’ll Try, is preparing to fail”. Do it with your heart and soul or don’t bother.
8 ) Choose good material, otherwise, you’re a world class F1 driver in a clapped out old Skoda.
9) If you look full of fear and like you are having a terrible time, why would anyone want to put you through that again?
10) BREATHE!
‘This is Me’ Monologues
It’s about time that I wrote something about the ‘This is Me’ Monologue. This is an idea identified by Karen Kohlhaas, Master Teacher of Audition Monologues at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Acting School in New York City. The ideas and principles that I express in this blog posting come from Karen Kohlhaas, although the words are my own. Karen’s ideas came to me through training, her two books and the DVD that she produced. Karen has an excellent website The Monologue Audition (also the name of her first book) that you should all visit. I recently ordered her second book ‘How to Choose a Monologue for ANY Audition’ and this can be ordered through her website – it costs me about £14 including postage from the US, and arrived within a week. It’s not as practical as the original book, but the advice is also practicable – meaning it isn’t a theory, it’s advice borne out of practice.
ANYWAY – the This is Me Monologue:
The ‘This is Me’ monologue is your base monologue. It allows you to show off your natural ability, style and personality. It is not a chance to show range. It is a chance to offer the casting director, agent or director you baseline. This is Me, without the trapping of characterisation (yuck). This is Me is a great way to show what they are getting when they cast you.
This a well thought through, carefully prepared, well learned piece that sells you. YOU, not your ability to play Widow Twanky or a Psychopath, it’s selling YOU, it’s called ‘THIS IS ME’ for a reason. Ensure that you have one of these in your arsenal of monologues. And you should have an arsenal of monologues. One or two monologues for each medium and several for theatre. So you might have:
- 2 or 3 THiS IS ME pieces
- 2 film monologues (contrasting)
- 2 radio monologues (contrasting)
- 2 theatre monologues (contrasting comedy pieces)
- 2 theatre monologues (constrasting drama pieces)
- 2 theatre monologues (classical and yes, contrasting)
How many of you have done this MUCH preparation?
But the ones that will give them the best chance of seeing who they are employing or taking onto their books is the THIS IS ME Monologue.
Karen suggests that a THIS IS ME monologue is defined not by what it is, but by what it isn’t. Here’s a list of what to avoid for a THIS IS ME monologue.
- Monologues outwith your playing age/range
- Monologues in an accent other than yours
- Monologues with heightened language (and therefore requiring a heightened playing style)
- Monologues with anything shocking or graphic (THINK – choose something I could show my ‘Mother-in-Law’)
- Monologues that a self-written
- Monologues that attempt to demonstrate range
- Monologues that are intensely…. ANYTHING.
- Monologues that allow you to hide behind
- Monologues that talk about someone else constantly (THIS IS ME should be about… YOU!)
- Monologues related to the industry or business
- Monologues for women about what a shit your husband, boyfriend etc is… they flood the market.
- Monologues that a particularly negative in any way.
SO WHAT SHOULD A ‘THIS IS ME’ MONOLOGUE BE?
* CONTEMPORARY
* ABOUT SOMETHING YOU CARE ABOUT
* WELL WRITTEN (has a beginning, middle and end)
* NOT TOO LONG (2 minutes max)
* AUDITON SPECIFIC (film for film, theatre for theatre)
* GENRE/STYLE SPECIFIC (funny for comedy, drama for drama)
* SOMETHING YOU DO WELL.
This is a perfect piece to offer a new agent or casting director. Use it to impress and to introduce. This is something you can do at home, you take time and pride over and you can kick butt with it. Once you have a strong THIS IS ME monologue, then you’ll find choosing other monologues much easier.
Some Great Suggested Audition Monologues from NIDA
I often think that if you can’t be bothered to seek out good monologues, you don’t deserve a place at drama school anyway.
BUT I realise we no longer live in a culture where kids read plays for fun, well, where anyone really reads plays for fun like when I was younger, heck, I’m only 32, and I feel old saying that. However, I have to recognise that something has changed and the amount of help out there might have improved but the average person trying to find a drama school audition monologue probably has no clue where to look. They end up in those semi-dreadful audition speech books, and doing the same old speeches the auditors have heard dozens of times over.
I found a couple of online packs of suggested monologues that are used by applicants to NIDA (Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art) for male and female applicants. They look pretty good, they’re probably not entirely legal on the site, (maybe they are, I don’t know) but if you find them useful it could help you. These aren’t just suggestions, they are the whole monologue, you should still attempt to read the entire play if you’re doing the piece for your audition.
The female monologues and the male monologues are from NIDA, all rights are reserved to the playwright and I’m not including any of the material on my own sites for copyright reasons.
I hope these are useful to you. Remember, there’s no such thing as a perfect monologue, just find one that you like and that you understand. That’s half the battle.
Mark
Mark Westbrook is a professional acting coach based in Glasgow, Scotland.
To You, The Best!
Mark Westbrook is a Professional Acting Coach and runs Acting Coach Scotland, a private acting studio offering acting classes in Glasgow, masterclasses, workshops and audition coaching for actors at all levels.
His acting studio is based in Glasgow, Scotland, although he teaches all across the United Kingdom. All Blog Posts © Mark Westbrook 2009
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