Getting Ready

An audition is what you must do before the director can give out the parts for the show.   You will be given a small piece of script to have a look at, with one or two other people. Then you will be given some time to go away and prepare what you are going to do. This means deciding who will read which part, how you are going to say it, and perhaps what actions you will do. Then, every group will have a go at performing the section of script in front of the director. The director will be looking at each person individually to figure out who will play which character in the show, so in the audition, you must try to give the best performance you can. Here are a few things to think about…

• Speak as loud and clearly as you possibly can. Make sure everyone watching can hear every single word you say.
• Try to put some expression into your voice. This means trying to make your voice sound as interesting as you can.
• Think about the character you are playing in your audition. Do they have a funny comedy voice? Are they a big American baddy? Try to be the character you are pretending to be, and not sound like you! You could even think about how they might stand, or walk.
• In your group you could work out some actions to do to make your audition look a bit more interesting. Comedy characters would have lots of energy and do enormous actions that are really quite mad! Yet the baddy might be much more bold and slow when he moves to show he is big and powerful!
• Try to read your script as many times as you can before you do the audition so that you can almost perform without it! This is simply to help you to be able to act more, and sound much more confident and clear!

The last thing to remember about performing is that if you feel daft when you are acting, then you are probably doing it right!  If you feel like your voice is too loud and silly then it will be perfect. And if you feel like your actions are enormous then, again, perfect! Acting is about being somebody else, and your show is full of super silly characters who need equally silly voices and actions!