Free Acting Lesson

Two things that make a great actor:

The two things that make a great actor are the ability to live in imaginary circumstances and the ability to allow that life to be transferred to an audience.

The thing you can practice at home is the creation of imaginary circumstances. If you have the piece you’ll be auditioning with already, great, if not, you can make up a set of circumstances and work towards those.

As an example, let’s say you’re auditioning with a monologue about a boy who decides to run away from his cruel family and join the circus. I certainly hope your family is not cruel, (but if they were then you wouldn’t have to do any research.) The bottom line is a great actor needs to be able to really know what it feels like to be in the shoes of the character. The skill of creating an emotional life is something you can work on at home.

The script will take care of the rest. The writer will provide the words to say, but making them believable is about creating the appropriate emotional life and the only way to do it is to really experience what the character is experiencing.

Here is, I believe, the best way to do it. Make a list of things that are really important to you; people you love, animals, anything that has real and deep meaning to you. Then fantasize, or daydream about a situation that would create the feeling the character is experiencing. I might fantasize that my best friend suddenly ganged up and got everybody against me. I might imagine all the mean things they would do to me, so that I felt so demeaned, I had no choice but to leave everything I ever knew. Heavy, after you’ve

mastered the ability to consistently produce one emotion, move to another and another until you can produce any emotion in any degree the circumstances call for.

Remember to work on the whole spectrum of emotions from anxiety to anger to elation and love. And also remember no matter how emotionally involved you get when you’re practicing or acting that is all “Much Ado about Nothing.” In other words, it’s not real, we’re just pretending.

 

What are Open Auditions ?

Open Auditions are a form of invitations to attend a casting interview conducted by a director or a casting director. Not like scheduled Acting Auditions, an open call will usually have no screening before, such as: headshot , resume , or demo reel submissions.

Open Audition Calls most likely have a lot of more actors attending. It’s first come first served kinda of thing.

Many professional actors don’t like open auditions as much as schedule auditions for many reasons. The wait time is usually much longer, the crowed is usually an amateur one.

There are however many professional productions that use open auditions calls because they have to go into production very quick. Those productions are usually theatre shows and musicals like Broadway productions.

 

Open Audition Tips !

• Show up Early – Try to get there as early as you can. Casting directors are usually fresh in the early stage, and get very anxious in the mid to late stages.
• While you Wait – Relax, allow yourself to loosen up and prepare.
• Don’t be loud – Try to keep it down while waiting for your turn to audition. Others are trying to focus on their audition and so should you. You don’t want to be remembered as anything but a good performer.
• Come prepared – Production offices are always short on pens, sides and so on. Bring your own.