You probably hate auditions...

Hate ‘em, detest ‘em, resent ‘em and every so often, as good as you are, you blow ‘em sky-high; because talent, training and savvy won’t get you cast if you don’t know how to audition!

After grad school I moved to New York and started to assist casting directors as an audition reader. Over and over, I’d watch talented actors walk into that room and cut their throats. It wasn’t that they gave a bad reading. The director had tuned out before the actor started to read. These actors didn’t understand that their audition began the moment they entered the room and that everything, everything they did affected their chances. What was worse, I saw them doing things I was doing!

When I finally mustered the courage to ask one casting doyen “Hey, do I do that?” she said “Yeah, but don’t feel too bad. What most actors don’t realize is that auditioning is a skill unto itself and generally not one that comes naturally.” (OK, maybe not those exact words, but near enough!) She recommended a course based on the techniques of Michael Shurtleff, author of the essential actor’s text AUDITION!, and taught by his assistant Ginger Friedman. As an actor, I believe taking this course changed my career.

Power Auditions helps you understand:

1. What an audition is. Why it requires a different approach from a rehearsal or performance situation.
   

2. The different types of auditions:  Why a general audition is distinct from a production-specific one, how a callback differs from them both, and what directors are looking for at each.
   

3. An audition’s five essential phases: why each is important, and how each can torpedo you.
   

4. Audition-room no-no’s. Behavior that can lose you the part.
   

5. The art of cold-reading: OK, hotshot, you’ve made an impression! Now the director hands you a scene or monologue and says “Take a look at this for 5 minutes and come back.” How do you spend that 5 minutes?

visitors since april 1, 2008