Louisa Proske teaches Script Analysis and Shakespeare classes for actors at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. In this video Louisa discusses a directors perspective on acting auditions and offers advice on how actors can perform their best every time they audition.
Auditioning for the Room – Louisa Proske
As a director, I audition hundreds of actors and singers every year. I know that auditioning can be a hard, elusive, even frightening process for actors. I thought that it might be useful to share some of what I have learned and observed over the years, from the other side of the table.
The audition room that you walk into might be loaded in all kinds of ways. We might be stressed out because we are running behind. Because it’s day three and we still haven’t seen anyone right for the lead part, and we’ve been in a windowless room for 6 hours hearing the same three scenes over and over, because the Artistic Director is in disagreement about the actor we like best, because the last three candidates were just not bringing it.
Because, because, because…. If you’re sensing mixed or outright bad vibrations in the room, more likely than not this has nothing to do with you. Focus, breathe, be simple, rely on your training, and bring your work.
Auditioning can be very stressful for directors. It’s often not a very artistic way of choosing collaborators for a project. But the truth is, also, that we are hoping that you will bring something unique, beautiful, and compelling, that in the 5 or 10 minutes we spend together, you engage us and make us forget the stress and the windowless room.
Believe me, as much as I’ve suffered in auditions, I’ve also been knocked off my socks by the raw talent, artistry, humor, and ferocity that actors can bring into an audition room. And the common link between these artists is the fact that all are seriously well trained. Craft plus preparation lead to consistently good work.
Preparation is key. As a teacher of Script Analysis, at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, I always tell my students that every audition is a speed workout in applying all the vocabulary they’ve learned over the course of their training.
The Meisner training at MFS, will teach you how to read a script, explore the character, find out everything there is to know about her/him, and analyze the scene beat by beat. Then, when you go in for an audition, all the skills you acquired with the Meisner Technique, kicks in tenfold. Ground yourself in your homework, breathe, and connect to your voice. Take in your scene partner (the reader, in this case). Play actions. Live truthfully moment to moment.
If you look at it that way, you can let go of the idea that the only measure of success of an audition is whether or not you booked the part. You just got a great workout for your acting vocabulary! You went to the gym! That’s a valuable thing as an artist.
And even if it “went badly,” if you didn’t do as well as you could have, sit down (maybe after giving yourself a little treat), and honestly, without being too easy OR too hard on yourself, give yourself notes – where could you have done better? How? What do you need to work on? Be your own coach, your own teacher. This takes discipline and courage – courage in facing your mistakes.
Many things are totally out of your control in the casting process. But what’s in your control is honing your craft every day and bringing your best game to the audition room, and then learning from your mistakes in order to get better.
There are many reasons why you might ultimately not be chosen for a particular part, but if you consistently give compelling auditions, the director, the casting director and sometimes the artistic director WILL remember you for other projects. You are building a life as a serious actor.
Script Analysis Class at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
To learn more about the Script Analysis class, as well as the other acting classes and acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, visit the acting program page on the Maggie Flanigan website or call (917) 794-3878 and speak to someone at the studio.
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