The Final Audition

So this audition process was a lot more intense than I expected. I really did enjoy and appreciate the real life feel the mock audition had though. I have never experienced anything like that before. I have auditioned outside of Wabash before but it still didn't resemble the big city cattle call auditions that this mock actually represented. I liked how each of the auditors have been in the exact situation that we were experiencing multiple times. It provided an insight to how actual casting directors would respond and act towards the auditions. Although nerve racking, I liked the rules and specifics that Cody gave us before our audition. They added the element of professionalism and competition and the constraint of rules helped to add to the sense of a high stakes audition. One thing that was really nice to have (obviously) was the feedback at the end of the process. I was kind of able to use the feedback as a sort of mirror. Every detail of our audition was payed attention to and responded to. I was able to absorb tiny details of my own audition like smiling and when to move my chair. This will hopefully prepare me for the nerves that will come with an actual audition in the future.

Auditioning

Auditioning to me is a two headed beast. On the one hand, it is very much like a marketing campaign for yourself. Talent is indeed part of this selling process but so is every detail surrounding the audition. The ability to show that you are professional, that you understand the business, and that you would be a pleasant and understanding person to work with is essential. The more you can present yourself not just as an actor but as a sought after co-worker, the more desirable you will be to those casting you. This is new element to the audition process to me and I have learned much from the information gained in class. In fact, I have learned enough to realize how silly, slightly unprofessional, and mildly embarrassing I may have been in the past. I plan on changing all that. The other head of this beast is that of the creative expression. This is the part that makes me the most nervous but is also the part I enjoy the most. The chance to display your art and talent o be judged by other is daunting but can also be tremendously rewarding. Your audition piece should reflect a portion of who you are. If that is indeed the case, then you also get to show off a bit of who you are as a person and what it is that you believe. All in all, the audition process is one hell of an adrenaline rush!

an audition

I have noticed that whenever I go through the audition process, I usually become nervous. I have realized that this does not seem to be the same for an interview, and I believe that this is due to the audience that sits during the audition. Every single audition that I have been apart of, everybody else auditioning would sit in the room as well. This added group of people seems to make me more nervous. The final for this class will be the first time of audition where I had to prepare something prior to going. I believe that this puts something new on the line because these are pieces that we have chosen compared to the pieces that I have normally read were just cold readings of the play.

Bringing it all together

Comedia was fun, and proved to be very challenging, physically. To actually become the character you wished to portray took more then just rehearsing lines. You actually had to practice the exaggerated ways of the individual. It was fun however, because you could take the character over the top, and it would only add the comedy.

Realism proved to be the most difficult of the three sections. Although physical actions were part of the scene work, most of the characterization relied on the depth by which you knew your character. You really had to “dig deep” and find out who your character was. If you did not know every little aspect of the character, it proved to be a difficult task performing the scene.

Clowning was awesome! It was a combination of physical and character comedy all rolled into one scene . . . except in silence. The most difficult part of this was memorizing the order of you “gigs”. But once you had that down, you were able to take off with the ideas set before you, and

Physicality and Psychology

Well these two components of acting really are like two peas in a pod. The psycho-physical continuum really is a powerful level of understanding. I had read about their connectivity last semester while I was studying Stanislavsky and believed it as truth, but it was not nearly so clear as it is at the present. This class has stressed the paring in each assignment we've been given. The fist assignment of comedia really forced us to understand the psyche of the character. If we didn't, the incredibly difficult and unique physical component of each character looked either half-assed or, in the very least, forced. This was nice because it was a beginner's insight into the necessary connection. It was also good to have it understood that early so that the more subtle realism could utilize the idea. Within realism, the drive to understand the psyche of the character led to breakthroughs in the motivations for the character. Any physical action in realism without a motivation looks, well, unreal. Which is the opposite of what we wanted. The next assignment, clowning, was wonderful blending of the previous two. It was still a comedic physical piece but not so cartoony and haphazard as comedia becasue of its incredibly detailed set of actions which pulls in the importance of motivations we encountered in realism. In the end, the hammering in of the connection has produced a reliable and stable method for characterization. To understand the physical side of your character you must know where thier head is at and in order to discover the psyche of the character one must pulls clues from the physical actions of the character throughout the piece. One feeds the other in a escelating spiral of creativity. It's pretty neat. When understanding this principle, the task of characterization does not seem so monumental. I have learned and enjoyed.

bringing everything together

Prior to the lessons that we had learned in this class, I thought I understood bringing the aspects of a character together. I may have spent a little time on character but that was it. I felt awkward trying to find the movements and completely creating another persona. After each section, I felt more confident and comfortable with the different aspects of the character. Looking at a character now, I know that I cannot skip on one aspect of characterization because they are all very important. In the past, I would usually just work on the psychological aspects of my character, and to be completely honest, I did not even work on that as much as I should have. This has changed though. I need to understand it all (how he walks, talks, and thinks).

final attempt at buster

I was really appreciative that Professor Phillips allowed me to redo the physical piece on Monday. I did not feel confident at all on Thursday; however, that changed Monday. Yesterday, I felt more in the character and had the movements down the best I have yet so far.

Also, I don't know if this information will ever come in handy to anyone, but I do not suggest doing a scene that involves hinging bread. The hinges will not last long.