Acting: What to expect from audition

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What to expect from audition

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Acting
Forum Discription: Q&A about auditions, character development and other aspects of the craft
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4260
Printed Date: 5/06/24 at 11:50am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: What to expect from audition

Posted By: bob92
Subject: What to expect from audition
Date Posted: 9/20/09 at 10:06am

I've decided to audition for a community theater play that is coming up in a few days. I used to do some community theater when I was a teenager, including a couple of leading roles, but that was over 20 years ago. I don't know what to expect from my attempted return to theater, and I'm understandably nervous. At the old theater I used to work with, you just came in and the director sized you up and handed you a script to read based on the part he thought was best for you.

Do I need to be prepared to audition for a particular part, or do community theaters still do it like I was used to as a teenager? It's a small group, probably about 20 active members in a town of only 20,000, so I'm hoping for something informal. Just hoping for a little insight in to what the process is like these days.

Replies:

Posted By: Amos Hart
Date Posted: 9/20/09 at 12:28pm

There's really no way to tell you that, because the answer would have been true even when you were still auditioning:

It isn't just every theatre that has a different process - every director within each theatre has a different process. Unless there are rigid rules for auditions set up by the board, directors pretty much run auditions by whim, depending on what they are looking for.

Your best bet is to find a copy of the play (if it's in print), read it thoroughly and make decisions about ALL the characters. Sometimes, if there aren't enough members of one gender in the house to read, I'll cross-gender the readings. Not because I would cast it that way, but just to see what the person can bring to a part and because I need somebody to read with the other person onstage.

I auditioned for "The Odd Couple" last year. You would be surprised how many actors have never read the friggin' Odd Couple. They had no clue what emotions were behind the lines they were reading. None of those people was cast.

Go in knowing the show. It puts you miles ahead of 50% of the competition.

And if you're in the Chicago suburbs, I'm having auditions Monday & Tuesday: http://www.bozolisand.com/auditionintronerd - www.bozolisand.com/auditionintronerd

Posted By: Rorgg
Date Posted: 10/01/09 at 4:24pm

Amen to that. I recently had an audition with a good sized CT company, and most of the auditioners had worked with the director before, as she's done numerous shows with this company and others over quite a long period. I'm still rather new, and didn't know her.

I suppose I made a good impression, because not only did I read pretty much every side on the table at least a couple times, but then she had me and a couple of the females stay over and had me do a few scenes with each of them -- they were setup scenes from the show, but we had to improv the dialog.

Thank God I'd read the play and had at least somewhere to start with each scene.

Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 2/01/10 at 7:41pm

Great Expetations of a very strange luvvie?

Well I suppose if the "don't call us" is not expected - if one can't be another'Susan Boyle'!

Don't spit the dummy - just sue 'em! http://www.iinet.net.au/customers/news/articles/1005968.html - http://www.iinet.net.au/customers/news/articles/1005968.html

-------------
Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}