By Elizabeth Bowman
It is easy for nerves to get the best of an audition. A bad audition experience can degrade self-confidence after a director and producer seem to inspect performances with a microscope. Why not get some tips from those who have been in auditions and run the them?
This Saturday (May 20, 2006) at the Hale Center Theater Orem, Matt Neves, a director, will be holding auditions for the comedic play, 'You Can''t Take It With You.' Like most auditions, the director requests those auditioning to prepare a comic monologue and possibly perform a cold read.
'A cold read is when you get something that night and have five minutes to read over it,' said Ashley Goldston, production assistant at Hale Center Theater Orem. 'They have to go in and deliver it best to their abilities.'
After scheduling an appointment, the person auditioning goes to the place where the audition will take place and is greeted a production assistant, such as Goldston. The actor then fills out an information sheet: name, contact information, past acting experiences and part preferred amongst other things specific to the play. The actual one-on-one audition then takes place.
'You know you have to impress ,' said Natalie Erdmann, an experienced actor. 'It''s the feeling that you just have these few minutes, and you have to make an impression. You know that they''ve already seen a lot of people, so you want to do something that will be remembered.'
Goldston said that although the first round of auditions is over that the person auditioning should not get too excited because they still have to wait for call backs.
'It just depends on the time frame we''re on,' Goldston said. 'It''s usually no more than a week.'
During the call back audition, the actors are asked to interact in a group. This is so the casting crew can see how everyone interacts with one another, to see if the wanted chemistry can be transmitted to the stage performances. Actors are usually asked to perform slides, which are excerpts from the play''s script. After this part of the audition, the actors are sent home and the true deliberation occurs. Goldston said that the Hale Center Theater Orem only calls the people that actually get the parts.
'You Can''t Take It With You,' has about 18 characters to audition for with 44 people already signed-up. To stand out amongst the other competition, Andrew Thorne, a BYU chemistry student who has been in numerous plays and musicals, said he could not stress enough the importance of knowing the monologue inside and out before the audition. He also said that it never hurts to get plenty of rest before an upcoming audition.
'It''s important to take a good attitude to an audition,' Thorne said. 'No matter how talented you are, if a director or producer doesn''t want to work with you because of your attitude you will never get cast. Trying to have fun with it helps in a lot of ways.'
* 'You Can''t Take It With You' Audition at the Hale Center Theater Orem
* This Saturday, May 20th by appointment
* For the audition, prepare one comic monologue from a contemporary play; no longer than one minute
* Call 801.226.8600 for an audition appointment
* For character descriptions visit http://www.haletheater.com/auditions.htm