PERFORMANCE: The Actors' Roundtable: "The Audition Moment Before"
Paden Fallis | August 8, 2012 
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Each week, Paden Fallis poses one question to a group of professional working actors from a variety of backgrounds. Our goal is not to demystify the work of the actor or explore their careers, but to dig a bit deeper into their artistic working process.
Let’s go into the audition room, specifically the prepared monologue / song audition and not the audition with sides and a reader. Typically you walk in, greet the auditors, take your spot in the room, announce the piece, take a moment for yourself, and begin. I’m specifically interested in that moment that you “take for yourself”. Oftentimes we lower our head or gaze and gather our thoughts before diving in. What do you do / think in that moment? Full disclosure, I usually think something along the lines of, “You better nail this first moment,” or “These damn things are so contrived,” or “Here goes another canned performance,” or “How in the world are they going to see what I’m capable of in sixty seconds,” or… Don’t tell me what I should be doing in that moment. I want to know, what in God’s name are you doing in that moment? - Paden Fallis, Performing Arts Contributing Editor |
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I am enjoying the Olympics so much, especially admiring how the athletes begin and “follow through” with such heart. As actors, how we begin anything is crucial; especially our auditions. I spend a great amount of time working on my character’s “backstory”, so as not to feel the pressure in the audition room to do more than I need. I want to feel as free mentally, vocally, and physically as I am able. Then as I walk into the audition room, I do my best to simply be myself. After all, confidence in oneself is what they want to see first. Then the “moment” before the monologue is all about taking a deep breath, then reminding myself where my character is literally, who I am talking to, and what I want from that person or persons. I do strongly rely on the value of the words and being fully in the room in every way. Being small or cautious in my choices rarely works for me. I always find a fuller truth in the story or situation by being more energetically connected to my partner, real or imagined. So my advice is to breathe, focus on the first point to make, and dive in completely! Now if I could only start swimming as fast as Missy Franklin has in the London games, I’d be in heaven… |
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The moment before the first breath of character is the platform from which I call “now time”. I learned this technique from a great acting teacher named Ted Swetz. What this means is this: I invest in the specific moment before that propels the character to utter those first words of the monologue. It’s hard to nail down a detailed explanation of a few seconds in time, but simply put, it’s just living in the now and being present with my concentration, imagination, and belief working together all at the same time in order to earn that first word, the second word, and all the others that follow. Before even entering the room, I try and imagine the life of the circumstances so I can prepare myself and already be warmed up to the character. I usually like to be by myself and not chat with other people in order to prep my concentration and imagination. I always wished that the introductions and chit-chat that you do when you first enter a room was reserved for the end of the audition as this can sometimes disrupt that prep work, but I’ve auditioned enough to be prepared for anything, and the more you hone in your concentration skills the easier it is to get in and out of it without too many hiccups. |
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Let’s make something clear right off the bat. I do not enjoy auditioning. I think that performing and auditioning, while arguably related, are, at best, distant cousins thrice removed. The whole idea of two (or sometimes 15) people behind a table deciding my fate has at this point elicited a Pavlovian response of uncomfortable anxiety on a good day and sheer terror on a bad one. This “moment before”, therefore, tends to be chock full of racing and random thoughts: “Why is the casting director falling asleep? Oh great, they’re having me audition in front of a mirror SO THAT WILL DEFINITELY HELP ME FOCUS… Do I or don’t I go for the High A at the end? Hey, that reader is actually pretty hot.” The amazing part, of course, is that all this mental entropy occurs in the space of about 4-5 seconds between leaving the accompanist and planting myself in front of the auditors. Thankfully, once I launch into the material, the mental gremlins tend to retreat. But I honestly don’t know if I will ever have Zen mastery over that moment before. I think of Mamet’s True and False, in which he goes off on this whole idea of “getting into character”. Just start, he says, and I agree wholeheartedly. I’ll never forget my final callback for the 1st national tour of Jersey Boys. I was standing there in front of at least 15 job-providing or job-denying figures waiting to hear me sing. I could probably not have told you what my name was at that moment. But I remember, very specifically, taking a long, deep breath in that moment before. Years later, I am still working on this seemingly very simple endeavor—breathing. I am intent on reclaiming my breath in the audition room. |
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That moment before the monologue begins I try to be grateful that I’m getting to perform. Honestly. I have such hatred for it, I have to trick myself into thinking that this is a performance, and it very well may be the only one I get in this room with these people. I’d like to say that I’m “getting into character,” or “thinking of my action,” or something else from a textbook. But I’m not. I’m thinking about them and what they’re thinking. I’m honestly more concerned and hopeful about the conversation after the stupid monologue. And when there is no conversation, none at all, I’m devastated. The irony is thick, if you ask me. “Acting is reacting. Acting is about listening.” So we spend countless hours in the classroom and reading books that say listen listen listen, then respond… only to go into a room and talk to a wall and pretend like the wall is listening. The best acting I’ve ever done in a monologue situation was for a play called Dirty Blonde. I was living in Alabama at the time, but pretending to live in New York, using a NY phone number answering service. I got a call from a casting director, charged the airfare on my credit card, flew to NY, and went into the room. I did my monologue, then the casting director said, “Okay, and your song?” I had not prepared a song. I had no idea I was expected to sing. Without missing a beat I said, “Right. A-capella is alright, yes?” “Sure, sure,” they responded. And I busted into sixteen bars from college. The moment before that song when I was pretending that I was prepared to sing was the best acting I’ve ever done in an audition. I did not get the role. |
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Page Clements has been a professional actress, vocal instructor, and private coach in NYC for over 20 years. Currently an instructor of voice, dialects, and Shakespeare at the T. Schreiber Studio & Theatre in New York, she has just completed an instructional video for actors and public speakers to be released later this year. She has appeared in over 50 productions throughout the country, received the Favorite Vocal Coach and Dialect Coach Awards from Backstage in 2009, and is a member of Actors Equity Association. Manon Halliburton is a regional theater actress who has worked all over the country. She has also appeared in television shows such as Law and Order and The Sopranos, and recently shot her first film this past year and closed August Osage County at Kansas City Rep to rave reviews. She lives in Kansas City with actor Bob Elliott. Nathan Klau’s touring credits include Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Forever Plaid, and Anything Goes. Regionally, he has worked at Goodspeed Opera House, Arkansas Rep, and Theater-by-the-Sea. A native of West Simsbury, CT, Nathan graduated from Yale University in 1994 with a degree in History and Theater. He hopes to use it someday. Thomas Ward is an actor and playwright based in Minneapolis. He appeared in the Off-Broadway premiere of Craig Wright’s The Unseen at the Cherry Lane Theatre. He has performed regionally with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Georgia Shakespeare, WaterTower Theatre (Dallas), and the ZACH Scott Theatre (Austin), among others. He was previously profiled by stated. |
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