Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Week 7- Monologues and Reflections

Why do you choose the material you choose for monologues? What do you want to show the agent/casting director/director about your skill as an actor? Do you know that that your choice of material reflects certain things about you? Your job is to select material that showcases your strengths as a performer. The piece should be age appropriate, unaccented (unless specified by the agent/director/casting director) must have a recognizable character arc and range. Ask yourself how comfortable you feel with your audition material right now. What you put into developing your monologue will be what you get out of it. A sharp, well acted, thoughtful performance will give you a solid audition tool that you can use to get jobs. Turning in a bad monologue performance is like handing someone a sub-par resume with few qualifications for the job. It is a waste of your time and that of the agent/casting director/director that called you in. Shoot for the top 1% of candidates applying for the job. This requires work and dedication to excellence. There will always, always be exceptions to the good acting rule, but you can't bank on this. Ask yourself what you will do to identify, develop and polish your audition materials so that when opportunity knocks, you are not standing in front of mirror memorizing new lines, but preparing a thoughtful performance that has been rehearsed and developed into a shining example of your talent and training.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Week 6- Got Skills?

Over the past few weeks, we have auditioned across genres from television commercials to episodic TV shows and feature films. Through dramatic role play, we have been able to recreate typical scenarios that you may encounter as an actor auditioning for industry professionals. By auditioning twice a week, you are learning how to synthesize your technique so that you can quickly break down a script and play what the writer and/or director envisions. How do you feel your skills have strengthened over the past weeks? What have
you identified as your strengths and weaknesses? What would you like to improve to increase your opportunities for callbacks?

Monday, February 6, 2012

Weeks 3- 4- Auditioning for Film

This week, we will audition for the 1980s film St. Elmo's Fire. To date, you have performed scenes from film, television and commercials. What do you think you have learned that will help you tackle the sides from this script? How will reading the entire script help your audition? How much homework will you need to do? What steps will you take to come back to class prepared on Wednesday? What have you learned that will help you to prepare?