Time Is On Your Side

We’ve all been in this situation before. You get the call for an audition for a SAG-AFTRA film, TV show, commercial or an Equity play. You make the date, are given the time and download the sides. Hopefully, you’ve had enough time to learn the lines and turn in a good audition when you show up for the casting call. But what about that time in between calls?

Heading to an Equity call a while back, a friend of mine said he hadn’t auditioned for this company before but had an old audition piece that he was sure was going to be “good enough” for them to have a “look-see.” Why gamble on good enough in theater?

Often agents, if you’re interviewing with them, may ask for a short monologue, on the spot in the office. You should have something ready to go.

"And as actors, we have the time," said member Stoney Richards. "I carry about five monologues in my head, ready to go when and if needed. A couple pieces from Shakespeare, a comedy, drama, contemporary and period piece."

Take the time to learn your monologues and practice them loudly, quietly, in accents, slowly and quickly so that should that question come up, “Do you have something for us to see?” you won’t even have to walk out of the room to prepare. You should have it as a “sense memory” in your head. Now that moment may never come; it doesn’t happen often. But you can have confidence knowing, with such lives as actors lead full of not knowing, that at least you have “something” and it’s not just “good enough,” it’s the “real deal.”

Theater and agents are one set of instances, but often, especially here in Pittsburgh with so many films coming through, you may be asked on the spot to read for a character other than the one you have prepared sides for. Don’t walk away from a gift horse. If they see something in you they like, that’s a winning point for any actor. Instead of wasting negative energy getting yourself all upset, just go do the lines and play the scene. They know you didn’t have any time to prepare and they aren’t expecting a brilliant performance, but obviously they think they’d like to see you as that character. And here, once again, those monologues come in handy.

If you have been working on your monologues, you already have an idea of who you are and what this particular new side might require from your performance. And the mental toughness you’ve already acquired working on your pieces helps with your memorization and ability to sight read. So you can walk right back into that room after a few minutes and make the whole thing work.

The point is, having monologues in your head and knowing who you are as an actor can’t help but to showcase confidence, and confidence wins more times than not. Remember, we’re all reading pretty much the same lines. Or as Hamlet said, “Words, words, words.”

This item was originally featured in the June 2015 local newsletter.