9. YOUR AUDITION (YOUR PIECES)

YOUR PIECES IN YOUR AUDITION

You will probably be asked what you are going to do today and you’d be amazed at how difficult it is to announce yourself and say what pieces you are doing and by whom. Try it now! Go on! Make a couple of pieces up if you have to and just try it without tripping up or saying “er” and “um” more than 4 times.

Most schools don’t want you to deliver your piece directly to the panel. You may want to fix a mark somewhere in the room to anchor your eye level if your piece is actually to another person. So always place the person you are talking to very slightly to the left or right of the auditioners. If that person is sitting down or in bed, watch that your eye line is not tilted down too much. We need to see your face and you need to stay in contact with the audience. Don’t be in their faces and up too close. Don’t be too far away either. 10 paces is good.

You need to get focussed before you start. They will usually say something like ‘in your own time. – And they mean it! Don’t just launch into your first piece. Tell yourself what you want to do. Get focused to do you best work then start creating and entering the world of your character. Then when you are ready, maybe repeat the lines in you head that may have just been said to your character. Then ONCE you have created the mood and the atmosphere, go for it. Do not just launch into your piece.

Start well – take your time and create the moment and the world.
End well – stay with the moment, focus, and be proud. Don’t apologise verbally or with sheepish looks no matter how you think the piece went. Even if you think you were rubbish. They may well have seen something that interested them. You never know! Stay focused and ‘in the moment’ for a couple of seconds after the end. Then, staying in focus, start to prepare yourself for the next. Start when you are ready; think only of doing your best work in this next piece. Think nothing of what you have just done. End well!

They KNOW how nervous you are and they understand.

Engage with the material and the audience.
Stay In each word mentally and physically.
Don’t reach for the next thought or words until you have finished those that you are on.
Keep all lines up until the end and be lively with the end word.

Don’t let any sentence EVER diminish towards the end! Especially if you think you have done or stressed the important words for you!! KEEP THE LAST WORD BRIGHT!!! Especially with Shakespeare (mostly)!

They may want to work with you on your speeches. If they don’t - do not worry! If they do - do not worry! Just listen, understand and then go for what they are asking with everything you have got. It is much better to be able to come out of the speech and say ‘I think I may have overdone that a bit, I can tone it down if you like’ than to know you didn’t hit what they were asking for. Never leave the room feeling you didn’t do your best work. If you do, put that right in your next audition!
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