Posts Tagged ‘tips for auditioning’

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How To Get Ready For An Audition

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

If you’re hoping to be on TV, whether that’s in a soap opera or even as a newscaster, you’re probably looking into all kinds of information about acting and auditioning. But once you have an appointment for an audition, what are you going to wear, and what are you going to say? Here are some tips for how to get ready for auditions.

First, plan what you will wear. Try to wear something simple, but do look your best. You shouldn’t try to impress by what you wear because they really won’t be interested in your clothes. For TV casting, they want to know if you can act or speak, what you sound like, and look like as a person. Wear a little makeup and do your hair if you like, but don’t do anything too garish or distracting.

Next, decide what you will recite if you need to prepare a piece. If they will provide a script for you, just practice speaking and make sure your voice is clear and distinct. Drink plenty of fluids.

Get plenty of rest the night before. If you’re well rested you should be less nervous, and more alert.

Finally, make sure you have everything that you need for the audition including a resume, portfolio, photos, or anything else that you have been asked to bring.

If you need ideas for more auditions, why not try Audition Now? We can text you up to date audition information for £1.50 per text (up to three times a week), for those 18 years old and older.

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Soap Hope: Audition Tips

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Soap auditions are often termed the conveyer belts of the acting industry. Soap acting differs from bigger budget or film acting, thanks, in part, to its accessibility and the need to convey more local or regular types of characters on screen. Below are some tips for those consideing attending soap auditions.

•    Be prepared. It might sound elementary, but some folks imagine soap castings to be somehow easier to sail through than west end auditions or film jobs. Not true!
•    Soap actors need great memories, great manners and the ability to be resourceful. The soap set is no place for divas and difficult tantrum-throwing folks. Showcase your memory by glancing at a last minute script as little as possible and not fluffing your lines!
•    Poise isn’t just for ballet dancers. Conducting yourself with confidence, professionalism and dignity throughout an audition sends the message to producers that you’ll be able to handle the stresses and strains of working on a soap.
•    Avoid the term “soap opera” at all costs. Think of it as the TV version of “Macbeth”. Opt for “daytime drama” or use the soap’s name throughout auditions.
•    Dress appropriately. You’re not there for a wardrobe audition. It’s better to turn up looking clean, presentable and simply attired, rather than in a home-made costume you think might suit your character. You’re the base from which a character could be built, so leave wardrobe and make-up to the professionals.

You need to be 18 to use our SMS auditions service (£1.50 per text, maximum of three texts per week).

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The Best Audition

Monday, December 6th, 2010

With Audition Now you can hear about everything from great TV casting opportunities right through to West End auditions, putting you in the driving seat of your own career. After drama school or university so many people will be going for the same roles that it is almost impossible for even the best and most beautiful actors to stand out. So it is important that not only you have the best inside info on upcoming casting calls, but also that you persevere while others might give up.

With that said, one of the best ways to stand out is with a great audition. The best auditions will be the ones that you have prepared for thoroughly and Audition Now ensures you hear about them before almost anyone else, and have therefore even more time to prepare.

Undertaking as much research about the company, project and role as possible will help stand you in better stead to understand what they will be looking for. From here, it shall be a case of responding to their brief, but also ensuring you have two very strong audition pieces at the ready, even if they haven’t asked for one. Usually having a mixture of serious and comedic is the best way to show your versatility as an actor.

With Audition now you receive a maximum of three texts per week, charged at £1.50 per text, which will give you news of all the best upcoming castings so that you can be fully prepared to get the very best roles around.

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Going the Extra Mile for Acting Auditions

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

As you reflect on your talents as a performer, you should ask yourself what particular gifts you have which make you stand out from the crowd. This may well be the area where, if you are sufficiently able, you can score over others at acting auditions.

In addition to your personal talents, you should nurture your general powers of observation. All social situations offer resource material for the actor, so you should never let pass the chance to watch and note how people behave in different situations. It doesn’t have to be in moments of ‘high drama’; in fact, you might learn more from just watching people in the street. There is plenty to observe in the most mundane of human activities, such as hand gestures and facial movements.

Keeping yourself generally informed about what is going on in the world is another important aspect of the actor’s life. There are many examples of actors who take up political and social causes; as a performer you can’t just live and work in a bubble cut off from what is happening in the world. You should make a point of keeping up to date with not just entertainment news, but with news in general. All theatre writing can be better understood through the lens of human experience as lived in the here and now.

Here at Audition Now, we do our bit to keep you well-informed: texting you all the latest auditions direct to your mobile phone.

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The Life-work Balance and Acting Auditions

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Traditionally, actors hate acting auditions: they rarely know the competition they are up against, they never know what they will be asked to do, and there is no time to warm up the audition panel. However, acting auditions are the actor’s ‘bread and butter’, so if you want to make a career out of acting, then however much you hate or dread them, you have to learn to live with auditions.

There are many techniques you can use to help you keep at bay your fears about auditioning. With experience and a bit of practice, you can learn to control your nerves, and make the process a useful element in the development of your talent.

Screen star Katharine Hepburn once famously said: “Life’s what’s important… acting’s just waiting for the custard pie.”
The point of the remark is to put acting in perspective. You will doubtless know of people who become so obsessive about getting the next part, that it seems they would rather die than fail to be cast. Don’t forget that life is also the actor’s ultimate study resource. What the audience recognises as ‘true’ in a performance is more often than not what the actor has, perhaps by chance, observed in ordinary people in everyday life.

Here at Audition Now, we help you get to as many auditions as you can through our customised texting service. With so many work opportunities to hand, you can be sure of achieving a healthy life-work balance.

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Being Prepared for Acting Auditions

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

There are plenty of conventions for how acting auditions are conducted. However,  the truth is that there are no hard and fast rules, so you may need to be ready for some surprises.

Much will depend on the type of project you are auditioning for.  High-profile prestigious shows, such as West End musicals, which will draw a large volume of auditionees, will have very strict criteria by which their selections are made, and will have correspondingly limited time-slots for each candidate. Very often there are preliminary rounds where you may get to perform for less than a minute while they eliminate the hopeful amateurs.

In straight theatre, the large national companies have talent scouts looking out for new faces in performance, but open theatre auditions are occasionally held, so should not be missed. Such acting auditions offer much more time to the candidate, and the structure of the audition is more open-ended, depending somewhat on what the director is looking for in the play in hand. With small-scale projects such as theatre-in-education shows, the company may be looking for creative input from the actor, and an ability to improvise.

So, the precise format of acting auditions does vary enormously: contrasting pieces of prepared material are a sure bet. You should also expect to be given a reading to perform ‘cold’, but beyond that, expect the unexpected and be ready to be creative.

Here at Audition Now we help you access all the latest auditions through our up-to-the minute texting service.

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Criticism at Acting Auditions

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Acting is a very personal process for many, and that makes it difficult to take criticism, even though it may be helpful for your technique and your career prospects. Because acting auditions are the route to your next job, you cannot let your nerves undermine your talents by turning the audition process into a form of torture. You need to find ways to make criticism work to your advantage.

TV shows like Britain’s Got Talent give a false impression of what it like is to audition: many are hopeful amateurs wanting to hear something personal about themselves, good or bad. As an actor you are not looking for the next rude one-liner, but observations that build up your technique. Reactions to what you do will always differ, so you need to develop the ability to interpret what you hear about your performance, which can then guide you in improving what you do. You may get insights into this from the panel during acting casting. For example, do you often hear the same observation? If so, what might that tell you about how you are coming across?

Friends and family are useful in this respect: perform in front of them, learn to ignore any personal remarks, and interpret their inexpert observations in a practical way.

Here at Audition Now, we specialize in getting you to all the latest auditions, so you can get the part that’s right for you. Soon you will master the art of auditions, and may even grow to enjoy them.

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Deer Caught in Headlights

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Treading the boards – to some, nothing compares. Even the most seasoned pro occasionally succumbs to the dreaded stage fight!

Get through that initial moment of terror by calmly thinking, “this is just my reality right now. Not forever.”

Often, a major stress-factor in any performance (no matter how far past the auditions or casting calls) is the strange sense that floods your body, telling you that the fear will last forever. Think back to the days of school exams; that feeling that a two hour maths exam seemed to occupy a slightly different point in space and time that somehow stretched on for at least eighteen hours! Similarly, no moment of fear can last forever. Feel it. Think about the next moment, a moment in which you are fine, and go there.

In the words of the Girl Guides, Be Prepared. Turning up to auditions or casting calls spluttering apologies of lateness, stumbling onto the stage and trying to read your monologue off the back of your hand just isn’t going to fly with anyone. You need to know your stuff inside and out. Prepare extra work, try to guess what direction a potentially odd audition could go and ponder on it, at least a little, before the big day.

Focus on the little things, like breathing! The advice to “take a deep breath” is legendary for a good reason – it works.

Please note that you need to be 18 years and over to our service (£1.50 per text with max of three texts per week).

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What Are Open Auditions and Casting Calls?

Friday, September 24th, 2010

So let’s pretend you’re casting a new West End play, and some higher power has begun to band the phrase “fresh talent” around – you’re heading for open auditions and casting calls!

Open Auditions

Open Auditions can fit with any field of the performing arts, but are perhaps synonymous with musical theatre and dancers. Casting directors tend to be looking for talent within the performing arts community, rather than a reality TV-style cattle market.

Dancers are, arguably, the bastion of musical theatre, though even those at the top could go through open acting auditions before making it to the private audition stage.

Open auditions can also be a tool to help the director make his or her mind up about what type of person is suitable for a part.

Casting Calls

These are open to anyone who fits the parameters e.g. “Boy aged 9-11. Must be skilled dancer and fluent in Russian” or “Girl aged 12-14. Must be confident around circus animals.”

Casting calls tend to be seeking undiscovered talent, or at least leaving the gate open for undiscovered talent to wander through and try riding the bull with the pros.

The Harry Potter gang, The Golden Compass’ Lyra; they grasped their little feet onto the first rung of the fame ladder at casting calls, some without any formal acting training.

Casting calls are publicly announced, and tend to be very, very crowded – just look at the number of people who turned up for Big Brother each year!

Like a casting call, we have parameters. Subscribes must be aged 18 years and over (£1.50 per text with max of three texts per week).

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Break a Leg!

Monday, September 20th, 2010

When it comes to auditions, many of you probably have your own little rituals. During casting calls, many a corridor is crammed with folks hopping, calling their mother and spinning round three times whilst wearing their lucky hula-hoop!

There were simply too many superstitions relating to acting and theatre to fit in here. Here’s just a few of the many theatre superstitions.

* Green, blue and yellow are all, apparently, bad luck! Green perhaps dates from the origins of the outdoor play – wear green and you won’t be seen!

* Unlucky blue is another remnant from a bygone time – dying costumes blue hinted at prosperity (the dye was rather costly), when perhaps the reality was rather different.

* Yellow is the colour of the sun and generally resonates optimism, unless you’re in the theatre and hold true to the belief that the devil was, historically, always depicted in plays in a natty yellow ensemble!

* “Break a leg,” – Good luck.

* “Good luck,” – Bad luck.

There must be some logic or underlying universal principal in there that could be called upon during auditions, casting calls or exams!

The wrong attire can land you in some bad luck – only fake jewellery should be worn, and you apparently should never advertise your own play on your clothes, and never use peacock feathers as an adornment.

No matter what your superstitions, unless you’re 18 years old or over, our service is unavailable to you (£1.50 per text with max of three texts per week).

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