PART TWO
Preparation and Attitude
Finding a strong, interesting and contrasting set of speeches that allows the actor to show a range of characters, moments and moods is a crucial step towards honing a major edge. It is essential to start the hunt early. Be exhaustive. Be relentless in the quest for something fresh, something that reads well and that suits you; something that you have a connection with or a feeling for. There is also much to be said for unearthing rare or new pieces that have not been overused. Get a further edge by avoiding audition-speech books, because this is where everyone else will be looking.
I’m afraid that, unless you get lucky, there is no short cut to discovering your perfect monologue. This trail requires a dedicated search, with lots of reading. Spend a day in a theatre bookshop and have a good old browse through. Theatres often have great bookshops attached. The National Theatre bookshop and the Royal Court’s are packed with new writing. French’s Theatre Bookshop in Fitzroy Street, London, has all the new plays as they are published. There’s also a ton or two of older titles. They are awfully nice there and very helpful. They even supply chairs for you to chill in. Of course, there is always the internet too – if you want to be old-fashioned and unadventurous.
Here are some reflections from a successful candidate on the art of selecting speeches. She pretty much says it all.
‘With your pieces, I would say have a big session before the beginning of the winter. Find ones that you LOVE and could bear working on for months on end. For me, the best way of choosing my pieces, was to find ones with which I felt a connection. I also chose speeches where I found the characters extremely interesting. If you look for your monologues as early as possible, this gives you a huge advantage. It gives you more time to work on them and the hassle of choosing is done with.’ Jess
Generally, if you just want to scrape by and do the bare minimum, you will be required to choose and prepare three pieces. If you are clever, you will have a few more in the pipeline or on the go. One will have to be modern, in most cases. Two (in most cases) will need to be classical and comprise a main speech and a ‘back-up’, which may be called for in the initial audition, though usually it comes into play at recalls. But it must be there, ready on request, at that first round.
By ‘classical’, schools mean Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, Tourneur, Jonson, Behn and the like. Some places now state that they don’t want to see translations: this rules out foreign writers of the same era – though you can use them elsewhere. If you are applying to somewhere that has its own list of speeches, you will also need to select up to two from this list, which you should be wary of using elsewhere (see below). The definition of ‘modern’ for speeches will vary from school to school.
Is there a list? Certain drama schools require you to choose from a list that they publish. Check their prospectus and/or website for advance details. I’m not saying that you cannot then reuse ‘list’ speeches at other schools, but other panels may not want to see endless renditions of the same material. Many people will try to get by with a list speech as their back-up. That’s why it is best to have up to four classical selections under your belt, and at least three modern. If you really like a list speech and it seems to fit, don’t rule it out, but have an alternative – just in case.
First things first Does it engage? Does it read well? Is the story good? This is a primal point and one to pick up on immediately. Even though the subject matter may be of huge interest or significance, the whole thing is useless to you if it is not engaging to read and therefore to act and, subsequently, for the panel to watch. The panel people need to be engaged by the speech, as well as by you. Double-scan your selections for their intrinsic interest and engagement. Test this by reading them to someone else.
What does it do for you? Go for something that resonates with you. Something you feel an affinity for. Don’t settle for less. Ideally, the speech should choose you.
Balance and journey Is it all on one level? On one plane? In one gear? In one colour? Is there a landscape? Sometimes an extract may not be so effective as an audition piece, even though it really works within the context of the play as a whole. It may just be too monotonous or relentless as a ‘two-minute play’.
Train as you choose The idea is to train yourself and hone your skills as you explore your potential choices. Encountering many options and working with these will deepen your range and skills. There is the danger that you might not engage with the performance aspects of the work till quite late because it is taking a long time to dig out those perfect pieces and, therefore, you find yourself in a performance limbo. If you are agonising over decisions, then kick-start your training by getting stuck into something.
What about a non-Shakespeare classical? One or two places specify ‘only Shakespeare’ for the classical choice, so watch out! Study their letter/website. If the audition information doesn’t specify, or they don’t mind, have a think about auditioning with a non-Shakespeare classical selection. Not too many people do them and therefore the panel might not have seen these so often. Edge! This is always an advantage and sets you apart from the crowd. You are doing something different.
Recaps:
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Does the school want you to select from their list of speeches? |
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Does the text engage the reader/listener? |
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What does the material do for you? |
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Is there a balance and a journey? |
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Train as you choose. |
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Have a look at some non-Shakespeare classical texts – the panel will see fewer of these. |
Thoughts from another student:
‘If you are struggling to find your speeches, do not panic! You will find them eventually. When you do discover them, get the plays and read them. But also start work on and learn your speeches straight away! You will then know them so well, when it eventually comes to auditions. Trust me, there are people, even at recalls, who are worrying about forgetting words! If you look for your speeches as soon as you can and don’t put it off all the time, you have the bonus of being so prepared that you don’t have to bother about things like this.’ Ali
Dos and Don’ts when making a choice
Do…
Do the ‘do not dos’ Study the ‘do not do’ audition information for each school carefully. Verify the speeches and characters they don’t want to see. Refer to the advice online or in the prospectus for the schools you like. If they have lists, they may include texts from work by writers such as: Steven Berkoff, Jim Cartwright, Alan Bennett, Victoria Wood, Barrie Keeffe and Sarah Kane. The point about these extracts is not that they are poor theatre or necessarily badly written, but stylistically, they may not allow you to show your full potential. Or they have been overused. Edmund from King Lear seems to be a particular no-no, as are drunken characters and spirits or ghosts. Mad people should be avoided, too.
Be sure you have covered the needs of every school with your selections Make sure you know exactly what each of the schools requires of you for the audition. For example, they may want three pieces – one serious, one classical and one light-hearted. Others have varying stipulations as to what constitutes a modern piece. Some say post-1960s, others will consider ‘modern’ as starting from the mid-nineteenth century. So have a few moderns on the go. Many stipulate a maximum length for speeches. These vary from one-and-a-half minutes to three minutes. I’d go for something around one-and-three-quarter minutes to two minutes.
Choose a good few pieces – have repertoire ‘The more the merrier’ should be the measure of your intention. You won’t then be winging it on the bare minimum – so many people do this and then flounder. Afford yourself the luxury of range and repertoire. You can only get so far with something that you find just isn’t right in the end. Perhaps a drama school will suggest that you change or drop a speech after an audition with them. If you have a few irons in the fire, you don’t have to go through the ‘looking’ process all over again.
Try to stay within your range of play Keep the part reasonably within your age and playing range. I think that generally within a ten-year span of your own age is okay. You can even go older if the other speech is very close to your own age. (This is only my opinion, though, and it might not be shared by everyone on the panel.)
The real trick is to select material that suits you and your personality. If you are slim, trim and slight, then Falstaff will not be the right part for you. If you are giggly and cheeky, then Lady Anne is not a good match. Give yourself some leeway, though.
Deal direct A situation in which one determined person directly engages with another can be a very effective choice, because in real life when we talk to someone, we change and our needs change as that person reacts – or fails to react. A gritty monologue in this vein gives you the opportunity to explore the reasons for this engagement and also what your character wants as the argument unfolds. A speech such as this might also be more engaging to watch because things change faster than when a character is locked into poignant (but perhaps unchanging) reminiscence or recounting of events.
Consider comedy Laughter is always good in tense situations and can make people warm to you. If comedy is your forte, this could be the way forward. It’s a good plan to have at least one lighter or light-hearted speech on the go.
Read your selections to other people, or have them read to you Do this to get a bead on how they might play and how they sound. Get someone to read possible choices to you out loud, so that you can hear them objectively. If friends are also auditioning, then share the burden. Have a read-through get-together. Use each other, help each other.
Keep it different, keep it real – but not too extreme Smart and committed students won’t just trawl a couple of well-thumbed audition compilations. They will be reading whole works and visiting shows in search of something fresh and different, something that other people might have missed.
So make the panel’s perception of you into one of somebody prepared to go the extra mile. Every little helps. This is also why opting for a non-Shakespeare classical piece may be to your advantage. Panel people get weary of seeing the same old chestnuts roasting away before them. Maximise your chances!
Keep it simple By this I mean avoid stuff with too many layers, which could distract the watcher. For example, if your character is talking to someone about what another person has been telling them about someone else and what they said, then the audience has to fathom out all these layers. I mean, wasn’t it difficult enough trying to work out that sentence? This is just too much work for your listener, in this short window of time.
Try to look for positive material I have a feeling that ‘positive’ may leave a better vibe in the room than torturous tales of rape, abuse, violence, pregnancy, infidelity, etc.…
Ditch it Be prepared to drop something, even if you have loved it. There are times when material that took a while to select and that you thought was perfect, ceases to work for you. Sometimes the speech will just run out of steam. If it isn’t right any more, or it doesn’t fit the requirements – let it go.
Recaps:
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Scrutinise the dates and criteria for modern pieces, because they vary at each school. |
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Investigate speeches and characters that panels DON’T want to see. |
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Study the requirements of each school carefully. |
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Have a few (maybe seven or eight) speeches on the go. |
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Choose at least one close to your own age and playing range. |
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Deal direct. |
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Read your selections to other people or have them read to you. |
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Keep it real, but look for something different or rarely seen. |
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Keep it simple. |
Look for positive material in at least one speech. |
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Be prepared to ditch it. |
Don’t…
Necessarily go for something that is merely dramatic or heroic Quite often there is greater potential in more low-key extracts, which may well have a quirky charm and, therefore, allow you a more subtle range of possibilities and changes. You must continue to look for a journey, both in the material and for the character. Keep your audience engrossed.
Do two pieces directly to the audience If you choose a soliloquy for your classical, ring the changes by making a contrast in staging – select something that involves talking to another character.
Cry Unless you are really, terribly, awfully sure you can make them work, be on guard against tears. I have seen plenty of pieces where the performance becomes purely about the actor crying or attempting to cry or, worse still, ‘acting’ crying. Apply this thought to anger and grief as well. At times like these, the delivery often becomes more about acting and not, finally, about the material or truth.
Get seduced – watch out for drama! Don’t be seduced by über-tragic pieces: they are not necessarily the most exciting, or even inviting to the panel.
Be enticed by lots and lots of swearing Think twice about really excessive swearing. Don’t rule it out entirely, just be judicious. You can bet that plenty of first-timers will be thrilled by the opportunity to fill the stage with expletives.
Go for the ‘shouty’ As with the two topics above, the panels see Shouty McShouty from Shoutington on a very regular basis. I’m not saying don’t do it. Just be aware that the speech and your delivery should not be ‘ALL ABOUT THE SHOUT!’ LOTS OF PEOPLE WILL BE SHOUTING AND BULGING THEIR NECK MUSCLES. It all gets very loud – and boring.
No sex, please… Well, not entirely no sex. Material of a sexual nature is okay but there must be more to the speech than just flirting, pouting and posing – and that’s just the boys. The panel will have seen buckets of this kind of stuff. (See ‘Change is Good’.)
Personally, I wouldn’t do any speeches about being on stage, at an audition or about acting either, but that’s just me.
Recaps:
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Don’t do two pieces directly to the audience. |
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No drunks or ghosts, spirits or fairies. Study the ‘do not dos’. |
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Don’t be seduced by extracts which might seem highly dramatic but don’t fully pay off. |
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Watch the tears. |
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Watch the shout. |
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Don’t get too sexy. |
The reason that the schools ask you for contrasting pieces is so that you don’t show the panel the same character-type, tone or mood twice. If there is no contrast, or only a weak one, they will not be able to see your range – because you won’t be able to show it.
Simple, eh? But this is a very important aspect to get right, so that they can see as much of your range and flexibility as possible. They want people who can show numerous different and subtle facets to their acting. Choose texts that will allow you to convince them of these abilities in your performance or, at least, let them see that you have the potential to evince these qualities.
Is there a journey? By the end of the speech, is the character in a different emotional or psychological space to when they started?
Carefully compare the extracts that interest you Are the characters too similar? Ideally, you need different character-types who experience a range of situations and moments in each piece. It also helps if their journeys differ. All this will then allow for potential contrast in beats, rhythms and tempos within the writing and in your performance. A good contrast will allow your malleability as a performer and your understanding of the characters to flourish. You should then be able to show some layers in your performance. So you must pay as much attention to what happens in each piece as you do to the nature of each character, since there is much to be had from contrast of mood, atmosphere, pace, tone and action.
All on one level – or the same levels of mood, tension, pace, atmosphere? Pieces that have variance in these respects will get you to explore more depth and range in performance. That’s what the auditioners want. Find texts with ‘landscapes’ and places to journey to. This will keep the story going whilst maintaining the attention of the panel. The more you can keep the focus and attention of the panel undivided and not wandering, the better it is for you. The greater the contrast of these levels in your pieces, the more room for manoeuvre you have in your playing, for change and range.
A character shouting doesn’t always contrast with one who’s whispering Think about this! A sad person paired with a happy one, or a modern character coupled with a classical one, don’t necessarily make a contrast, especially if they are both similar people from similar walks of life, in similar moments. The same may be true if you merely couple two pieces, simply because one is tragic and one is comic. It’s about the difference in the essence of the people you are looking to portray.
Contrast the back-up When selecting a back-up Shakespeare/classical text, consider the contrast with what you already have for your main speeches.
Contrast recaps:
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Carefully compare your potential selections. |
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Is there a journey for each of the characters? Are the journeys different? |
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Are they on one level or in one mood? Are these too similar across your selections? |
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Contrast the characters as well as the content. |
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Look for contrast in your back-up text(s). |
This is quite a tricky area. In general, it’s best to avoid dialects or accents that are not your own, unless you are brilliant at them. If your natural accent is, say, American, or your intonation is Geordie, then by all means go for it. In fact, if you can find a speech that is penned in your regional dialect, so much the better. In their audition advice many schools actually say ‘don’t adopt accents and dialects if they are not your own’. Otherwise there is a distinct possibility that your delivery becomes all about acting these and very little else.
They want to hear your voice. Also, if you are not spot-on, you will distract the panel, who will be listening to possible wobbles in the accent and thus diverted from focusing on your mighty skills, maybe even getting mildly irritated. This you do not want.
It is, however, possible to make a speech written with an accent or in dialect work with your own intonation. By which I mean you can use American material, as long as it’s not too American. You may need to change or cut a couple of words here and there, such as ‘trash can’, ‘highway’, etc. You could use Scottish writing without the Scottish accent. But if the accent/dialect is ‘written in’ very strongly, you’d have trouble making it work in RP (received pronunciation) – that is to say, typically English, non-regional speech. For example:
Awrite mate. I’m just awa’ oot the hoose for a carry-oot and it’s a braw bricht nicht.
It wouldn’t work in Stoke-on-Trent dialect either:
Cos’t kick a bo agen a wo, ’ed it wi yer ’ed an bost eet?
(Can you kick a ball against a wall, head it with your head and burst it?)
Or the Black Country:
An yer gorr any on it an yer?
(‘Have you got any of it with you?’)
To which the reply would be:
Now! An if I had gorr any, I oodn’t give yow non.
The bottom line is that the panel would like to hear your own voice, wherever you are from. But you can be slightly flexible. If your character is a working-class Londoner, it is possible to make him/her work in a Leicester twang, if that is your own accent. Or if you naturally speak with a posher accent, you can get away with softening or making it burr slightly for regional types, but not so much that the changes mask your own, natural voice.
Writing by people like David Mamet (America) or Conor McPherson (Ireland), contains very specific nuances, subtleties, rhythms and sounds that are intrinsic to that tongue or geographical area. These are extremely difficult to make work in any parlance other than theirs, unless it’s also yours.
When seeking classical work, look for characters who could conceivably speak the way you do, but cut yourself some slack. You could possibly argue that the Duke of Northumberland might have a slight regional twang, lilt or burr. Romeo’s mates needn’t all be posh. Don’t stick so rigidly to the rules that you only have a tiny set of possibilities. The important thing is that you speak the words well, with precision and detail, whatever your accent or dialect. I worked on Hamlet with a young actor from Mexico who brought some really interesting qualities to the speech – and he got in!
Now you can start to think about submitting your forms That is to say, now that you have chosen, worked on, explored, decided against, changed, rejected and then done more work on your pieces. All being well, you can now appreciate why it is essential to start searching very early on in the game.
Preparing and Working On
Your Monologues
‘I find it hard rehearsing alone because I’m quite self-conscious. I haven’t got anybody to comment or help me properly so I’m worried it’s all a bit sh*t.’ Georgina
Sort your head before you begin – make your rehearsals anxiety-free Working alone can be… lonely, and scary. The following thoughts will help reduce excess anxiety and needless self-slaughter.
Have you ever done that thing where you are working with a speech or a part in a play and you’ve diligently done the research so that you have a really firm idea of the character? You’ve worked out in your head how they move and sound at every point in the speech. On paper, you’ve marked up the text with notes and beats and intentions and all that stuff. You have really strong ideas about the whole of the character and the ultimate soundtrack of how it should all sound, ‘feel’ and be at precise points in the speech.
Then, as you deliver your ‘perfect speech’, you begin to realise – what comes out is nowhere near all these ideas! What you have just presented sounded and felt nothing like your planned scenario was meant to sound and feel. Then you get a bit depressed, a bit like you can’t act; a touch agitated and frustrated. Maybe you even want to cry a little, because now you fear that when you do the speech again, it will be even less like the lovely but concrete version that’s in your head. Then you start to feel untalented, small and rubbish… alone?
Don’t worry. Many people get into this situation. It makes them not want to practise. Every time they go to do work, they become fearful and have to drag themselves to it. Well, it doesn’t have to be like this, because here is the big news: you do not have to get it right immediately.
Initial work on your speeches can be a daunting period in your journey. There is often no one to guide you or even to bounce off. It’s hard to know just what to do with your monologue when you come to it for the first time. Just speak the words, introduce them to the world through you. Do this without fear or judgement for the first few times. Just go for it – whatever ‘it’ turns out to be.
Do not have a finished product before you start A lot of candidates for drama-school auditions will choose their piece, learn and then intellectualise the perfect performance, the ‘perfect statue’ of the character and the perfect way it should sound and feel. They will then try to recreate or work towards this finished thing in every session – without ever getting there. Because it cannot be done.
Acting is about process, journey and the exploration of possibilities. The longer the journey and the deeper the process, the better the possibilities will be on the day. You need to grow as a performer, alongside the growth and development of your character and of the speech as a whole. Find out what it is by finding out what it isn’t.
So, abandon your expectations. Do not have a finished product in mind as you begin your journey. Take the anxiety out of the work. You don’t have to perfect, form and polish a final product from the outset! In fact you must not.
You are allowed to be rubbish. So take a risk! Please allow yourself to take the risk of getting it wrong, being bad or failing while rehearsing, because you might be setting the bar way too high, way too soon. Take small, interesting steps; keep the bar low at the start. Fail, but fail well because you are trying things in many ways.
It can also be scary to work and rehearse all on your own, because it’s just you – and ‘the voices’. If you listen to the voices, you’ll fall prey to doubt, fear and judgement. You’ll worry about whether you or your acting are good enough. You’ll wonder if you are getting it right. All this anxiety makes you squander energy by working too hard on the wrong things. You also waste focus by wondering instead of just doing it. Chill. Explore. Be a Warrior not a Worrier!
It’s not about being ‘gooood all the time’. When you are rehearsing and working your speeches, being really good is really not the point. Experimentation is the way forward. This process is about trying out ideas and exploring your extracts in different, sometimes extreme, ways. It is about exploration of the character, of the text and of you. This is what will give colour, richness and depth.
Your duty is to the work and to the words, not to being good. You’re just an actor. Actors need to speak the words with clarity, conviction and intention, so that the audience can know and comprehend what is happening. If you are worried about being excellent or ‘feeling’ things, you’ll never be believable and we, the audience, will suss you out – especially if you keep trying to ‘do things’ with the words.
Generally, when I watch audition pieces, people fall into one of two very broad, but crucial, categories: those who have done the journey and those who have not. And it’s dead easy to tell them apart. I know who I’d want in my drama school… if I had one.
Persuading yourself to risk being bad can be a difficult notion – and spooky too. Risks can be hard enough to take when performing for others, but (with the wrong mindset) particularly so when working on your own, because you are often your harshest judge. So make fear your friend. Extend yourself and your boundaries. Otherwise the temptation to stick to familiar patterns and habits that are bad for you will be irresistible but hard to spot, because habits are strangely comforting.
It is through accepting the possibility of failure or not getting it right that you grant yourself the grace to take more risks and, as a result, improve. Then you gradually become ‘good’, because you have discovered what doesn’t work – by doing it.
Of course, at the end of your rehearsal process you should aim for your best work and brilliance. A calm yet non-judgemental voyage will get you to your destination. A really beneficial by-product of this method of working is that you do not beat yourself up or feel negative when there’s no requirement to do so. But retain your objective, critical faculties and then apply them at regular intervals on your way to said brilliance.
Let your destination become a part of the journey. Do your pieces with reasons, tasks or goals in mind, but if you have a fully thought-out end result in mind every time you do the speech, then you are setting yourself up not to get there. If you are judging everything all the time and then demonising your efforts, you cannot truly work, create and progress. Proper, objective, cool criticism – yes. But no self-slaying or negative vibes, please.
From crap you get fertiliser Don’t be crap from lack of effort or low-energy input. Be not crap through dread and fear or lack of commitment. You will grow if you don’t panic about being perfect all the time during the preparation of your speeches. The same applies to the exploration of possibilities: accept that some ideas will fail and some avenues will become culs-de-sac.
Kill the Demon… I believe this can ring true for many people, even seasoned actors. Often when you are working, a small Demon – a tiny you – will pop out and hover above you (or to the side in my case). It will sneer, snip and snicker while you are acting, saying things like:
You look really stupid with your arm out like that. How are you going to get that back down without anyone noticing? Eh?
That sounded really silly.
You didn’t hit that bit right, did you?
Or it will start to niggle away at the way you look or sound, or at what you are doing. While listening to the Demon, you’ll be aware that a couple of lines have gone by and you were not in the zone. Then, while you are thinking, ‘Damn, I haven’t been connecting; I’m just saying these words’, even more words or lines will have slipped past. Pretty soon, you’re sinking into the sh*t. The Demon (who loves this whiff) is your harshest, most negative and least objective critic.
It is the smallest part of you. It will make you feel small and silly if you engage with it. The Demon is the source of ‘the voices’ I was talking about. If the Demon pops out, keep an imaginary pistol on you, ready to blast it. Or simply let it be. Let it talk – just don’t listen. Do what you are doing. Why would you want to listen to the most negative part of you?
…but cultivate the Monitor Exorcise the judgement of the Demon when you are working. It will limit your creativity, courage, and shrink your soul. Naturally, you’ll need to apply objective, critical thinking, but don’t let the Demon beat you up. Stay positive.
Be aware of what you are doing, certainly, but let this observation be via a Friendly Monitor whom you love; someone who is cool, calm and serene. Let your Monitor be the kindly part of you; the one who can advise, and change things without self-punishment. There is a ‘critical’ difference between having an aware, alert, friendly monitor and listening to an ego-driven, soul-crushing, ever-talking Demon.
Get together with mates and form a group Have a gathering once a week in a decent space. Help each other. Use each other. This can be a powerful stride towards increasing your chances.
Here are some advantages of working together:
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Aim to meet from the beginning of your campaigns; you can then assist each other with form-filling and statement-writing. As I suggested earlier, mutual support while choosing and contrasting monologues is of great benefit. |
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Share vital info, knowledge and experience. Watch each other at work, then give feedback and criticism. You will all be in the same boat. |
You can report and share specific experiences and audition nightmares at specific schools. |
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Do mock interviews for each other. In a mock-interview situation, you can winkle out bad listeners and stubborn or misinformed, gibberish answers. All this shared experience will inform everyone of what not to do. It is surprisingly difficult to stand up even in front of those you know, let alone walk into a room, face a panel of strangers and say: |
Hello, my name is… and for my modern I’m doing… by… and my classical is… from… |
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Or whatever… |
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To do this in a calm yet alert way, without fluffing it, faking it, forgetting it or fidgeting – or any other ‘f’s – is not as easy as you might think. Many places won’t require you to do it, but it’s a good idea to get used to the experience of just saying ‘hello’ to the panel without feeling or sounding like a twit or overdoing it. Just to be open and up for it (but not doggiekeen) in front of strangers is a difficult and precarious trick in a tense situation, but one worth mastering. |
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Observe people in similar or formal situations, or even at parties. Watch how they are when introduced to strangers. Check how they come into the room. Some folks giggle, others flirt. While some avoid eye contact, others seek safety by trying to stare you out. Sad types go all ‘suit’ on you and get your hand in a grip that could crush a Volkswagen. If you get together as a group, you will be able to tackle these difficult aspects of your audition with (and in front of) other people. (See: ‘Hi, I’m Andy Johnson and I’m talented’ in ‘The Interview’ section.) |
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You can also, crucially, take turns to be the panelists and see the whole thing from their point of view. You’ll be able to identify really quickly what not to do and say. Shared mistakes and exposed bad habits will serve to feed and inform the others. They, in turn, will nourish you. |
Spot and mend people who wobble, wibble or dribble. These are the anxiety-driven tics, unintended movements or expressions that people exhibit while performing. There is more on these and how to cure them in ‘Exercises Explained’. |
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With regular sessions together, you’ll all be in a position to exploit the above points and many more, while you help each other to prepare and work on speeches. The really powerful factor about getting together is that you learn as you watch, then share. |
‘My advice would be to perform your pieces in front of everyone, everywhere and whenever you can. You may not have many friends left to ask, but it will allow you to know that you can do your best, regardless of circumstance.’ Annie |
It is the preparation of your ‘self’ that will give you the edge I mention the word ‘preparation’ a lot. It’s a word that may seem at odds with what many drama schools say about not wanting to see prepared performances at audition, and I completely agree. What they mean by this is a performance that has been prepared by you and/or a tutor to such a degree that it has no life or connection to the moment that the character is supposed to be in.
Audition panels often endure many speeches that are prepared by rote. The actor is doing the same thing that he/she always does, without any real spark or connection to the moment. They have practised and rehearsed the same old thing, in the same old way, and now the performance is tired and they are tired by it. In the worst cases, a set of worn-out, automatic movements and gestures accompany specific words and sentences.
When all the schools state that they are looking for potential in a student, they mean it. But the secret is to prepare your mind and your skills. You can be fear- and judgement-free, if you are prepared.
You, your character and the text can all be in the moment. You won’t be trotting out knackered, empty moves and sounds that sort of feel okay but somehow, there’s a little smidgen, somewhere, of something missing…
If you prepare yourself properly, you’ll be electric, freeee and open, in a focused way, as if you had never said those words before and never felt those things before.
Go anywhere, but come from somewhere Naturally, though, you don’t want to be totally random either. This is why I shall soon be reiterating maxims like: ‘Change is good.’ ‘Try many ways.’ ‘Play/explore the opposite.’ If you have been thorough, you will be strong in your head, strong in your character and strong in your decisions. You will be able to operate in the moment. Charged, yet calm.
Pre-work summary of ideas:
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Take the anxiety out of your rehearsals. |
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Don’t start out with a finished idea of the character – what they do, and how they feel – in your head. |
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You are allowed to be rubbish, so take a risk – take several. |
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From crap you get fertiliser. |
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Kill the Demon… |
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…but cultivate a Friendly Monitor. |
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Form a group. |
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Get an edge by properly preparing your mind and your material. |
‘When I started on my pieces I had simply not a clue about letting the words work for me, and truth. Looking back, this isn’t necessarily a problem at this stage, if you listen and take the good advice!’ Alice
Read the play, yes, but get physical with your pieces. Simultaneously.
Do some exercises on your speech as you read the play as a whole. This will get the words going into and through your mind and body. (See ‘Exercises Explained’ and ‘Tackling your Speech’.)
The temptation will be to start ‘acting’ the pieces (and the words) as soon as you can. This is because you are keen to be a good actor, anxious to perfect your speeches and get them into shape as soon as possible – because they tower in front of you like giant locked gates. But don’t seek this yet. If you unlock those gates slowly, if you use exercises and explore the words – you will be a better actor, and your monologues will find their own shape.
Form bonds and associations with the words. Conduct a physical relationship with them by doing physical things as you speak them, things like pacing out the words with your feet. Or even try clapping the syllables of the words with your hands instead of saying them.
Get them into your mouth, body and mind – as words. Not necessarily as the conveyors of the story or text at this point, but just as individual words. Explore them. Don’t over-intellectualise too soon or you risk ending up with a performance that is not growing organically. Remember, you don’t want a finished product before you have even started work.
Working on the play and your extract together will stop you from trying to see, hear and form the dreaded finished product, before the actor’s journey of trial and error, exploration and experimentation has begun.
Just get the words out Whenever I’m seeing someone for the first time, whether they have a worked-on speech or are reading fresh from the page, I always say, ‘Just get the words out. Don’t worry about getting it right for now, let’s just see what’s there.’
Have a journey Have a steady, but thoroughly inquisitive, journey towards your audition performance. One on which you will have tried many ideas and have failed at many, too. In this manner, the character, the moment and the truth will all become something you can step into with familiar ease. They will be layers that you wear like a second skin. Make sure you are not rehearsing in such a way as to lock yourself onto one path and one way of doing things. Be really focused and in the moment, alive to whatever happens, as you work.
You are doing a two-minute play! Therefore bring the whole of the history and world of the play onto the stage with you. It’s not just about the bit you are doing for your audition, in isolation. An entire universe of events, ideas and moments must happen in those two minutes – not to mention those changes of pace, gear, tone and mood – to invoke that all-important colour.
The panel will watch and listen with the same intensity as they would to a whole play of two hours or more, but distilled into two minutes! They will be super-focused. Everything needs to be condensed into an intense, rich, two minutes. If you have been doing the same even thing for a few lines, this could mean about a fifth of your ‘show’ has gone by without any change. Think about this.
Nobody wants to watch an entire play in which everything flatlines into one pervading mood or tone. This is why you are going to keep reading ‘Change is good!’ Keep the panel absorbed. Keep yourself interested. To bring the world of the play and its history onto the stage with your character, ask yourself these things:
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Who are you? |
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Where have you just come from or been? |
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What happened to bring you here? |
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What do you want? And how badly do you want it? |
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Who are you talking to? |
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Why are you talking to them? And what makes you start talking? |
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What are you afraid of? |
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How are all these things affecting your behaviour? |
Work with these questions often. They will be of continuous use in supplying context.
Guess what? Change is good Change brings refreshment as you progress. Change will keep the audience immersed and interested. Don’t be doing the same thing for more than a line or so. Your audience thrives on being taken to different places aurally (in terms of the patterns and sounds they are experiencing) and with regard to mood, pace and attack. These should all be subject to exciting and dynamic change, as the character’s journey unfolds within the piece and as their needs and wants change within that journey.
If you were listening to a two-minute song or ballad, you wouldn’t want to hear the same four notes repeated from start to finish. You’d get bored after ten seconds, then irritated; then you’d switch it off.
Don’t be inevitable. If you have been going for it, then back off for a couple of seconds. If you are being low-key for a while, it gets exciting when you start to turn the gas up, then down again. Then maybe put the grill on, slap a slice of organic wholemeal under it, light the kettle, let it simmer, then cool, then boil, then – er, make tea.
Try the opposite, try many ways Explore the complete opposite of what the obvious or predominant mood and tone of the piece first appears to be. More often than not, this has surprising results. The ‘opposite’ can give light and air to a tragic or ‘down’ speech without losing meaning or punch. All too often, young actors tend to blanket their monologue with one overall mood. For a two-minute audition monologue, this is a mistake and will lead to unexciting, predictable work. If you go to the nub of things immediately, there is nowhere for you and nowhere for your panel to go. Game over.
Instead, why not provide a journey throughout the piece, for us and for you? If you have experimented along the path to your performance, there will be lots of colour and change going on. Avoid the obvious! At least for as long as you can.
Even experienced actors can fall into the trap of draping a speech with a one-mood mantle. You can prevent this by invoking improbability; right or wrong, good or bad. This will eventually nourish your final work. Delving into the opposite further diverts you from feeling the need to get it right or to be perfect while you work.
Look for the positive – even when the speech ‘reads’ heavy Be open to playing scenes as positively as you can, even if this seems contradictory to the text. Just try it! Also use hope in the same way. Sometimes playing hope or being upbeat in a tragic, serious, maybe tense situation works really well. It might inject an upbeat vibe into the onlooker. Despair can get tedious, especially if hordes of other applicants have decided to deliver despair on the day that you audition.
A monologue is a duologue waiting to happen Quite often, auditionees tend to make their own character the only focus of the monologue. Get used to including the other person in your thinking and ideas from these early stages. They – the other person – should be constantly involved. See the other person in your imagination. Place them there in front of you. Ascertain what effect you are having, or failing to have, on them. See a face, don’t just see space.
Tiny (almost invisible) interactions and exchanges happen rapidly between us when we communicate. They take place as we think and as we speak. ‘Other people’ place constraints on us.
During certain scenarios in life, we become very angry, but we cannot afford to give full vent to that feeling, perhaps because the situation we are in will not allow it or we would not benefit from being angry. Perhaps because the person we are talking to would leave when we need them to stay.
We may be afraid, but if we show it, the other person would sense this and take advantage. We might be very upset, but if the other person sees this, she could feel sorry for us when we want her to experience something else. If we were to break down and cry, we would not be able to speak properly and so render the other person unable to understand us. Worse still, we might break down completely, and so never get the point across.
It is about what your character wants to achieve with the other person, not what you want to do with them emotionally. Besides, it is much more interesting to watch somebody trying not to be sad, or in love.
It is usually much more important that they understand you. Not that they see how you are feeling. Being clear and direct is way more effective than just being emotional.
Questions to ask in order to bring the other person into the scene:
There are plenty more questions that you can think up and employ to ‘make it all about the other person’.
Make it your duty to tell the story As an actor, your primary task is to tell the story. Look to your character and what they say, not to the actor and emotion. You are only the actor; the actor is only the speaker. So tell the story clearly. Tell it with connection and engagement. Tell it with credibility. The job of the actor is to serve the writer and the words. Your duty is to the words and not to become caught up in displays of over-faced and unfocused emotion.
You are the prism and the mouthpiece through which the words will come. Engage the audience with the narrative rather than frolicking about on the stage. Get the story right and there will be very little need to ‘act’.
Don’t use tricks Acting is a con, a trick to get us to believe you. But you will not get anyone to believe you by using false emotion, strange voices, poses and odd speech patterns. The only weapons you have are you, the words and the truth – maybe courage and taste, and a few more… But more of that later.
Early thinking points:
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Work on your speech as you work on the play. Get to know the words vocally and physically. |
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Just get the words out. |
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Think of the monologue as a two-minute play. So bring the whole of the play onto the stage. |
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Change brings refreshment to you and your audience. |
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Look for the opposite. Try the speech many ways. |
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Make some positives in your delivery. |
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A monologue is a duologue waiting to happen. Make it about the other person. See a face not space. |
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Ask questions about the other person. |
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Make it your duty to tell the story. |
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No tricks. |
Note
Get on with it, get through it… But take your time!!
Put the brakes on… But keep the gas pedal down too.
Come off it, but stay in it. It is not about you. But then, be you, be true…
There are some apparently contradictory things coming up. You might read ‘Let the words affect you, don’t try to affect them.’ Then you’ll maybe see ‘but now (for the point of the exercise) try the whole thing really angry, just to see what that’s like’.
‘You have to ask questions about the character to understand the character.’ Sammi
Look at the book, work on the words! (See the next section: ‘Tackling Your Speech’.)
Read the play There are no short cuts at this point, though plenty of people try to take them. Short cuts are a mistake – you’ll get lost.
There will be no short cuts on offer during your training and probably not in your career. If at any point in your audition the panel should think you have not read the play, you will probably be discounted. Naturally, feel free to use study aids and the Internet to augment your efforts at this point, but only do this in conjunction with a proper study of the text as a whole.
Understand the story, the characters and, therefore, the context of your extract. Only then can you even begin to understand what your characters are saying and why. Also, the world and history of the character are then at your fingertips. Definitely speak your extract out loud as soon as possible and attack it with some of the suggestions coming up soon in ‘Tackling Your Speech’. But bear in mind that true meaning and depth will only result from many facets of your work and research coming together in rehearsal.
Mining for facts and info Understanding a play, the people in it and what they do and say, is a matter of mining the text for facts. When there are no conclusive facts, then you need to dig for clues. If these are thin on the ground, then pan for hints. When the hints dry up, you will come to the point where you need to use the raw, naked power of your imagination to plug the holes that cannot be filled in any other way, in the constant search for flesh and bones for your character.
This work is paramount. Drama schools like people who can use their imagination to create the ‘world’ of the play and the ‘world’ of the character. There’s a price on excellence, so:
Get a notebook! Make notes Many actors have at least one full book for each character they have played. Keeping a notebook will bring everything into perspective. The act of making notes gets the actor to think about things and allows ideas to form and gel. Here are some topics to make notes about:
Known knowns Find out what is given in the writing, i.e. that which is solid. What we know for sure. To steal a phrase: ‘known knowns’. Write them down; think about them. This will inform you about your character and the story.
Known unknowns These are the things that are not specifically or directly referred to in the play. These are unknowns and you want to ‘know’ about them, because you have to do something about them. They are things that you might have to suppose and imagine into being, in order to make your characters live.
Ask questions – supply answers So, for example, to take a play everyone knows, if you were an actor researching the part of John Proctor or Abigail Williams in The Crucible, you’d get two pages. Stick down what you know on one and ask about what you don’t know on the other.
John Proctor
Knowns:
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He’s a hard-working farmer in his mid-thirties. |
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He has strong views. |
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He’s not easily influenced. |
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He’s married to Elizabeth. |
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He is respected and even feared by the other townsfolk. |
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He has an affair with Abigail – a servant. |
Unknowns (things to find out):
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Why did he cheat on his wife? |
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Why is he attracted to Abigail? |
Abigail Williams
Knowns:
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She is seventeen and a convincing liar. |
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She worked as a servant on Proctor’s farm. |
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She got sacked by Proctor. |
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She witnessed her parents’ murder. |
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She’s the niece of the church leader. |
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She uses her sexuality for her own gain. |
Unknowns (things to find out):
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Why is she so precocious and manipulative? |
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What effect might the violent murders have had on her? |
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Why is she so determined and headstrong? |
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Why does she need an older man’s love? |
When is this? Where is this? You should research the social and historical context of the work, too. What is the writer talking about? How can you, as the actor, channel the words and intentions of the writer? This is all essential spadework on the foundations of character and performance. Approach your extract as if you were preparing to do the whole play.
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Salem, Mass. USA 1660s Witch Trails. |
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Written in 1952 to mirror anti-Communist fervour and McCarthy’s ‘Witch Hunts’. |
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Politics. Paranoia. Betrayal. Lies. |
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Based on real events. How people react under pressure. Moral fortitude. Flawed characters. |
Who does what and why? Find facts about what happens and who does what. These will all build a complete picture, not just of your character and the speech.
Who says what – and try to think why
Abigail (or your character)
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‘A wild girl may say wild things.’ |
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‘I never sold myself. I’m a good girl. A proper girl.’ |
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‘I have been hurt…’ |
Open your notebook so that there are two facing pages. On the first, write down everything your character says about herself.
Other Characters
On the other side, write things that other people say about your character.
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‘She frightened all my strength away.’ |
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‘Why, she’s mad.’ ‘I wish she was.’ |
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‘You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you are twenty.’ |
On these pages, also sketch together the ‘whys’. Thinking about why things are said will help you to find what people want. Fundamentally, it boils down to what your character wants at any given moment. If you start getting into why things are said, you will at least start to avoid wasting time on how they are said.
Population
Study the people of the play.
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What do they look like? |
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Smell like? |
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How do they dress? |
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How do they move? |
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How does your character feel when speaking the names of others in the play? |
The ‘world’ By which I mean the physical world of the character in the scene or situation, as well as the world of their head: what they want, how they feel, what they are like as human beings. Working out the physical world as well as the mental world of the character will add detail to the whole picture. You have facts and clues there in the writing. Bring your imagination to bear on what things look like, sound like, feel like and even smell like. Where is the scene or moment set? Conjure up rooms or exteriors. Create a really strong mental picture of these. Go into detail. Make it up if there are no clues. Envisage floors walls, carpets, curtains, period/style and objects that may be there.
As you start your audition, you will instantly be able to create this ‘place’ for the panel and for you. You will not just be in some room, in front of people… doing an audition speech. You’ll be connecting to the particular place, time and situation of the character.
The panel will appreciate the opportunity to gauge your creativity and your imagination. So:
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Where are you? |
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Is it night or day? |
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What’s the room like? |
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Is it summer or winter? |
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Are you hot or cold, hungry, etc.? |
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What are you wearing? |
Nearly all drama schools plainly state that they want to see you create and inhabit the world of the character you are playing. For me, this means the mental world and state, together with the physical surroundings. If you can imagine these into being, you will lift the energy, colour and sparkle of the piece, because you have somewhere to inhabit. This is also a key element in making a good start for your audition speech: connection and focus.
Why? The urge is often to ask ‘how do I say this?’ Never make it about that. Use your understanding, research and imagination to work out why the character speaks. The rest then starts to get real. If you do your groundwork on the page and use your notebook, you will be setting up reasons, questions and answers that will enable you to deal with the whys, the whos and the whats. In life, we speak because we have to.
What? Work out what the character wants, both in the sentence they are speaking, and generally through the play.
Who? If the words are directed at another character, then it has to be all about the other person, not about your character. Again:
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Who is your character talking to, and why? |
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What does the other person look like? What are their physical features? |
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What does your character want? How badly? |
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What’s the price/risk/cost of saying what you say? |
Bookwork summary:
‘Over the process I realised that acting is not about being clever or being this extravagant character. It is about seeking a real character by looking into the script and finding needs, finding wants, finding why they say and do what they do. I went in thinking acting is easy, great fun, you get to tit about on stage and be loud, and swearing was another attraction. It is still fun and I love it, but you have to do serious work as well.’ Ben
It is disastrous to creativity if you ‘set’ the piece as you learn the lines! Form a relationship with the words – as words. Lots of people just can’t help themselves. They immediately visualise the character, the piece and what it is all going to be, feel and sound like in their heads. Then they learn sounds and predetermined patterns that are very hard to break later on. Because, as the lines were learned, a bland tune of very few notes was composed. Everything that was ‘stuck down’ early in the work becomes tired and leaden.
Most people find it very difficult to shed the sounds they have laid down and the ideas that were plastered onto the speech, in their heads, when learning the lines. It will be hard to find spontaneity in your delivery if this is the case, because you will have become stuck in one worn-out way of speaking the text. They will also find it extremely tricky to change when directed to do so at an audition.
Encounter the words in ways that are wild and freeee! The work can then be open and in the moment. This will give you a passport to ‘go anywhere but come from somewhere’! The ‘somewhere’ comes from exploring possibility, not from setting premeditated immutability into the speech at the onset.
Learn the lines by speaking the words, but not in an immutable pattern.
Understand the meaning Whether the words you are working on are modern or classical, you should absolutely understand everything written. Use a dictionary.
Find the rhythms Once more, don’t impose your rhythm or too much drama too early, if at all. Instead, find out the writer’s rhythm. Modern or classical, the punctuation in either genre will give up the rhythms to you if you explore and exploit it. So:
Find the punctuation The next bit of groundwork will be in determining the length of each thought or idea, each change of subject, so that you can mark out where the thought ends or changes. The punctuation will help to signpost and delineate thoughts, how they are changing, and show the speech patterns of the character. In a sec we’ll look at how to work on punctuation, but for the moment just have a good look at the punctuation in the extract below. Take a much closer look than you usually do when reading text.
See how short the utterances are in this piece:
JOHNNY. It’s all right, boy. Don’t be scared. Here. Sit down. On that.
MARKY sits on the drum.
There. Now, there’s something I’m gonna tell you. Your mum won’t like this, so listen hard, because I’m only tellin’ it once.
He lights a cigarette. Wipes his nose, shows MARKY.
See that. That’s blood. And not just any blood. That’s Byron blood. Now listen to me, now, and listen good, because this is important. (Beat.) I used to jump. Across Wiltshire, south-west. All over. One day here, ten thousand people showed up. In Stoyer’s Field, half a mile from here, they lined up thirteen double-decker buses. Fair Day like today. But wet.
Raining. The ground was soft as butter. Stoyer’s Field slopes left to right and it’s rutted. On the day, the wind was blowing straight down the field. (Pause.) And I raced down the ramp.
And I took off. I hit that last bus so hard my boots came off.
Jez Butterworth, Jerusalem
Punctuation, especially in modern text, is often overlooked. The tendency is for it to become invisible, in much the same way as stage directions do to an impatient or careless eye. But there is sooo much to be gleaned from studying the marks left by the writer in order to meter, separate and highlight the flow of their (and the chararcter’s) words.
Ellipses, or three dots (…) will often signify a disappearing thought or one tha… (…t has trailed off – like that one). Maybe something has been left out.
JOHNNY. What’s your point, caller?
WESLEY. Nothing. What? Nothing. Just…
But why? Was the thought superseded by another, more important one? Was it too dangerous or too awful to iterate? You need to know or imagine what’s missing.
The majority of students at audition do not pay enough (or any) attention to what their character was about to say or failed to say. Therefore, what they do actually say is not rooted. The student just falls into a relentless flow of sounds that are not truly connected to the character’s thought patterns.
Punctuation can also help you to see how the character is speaking. Study the marks in your texts and see what is there for you, and for your character. They are gifted by the writer.
Commas will separate thoughts or bracket parts of it:
‘The King, standing in front of the scaffold, said his prayers.’
Dashes may often indicate broken thought:
‘I need a good, sharp, carving knife – not the serrated one, that’s for bread – to carve this joint.’
New thoughts usually come after big punctuation (.!?) and will need a change of attack, fresh impetus or new energy. Now you have really looked at and thought about the punctuation, here are further ways to explore these marks.
Exercises to make a physical and an intellectual relationship with the words and punctuation in the text
Walk through the speech below (and then your own speeches), but do something physical with every punctuation point.
In the extract below, my marks are as follows:
/ = a change or separation within the thought: in other words, or ; or :
// = end of a thought. Notice the end of a thought comes with major punctuation ! or . or ?
Your moves for the punctuation Let’s say for separations (/), you take a step, back, forward or to the side (any is okay). Concentrate hard and only take the step after the punctuation and before saying the next word. Get used to being precise!
For the end of a thought (//), you turn left or right, or turn round, even. So:
O, / [Step for separation] yet, / [Step] for God’s sake, /
[Step] go not to these wars! // [Turn, because it is the end of the thought]
The time was, / [Step] father, / [Step] that you broke your word, / [Step]
When you were more endeared to it than now; / [Step] When your own Percy, / [Step] when my heart’s dear Harry, / [Step]
Threw many a northward look to see his father Bring up his powers; / [Step] but he did long in vain. // [Turn]
Who then persuaded you to stay at home? // [Turn]
…And so on.
Apply this to your own speeches when you get them or if you have them already.
When you are looking at the speech on paper, you can also physicalise your response to words, groups of words and to the punctuation marks. This is also a great way to start your line-learning.
Exercises to find and physicalise the words in the text
Characters In your speech, every time you see mention of characters – these might be people, animals, gods, spirits, etc. – make a physical move, like a step or a click on that word. Really ‘place’ that word vocally, as you make the move or gesture.
Both actions should happen simultaneously. Don’t drop the other words while you are at it.
Places Do the same for places. Such as Heaven, world, globe, grave, etc. Use a gesture or physicalisation different from the one you employed for characters.
Verbs and nouns You can also physicalise with verbs and with nouns.
The physical exercises below will acquaint you with the text without the need to ‘act’ or interpret too soon. At the same time you will be covering basic, but essential, groundwork on your speeches. All this will work for modern lines, too.
For now let’s just deal with actions for the characters and the places.
Actions for the characters in the text When you come to a person or character in the text, take a small jump:
O, yet, for God’s [Jump for person] sake, go not to these wars!
The time was, father, [Jump] that you [Jump] broke your word,
And so on…
Actions for places in the text For every word that invokes a place, click your fingers:
There [Click] were two honours lost, yours and your son’s.
For yours, the God of Heaven [Click] brighten it!
For his, it stuck upon him as the sun [Click]
In the grey vault [Click] of Heaven; [Click] and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England [Click] move…
When you get the hang of these tasks, transfer them to your own speeches.
When you have explored your own texts, move on to…
Put them all together! After having a go at each (punctuation, places and people) separately, put them all together. It may be a bit of a mind-meltdown, but persevere. Apply these to your own speeches as often as you can at the early stages of work on each text. This will sharpen your focus and concentration skills; it will get you multitasking and you will be forming bonds between you and the text. I suspect some may be looking at this thinking ‘Tedious!’ But it isn’t, and it’s well worth the effort.
O,* / [Step] yet, / [Step] for God’s [Jump] sake, / [Step] go not to these wars! // [Turn]
The time was, / [Step] father, / [Step, jump] that you [Jump] broke your word, / [Step]
When you [Jump] were more endeared to it than now; / [Step]
When your own Percy, / [Jump] when my heart’s dear Harry, / [Step, jump]
Threw many a northward [Click] look to see his father [Jump]
Bring up his [Jump] powers; / [Step] but he [Jump] did long in vain. // [Turn]
Who [Jump] then persuaded you [Jump] to stay at home? // [Click, turn]
*Note: some texts have! here, others nothing. Things can vary depending on the text you are using.
Carry on for the rest. Notice how much the speech is about a comparison between ‘you/yours’ and ‘him/his’.
There were two honours lost, / yours and your son’s. //
For yours, / the God of heaven brighten it! //
For his, / it stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of Heaven; / and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts: / he was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves: /
He had no legs, that practised not his gait; /
…And so on. There’s more punctuation info, specifically for classical writing, in ‘Dealing with Shakespeare’.
Go back to the Jerusalem extract and see if you can get all this working with that. Or have a go on your own modern speech. You may have to bend things slightly.
Speech marks:
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Don’t ‘set’ the performance as you learn the lines. |
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Don’t just make noise – connect. |
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Understand the meaning. |
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Find the thoughts. |
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Find the rhythms. |
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Make your exploration physical. |
The following tip could be one of the single, most crucially important factors about your attitude towards performing. It is, in my opinion, the foundation of all great and truthful work.
A great audition, and great performances in general, are not necessarily about your acting or your ability to ‘do’ emotion, or indeed, anything like that. It’s about how you convey the words that the writer penned. You must deal in truth, connection and conviction. It is also about your process and journey with the words and what you do to form a relationship with and then connect to…The Words.
It is not about how you can affect them, but about how they affect you as they come out.
They are the starting point and the end product of everything you have been doing. You have to explore them, use them, feel them and love them. Don’t waste them! That would be royally dumb. Work with the words! Give them meaning, colour and texture. Shakespeare used all his words as missiles of meaning for the audience. Words are tools for the actors. Arrows of action. Bullets of bravado… er, I’ll stop there.
Be intellectually connected as well as physically (vocally) connected. Don’t drop your mental attention to each word. Don’t drop vocal attention. Attend to everything, always. This demands mental and physical stamina. There is a tendency only to see important, dramatic or sexy words – auditionees seem to go for those – but then to forget about the others. All the words are all-important.
If you attend to everything, you will connect to everything – and so will your auditioners! But building the stamina to stay on duty throughout the speech takes time, patience and exercise.
Verbalise the words. You can’t ‘vocalise’ emotion If you can get to grips with this idea very quickly, you’ll establish an early base for truth in your work. Naturally, you will want to ‘feel’ like you are acting (especially at these early stages) and this urge to ‘do’ something to the words will lead you to make ‘noise’ rather than articulate ‘truth’. Never ‘act’ the words or try to vocalise emotion. It is not wise to demonstrate emotion noises (such as a tearful voice in your throat or an upset whine, or a scared whimpery sound) in your voice, by vocalising them. Don’t make ‘noise’, make sense! What I mean is that you cannot make it sound right. It has to feel right. The imposition of emotion constricts the work and then it becomes forced and false. To quote a friend: ‘Emotion is boring. It is the argument that is interesting.’ Vocalising emotion also indicates that you are not being you, not being true and not using your natural voice. Emotion is already there, in the words.
Arrive at the last word in the line, don’t depart from it Use it as a landing pad for your intentions and vocal energy. Don’t use the last word in the sentence as a launch pad for the next one.
Speak well! By this I mean that you can’t mutter, mumble, slur or speak like you do with your mates. So, this means attending to consonants and staying connected to word endings, righ’? Sorry, I meant ‘Right?’ So many peopw don’t observe ‘ll’ and ‘l’ sounds, others faiw (fail) to pronounce consonants like ‘p’s and ‘t’s. The result is that words lose energy and vibrancy. Even people with impediments in their speech can master these things.
If you’re not speaking well in your audition, you lose clarity and ‘zing’. You’ll become dull and the panel will start to shut down. You should always be ‘on voice’, with vocal charge and the appropriate pressure and power within your speech, even when talking quietly or in a low key.
The major, vital, crucial thing to embrace here is the fact that you need to be able to speak well, in order to act well. That is to say, speak properly. Say ‘string’, not ‘shtring’. Forgive me for stating the blatant but… Theatre is, first and foremost, a verbal communication. Auditions most certainly are. So you’ll need to be able (as opposed to ‘abuww’) to be heard, understood and not sound dull (as opposed to ‘duww’). In France, the audience is often referred to as ‘les auditeurs’ – the listeners. Your ability to speak well is crucial, and the panel will be listening for this.
You don’t need to go completely overboard, but you do need to attend to fings and fink about being forough. Lots of peopuw feeuw uncomftubuw wiv making the leap from shtreet to shtage for some reason. Don’t be one of them! The next two sections will help to get you speaking well. Of course, I am not suggesting that you personally speak in the way I’ve just indicated – but many do.
Here it comes again Speak the words! Don’t sing them. Say each word clearly, with proper diction and meaning. Do not impose your ‘acting rhythms’ on them either. (This is merely a place to hide.) If you don’t connect to meaning and merely make ‘acted’ vocal patterns, then you are just making drama noises. So connect!
Love the consonant Consonants tell you where a word starts, what’s in the middle and how it ends. Love and use the much-overlooked consonant. I’m probably preaching to the converted, but many people never even think about engaging with accurate diction. A lot of would-be actors don’t seem to want to speak well, because it feels odd. Use your own voice, but speak the words with more care and attention than you would in everyday life. Words need to be connected, injected and not disrespected. They have to be individually energised, enjoyed and engaged. If you speak Shakespearean lines well, then half the work is done for you.
I don’t mean that you should madly over-pronounce everything, but, for the exercise, have a go at really using the consonants here:
O, yet, for God’s sake, go not to these wars!
The time was, father, that you broke your word,
When you were more endeared to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heart’s dear Harry,
Threw many a northward look to see his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
Using consonants in your everyday communication will help give you clarity, power and authority on the stage.
Check out the sounds Upon inspection of words and their meaning, their rhythms, sounds and associations, a whole world seems to open up. Just connecting with the consonants will often unlock other doors for you. They will provide more clues, especially with classical texts, as to how the character was written and even highlight the way in which they are speaking at any given moment. Looking at that opening line again, we see that Lady Percy is talking with strength and persuasion. The ‘T’s, the ‘S’s and the ‘O’s are quite striking and they jump from the steady impact of all those single syllable words. Then there are the ways the sounds are used:
O, yet, for God’s sake, go not to these wars!
All these are deliberate.
In fact, it is wise to assume that all writers have deliberately constructed the rhythms, sounds, associations and cadences in what they write. They will have worked and considered every word. Therefore you must do the same. It is no accident that Viola says in her Twelfth Night couplet:
O time! Thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie!
The play between ‘knot’, ‘not I’ and ‘untie’, is a delicious reversal of sounds that winds us, in a physical tangle of words and sounds, into the ‘tangle’ of her thoughts. It also serves to entangle us into the ever-tangling plot.
Meanwhile, back at the castle with Lady Percy. In the first line again, look at the two groups of words that end and start with the same letter:
O, yet, for God’s / sake, go not / to these wars!
If you really separate these you will get a hint as to how she is spelling her message out.
In the next bit of the speech below, what can you see, hear and feel from this if you really study and look? What are the sounds? Where do they interact or repeat? What about imagery and punning, e.g. ‘Son’ and ‘sun’?
‘There were two honours lost, yours and your son’s.
For yours, the God of heaven brighten it!
For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven; and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts: he was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves:
He had no legs that practis’d not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
The punctuation tells us that she is using quite long and complex sentences. She is trying to cram in as much as she can, to really get Northumberland, her father-in-law, to see her points and act upon them. To do what she ‘wants’.
Last words:
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Verbalise the words, don’t vocalise emotion. |
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Arrive at the last word. |
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Speak the words and connect to meaning and intention. Don’t just make noises that sound to you like you are acting. |
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Love the consonant. |
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Explore the sounds in the extract. |
‘I started out with nothing – terrible diction, mumbling, shuffling about and loads of other problems and everything was very “acty”. I had simply not a clue about letting the words work for me and also with truth.’ Alex
Positive actions to take while you are working
While you are working on your speeches, here are some things that will help to develop your performance skills and make for an interesting, balanced, tasteful, more exciting journey towards your audition, where, as a result, you’ll be different and a cut above the herd. Don’t forget, you are not just choosing a piece, learning it and perfecting it. You are now in training to advance your acting skills and intuition. And why not? You might as well improve and grow, even now, before drama-school training. Train as you go, so that you can achieve your goal.
Take out the ego And you take out the anxiousness. Try not to approach your speeches with the notion of ‘What can I do here? How can I bring emotion to the words? How can I make them sound?’ Work with the words from the base upwards and don’t listen to your ego. By eliminating your ego you will get nearer to the truth and you will find it easier to stop ‘acting’. You won’t be trying to be constantly ‘good’.
Chop it up Don’t feel you have to work A-to-Z on the whole speech, every session. This can be daunting and less effective than sometimes chopping the text in half or into thirds, or into bite-sized chunks. Chopping it up makes for lighter work and allows you to focus on specific areas without all the time feeling the pressure of having to get to the end of the speech.
Explore the unexpected Keep the audience guessing; let them be surprised and drip-fed with new things that they didn’t expect. Do this by being open to things that you didn’t expect as you rehearse. By this I mean, don’t keep doing the same safe things. Surprise yourself. Experiment. Even if you don’t finally use what you do in these instances, it is good for you, and your speech. Don’t know what’s coming next in your speech.
Drop the safety zone; get out of your comfort space Look to unsettle yourself deliberately from time to time. Disrupt what you usually do. This can be invigoratingly liberating. If you are always comfortable, then you are probably doing something wrong. If you persist in doing the same thing every time you work the piece, eventually you will wear the words out. If you stay in a space where you are intellectually, vocally and physically comfortable all the time, then:
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Your work will be anodyne. |
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You will not broaden your instincts and skills. |
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You won’t get any better. |
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You will always turn out the same work and choose the same safe, comfortable things to do. |
‘Things’ you think are good Embrace the notion of undoing the ‘things’ that you think are good in what you are doing. These are favourite spots that you get to in the speech, where you like what is happening and you kind of bask in them. These are places where you feel cosy. Invariably, these things you think are good turn out to be not so good. They are crutches and not the real deal. They will also become lifeless and automatic. They are just things you thought were good along the way. These ‘things’ may be:
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A fake sound in your voice. |
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A particular run of lines. |
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A move or posture. |
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A shouting moment. |
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A pause. |
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Crying. |
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A look. |
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A list. |
You will start to lean on them, and then they will become the only ‘things’ you do with the speech. These ‘things’ will become fake. Abandon what you are doing (if this becomes the case) and change! You will almost certainly have been playing them without spontaneity. You’ll have been flying on autopilot. You won’t have been in the moment. Consequently, you’ll never allow the moment to change and, as you know, change is good.
Actor, beware the list! These extracts are from Richard II. Richard is a king pursued by his enemies and about to be overrun and probably killed. He comes to terms with the situation. Here are some lines from the speech starting ‘No matter where…’
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs…
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke’s…
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d…
Taste grief, need friends…
Before you read on, just think about what happened when you encountered those bits above. Then maybe read them again. Maybe out loud. When there is a list in a speech, you are likely to:
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Gloss. |
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Generalise. |
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Speed up. |
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Build it. |
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Chant. |
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Sing. |
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Get into meaningless rhythms. |
Act out ‘hunting’ for the words. |
|
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Go off-duty or get sloppy and general. |
…That was my list anyway.
A list is a trap that many just can’t avoid. It’s also a prime example of how the words and thoughts must affect you as they come out, not you them. Performers get a list and see it as an opportunity for ‘acting’, or they ignore it altogether, just spewing it out.
A list is a set of thoughts or images lining up in the character’s head, not yours. You must allow the character not to know what is next in the queue, or even that there is a queue. Just let the list unfold. If you ignore the list, you will go to autopilot and cease to be specific. Then you merely churn out sounds that might ‘sound’ good, but signify nothing.
If they see the list as an acting opportunity, many people will go through a pantomime of demonstrating ‘thinking-of’ or ‘finding-the-next-word’. Or they get into an auto-rhythm of sound as they reel off the constituent parts of the list, with no connection to the images or feelings that they throw up. Let the next item in the list affect you as it arrives. Then you can react and connect, within the instant. And don’t take all day. A thought is generated at great speed.
‘Let’s talk’ (yes, let’s) ‘of graves’ (they are deep and cold and in the ground and final) ‘of worms’ (we will rot down and be eaten) ‘and epitaphs’ (death-words carved into stone).
Positive points:
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Take out the ego. |
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Chop the speech up. Work on sections. |
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Explore the unexpected. |
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Drop out of your comfort zone. Take some risks. |
Reconsider ‘things’ you think are good. |
|
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Actor, beware the list! |
The following are ideas to stop you being boring in your preparation, then later in your audition. You can employ them to be more exciting and to get some vital variance of tone and mood within your delivery.
The One-Tone Trap – don’t fall into it! We’ve been here before, but it’s well worth a revisit because the One-Tone Trap is so common and such a speech-killer. Lots of people do their thing all on one level and with no variation in:
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Tone. |
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Mood. |
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Pace. |
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Rhythm. |
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General attack. |
Two minutes, played out all in one tone and all at one pace, are two increasingly predictable and boring minutes – well before even one of which ends, the panel will the entering the ‘zzz-zone’.
It’s easy to fall into the trap if you are not wary or smart. As you prepare, ensure that there is variation in your delivery; keep the panel awake. Actually, do this to keep yourself engaged too. Avoid predictability.
Exercises To climb out of the trap, try the speech in different ways. Consider ridiculously impossible moods or character decisions. Go through the text in up to ten different ways per session. But these ‘takes’ on meaning, mood and character must be done full-on, from the first word to the last. Doing this will shake the pieces up and give you ideas. Often you will find something that, against all the odds, works. Perhaps your character laughs when they should be sad. Maybe they are positive and upbeat when the mood of the text suggests that they ought to be in a negative, angry state.
Or do the speech remorselessly in the most obvious and prominent tone. Take things to a monotone. You will quickly experience how relentless and boring it is to perform a whole speech on one level. You’ll also discover how tedious it is to listen to something all in one tone. In one mood. On the same level.
Avoid complaining No matter how tragic the situation or how dire the straits, if you indulge in acting out tragedy, anger or any other single state mercilessly and for the whole speech, the panel will get snoozy on you. Your auditioners are not that interested in your demonstration of grief, depression or sadness.
Watch the whining If the mood is sad, tragic or downbeat, then relentless pursuit of these tones will lead you to sound as if you are complaining. If you persist with the complaint it will, in the ear of the audience, become a whinge, no matter how sad the piece. The whinge then becomes a whine. All the audience hears now is an irritating, high-pitched whistling sound, because you have lost them. If you still persist, they begin to lose any sympathy they might have had left. Then they start to dislike your character (and maybe you, too) before finally switching off. Game over!
Obviate the obvious Placing the character in a state where they need to cover their emotions is a really interesting choice to play. Give the speech a whirl without showing the emotion; think about riding over or hiding the feelings from whoever you are speaking to.
If the character you’re playing gets very, very angry inside but doesn’t show it, then tactically they may stand a better chance of getting what they want. If you open fire with the character at the peak of a mood, or even a ‘want’, then there is nowhere for them, or the audience, to go. Let emotions and moods rise and bubble on the inside while your character maintains apparent, external calm – until they absolutely have to blow. Even then, think twice about blowing.
Be aware of inevitability If you have decided on a run of words, a list (see ‘Actor, beware the list!’), or swell of emotion or anger – good! But why not surprise everyone by not peaking? Divert, stop, shoot sideways, start laughing or slow down. This really keeps the onlooker engaged and on their toes, because what happens next will never be inevitable, either for you or for the panel. Often, a performance will follow an expected or imposed rhythm, flow or build. If the audience is subjected to a change in the middle of a build of something, then they get an unexpected treat. Take them where they didn’t think you’d go. Take yourself where you didn’t think you’d go.
Exercise to counter inevitability Go through your text but don’t plot where you are going. Do not ‘know’ what is coming next. Deliberately surprise yourself. The outcome may be wrong (though it can often be sooo right), but it will open your performance out and allow you to access more in-the-moment potential. As a bonus, you won’t be doing the same thing every time. Get into the moment. Be up for surprising yourself when you run a speech – but keep your clothes on…
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Don’t fall into the One-Tone Trap. |
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Avoid complaining. |
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Watch the whining. |
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Obviate the obvious. |
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Be aware of being inevitable. |
Note
I have been banging on about ‘Don’t impose stuff on the words, let the words affect you’, and now I have just been talking about doing the speech many ways and in many moods. This, of course, is for the sake of the exercise, so that you can explore possibilities within the speech and break patterns that you may have fallen in to. This will also allow you to be open to spontaneity and connect to change in your performance. I have also been talking about you and your ‘natural’ voice, and now I am saying things like ‘Speak differently from how you might normally speak,’ and ‘If it feels odd, it is probably right.’ I am about to say ‘use your voice’ again. Also, ‘Speak, don’t sing!’
There is a balance to be struck here, so you need to use your judgement. Yes, you mustn’t adulterate your voice so that it goes irritatingly high-pitched, or even too low, or underpowered. But you do have to break with your everyday speech rhythms and intonations, so that you have vocal authority, clarity and sparkle for the stage.
There are exercises in the coming pages. They are there to accompany some of the points I am making. I mention some of these in much more detail in the ‘Exercises Explained’ section.
Performance and delivery – honing your edges
The following ‘sharpeners’ are designed to hone your performance edges when you are in front of the panel, but it is vital to engage with these ideas right from the beginning of your rehearsal journey.
You want to offer a performance and an acting style that are mature, engaging, ‘watchable’ and believable, but never inevitable or predictable. What you do won’t be tainted by the basic sins in technique and taste that many others will be committing. Getting things right on the day, by working consistently on these points, will make you stand out for the right reasons. So:
Stop acting This may seem a crazy thing to say to an actor, but I have been hinting at this notion frequently because it’s an important one, but one that may take a while to get your head around. Get the basics right first – As an experiment, just say the words, tell the facts and strip away the rest. Certain schools might direct you to stop, strip it all back and just speak to them as if you mean it. Connect to the words.
Fix your focus as you start a speech In the actual audition, it is imperative that you focus before you start. The panellists usually say something like: ‘In your own time.’ And they mean it! But don’t take all day.
Nerves, keenness, or the weight of the occasion will be tilting you towards a quick start. An awful lot of people do it. But now you know better. Don’t just launch into your first piece and hope that everything will come together. It probably won’t. First, tell yourself what you want to achieve. This will be something like:
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Settle yourself, you fool. Nerves are good. |
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Make fear your friend. |
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‘I’m not trying to get into drama school – I’m just here to do my best work!’ |
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Start well, end well. |
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Monitor, don’t listen and judge. |
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Attend to every word. |
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Don’t drop off towards sentence endings. |
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Don’t wonder about the panel. |
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It is all about the work. |
Then, as you start to enter the world of the character, deal with the needs and wants of that character:
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Who am I? |
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Where am I? |
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Why am I here? |
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What do I want? How badly? |
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Where have I just been? |
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Who am I talking to? Why? |
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What do I fear? |
All the W’s. The more you get into doing this, the faster you can set it all up on the day.
Speak the words, don’t ‘sing’ them ‘Singing’ takes place when you eelongaate the syllables or dou/ouble the vowel sounds. It happens because you experience the need to be doing something phonically or rhythmically, in order to feel like you are acting. Your job is to speak the words, to ‘talk’ them with conviction. Have a listen to yourself while standing with your back resting against a wall. (See ‘The Wall’ in ‘Exercises Explained’). Don’t move your head, hands or face, just speak. If the words don’t sound normal, if they are elongated or you are ‘singing’ an odd rhythm, then something is wrong. You are possibly using your ‘acting song’ or your ‘acting voice’. This is the voice, intonation or imposed rhythm that you think you need when acting. If you detect anything fake, get rid of it. This could take a bit of doing, so don’t judge, or beat yourself up, just go back and fix it. Monitor in a helpful way.
People often use extended vowel noises because doing this ‘sounds’ more dramatic. It isn’t. You are not really speaking the words. This fault is usually more prevalent in classical work. If you suffer from irritating-vowels and extra-syllables syndrome, these could be quite hard to diagnose because you are so cosy with and entranced by them, or even hiding behind them.
Exercises to minimise singing ‘The Wall’ or ‘The Mirror’ exercises set out in ‘Exercises Explained’ will help to isolate things, leaving just you and your voice. Try the speech, or a section of it, using very clipped vowels. Keep them short and tight. Really practise this.
Or, employ a loving or patient pal to write down all the elongated words they hear. Then go again with your friend making you go back and fix, if they hear any singing. The same suffering listener could also ensure that you are not getting nasal or high-pitched – not using your voice.
Keep the flow – don’t be ‘stoppy’ This is a major problem and one I often encounter. Many people stop at the end of every sentence or line. Sometimes this is to gather thoughts but mostly, it’s to try to ‘act out’ the next bit of emotion. The result is that things are ‘bitty’, scrappy and do not flow.
Don’t be ‘stoppy’. You will slow things down and break the natural flow and vitality of the writing. Get on with it! Your speech should flow and pretty much keep going until the punctuation says: ‘Stop!?.’ If you’re not saying anything, we can’t hear anything.
Every time you stop, you drop the ball; you staunch the flow, fizzle the energy. As members of the audience, we drop with you. If you stop, there is nothing there for us to see or hear. This is especially so if you pause…without good cause.
Everything should be instant and happen on the line, or in the line. But don’t rush either. Inhabit the moment but don’t bleed it. Stay ‘in’ every word, just don’t hang around, especially at the end of a line or sentence.
Some people stop because that’s the inescapable rhythm with which they learned the speech. Some stop because they need time to gather or demonstrate the next bit of ‘acting’. At other times they stop because they are trying to summon up the mood, in front of the line. Don’t do this; make things instantaneous. Have the mood, have the tone while you speak. We, the audience, do not want to hang around with you while you dig up the emotion and all that other stuff, and then demonstrate it. The only thing we are interested in is what happens next. Keep the story moving, keep the flow, keep the energy moving and keep us moving!
Exercise to stop you being ‘stoppy’
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Fast Train yourself not to stop by going through the speech very quickly, but never ‘skim’ over any of the words. |
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…But stay in it! Also, go through the speech very slowly, so that you can get your head and vocal chords around each and every word. Then, when you do a fast run, you won’t lose or drop any of them. Get on, but by staying in it. Just because you are going quickly, it shouldn’t follow that the autopilot is flying. To avoid the autopilot, you need sharp focus. This takes effort, energy and perseverance. You should always be getting on with it but, paradoxically, taking your time. Gas pedal down but brakes on! |
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Beckon Have someone beckon you on with the speech using hand movements. They must not let you stop or rest. They can even vocally impel you with something like: ‘Come on, come on,’ while you’re doing it. If your habit is extremely bad, they could prod you. You are looking at the gaps, not the speed at which the words emerge. The words should always be owned and inhabited. |
If you are on your own, you could use an arm or hand movement to beckon yourself on. Keep impelling yourself. Your connection to the piece and to each word may suffer at this pace, but stay plugged-in, at least in vocal energy and intention. You might find that you forget the words at this point because you are out of the comfort zone and rhythms that you are used to. |
There’s more along these lines in ‘Exercises Explained’.
Stand well Just stand straight with feet parallel and shoulder-width apart-ish. Be relaxed but not floppy. People tend to adopt ‘stances’ for their acting positions. This seems to make them feel good or, apparently, sum up the integral essence of the character. If these stances actually, truly represent the physicality of the character, then use them. But don’t do random or unconnected generalised stances.
If you act with one foot slightly out in front and/or to the side, it means you are posturing, unless you have made a conscious and fully thought-out decision that this is how your character would stand. If you do the foot-out thing because it feels good, because this is how we stand when we are acting, then you got it wrong. You are hiding behind this pose. You don’t want to deliver your audition adopting a false or silly stance that will distract the panel.
Get your head straight Literally. Tilting your head unnaturally is another ‘stance’ that might feel like a good thing to do but is a meaningless crutch – one that will not, finally, support quality, truthful work. Chuck it. It’s a ‘shield’ that you get behind, an affectation, and not part of the character that you are trying to create – unless they have a neck injury. This is a dead giveaway. The panel will be wondering about that unnatural head-tilt and not focusing on you.
Chin acting Chin acting weakens your posture and strains your voice quality, neither of which is seemly or desirable. Chin-people lean forward and, bizarrely, as the chin juts forward they start to follow it. This results in a surreal forward-lean and, in extreme cases, a bending at the waist. In common with standing weirdly and head-tilting, this is clutter. You don’t need it and the panel won’t want it.
Chin acting is the mark of someone who doesn’t trust himself and so anxiety forces him to compensate by working too hard on the wrong things. Use all this energy internally. Take a look around. When do you see people bending towards each other and jousting with their chins in conversation?
Contra-chinning exercises Use ‘The Mirror’ exercise and ‘The Wall’ to identify and eliminate this dependency. Gently place the back of your head and shoulders against the wall, and you will have no need to do anything in terms of posture and movement, so that you can just ‘be’ with words and meaning, with your head straight and your chin at its natural resting place. If your chin starts to jut, level it!
Burn it off! For this exercise, go through the entire speech exaggerating your chinning, or whichever tics, as wildly as you can. Get rid of them in one huge orgy of excess. But do it big, from the start to the end of the whole speech.
More about the other person Many schools are really into you ‘seeing the other person’. Really get to know these other people. Know what they look like, so that visualising them is second nature by the time you get into the audition room.
Know, too, where they are in the room. Really make sure you ‘set’ or ‘place’ them very specifically. Remember to see a face not space when you do your speeches. Above all, know what your character wants of the other(s). What is that urge to communicate with someone else, and why does the urge arise?
Exercise to materialise the other people Once again, use a friend, preferably one that you have not worn out and who still likes you, to work against/with. This should help you to get a better sense of including another person.
Firstly, just do the speech to them as if they were the actual character. Later, ask your friend to try to ignore you and then to move away from you, so that you really have to work hard to maintain their attention and make them listen to you. Your character’s will to speak must be greater than your mate’s will to escape.
Huffing Huffing is a small, breathy escape of sound that occurs just before the ‘huffer’ starts to speak. It can often be witnessed in TV soaps. Huffing emanates from the desperation to prove to the audience that your character is feeling something by demonstrating this mood in a pre-emptive ‘huff’ of breath. This isn’t good, and it also slows things down. Actors also huff to buy time enough to gather what they think the feeling/emotion is. In truth, we rarely huff in everyday life.
As I have previously proposed, moods, emotions or feelings are generated instantaneously. Your connection, therefore, needs to be instant and never demonstrated, only felt or lived-in: never huffed out. Ask a couple of people the name of their boyfriend, girlfriend or pet. As they say the name, they will experience, and you will see on their faces, an instant flood of feelings, images, memories – all very micro, very subtle, but really ‘seeable’. And these will form as they speak. The feelings and images will also be intense and could take several minutes to describe, if you were to ask them to do so. Yet the reactions were instantaneous, free to come and go, not demonstrated and certainly not huffed.
We think at the speed of electricity. Thoughts, visions and feelings come that fast. When we turn a light on, it comes on as we click the switch… unless it is a neon bulb… or one of those green, lowwattage ones. Don’t be low-wattage and green in your audition.
Wobbling and drifting Really work on keeping still. If you are prone to shifting and shuffling, kill the habit now. It makes the people watching feel seasick.
There is no better way to distract a panelist than by needlessly drifting around or wobbling in the space. It irritates people and also indicates that your concentration is not complete and that this disconnection is manifesting itself in random body movements. Be still, but not locked.
Even the tiniest unintentional movement, and I mean tiny, will tell the panel that you are fidgeting and unfocused. Any movements should be part of what’s happening in your piece and not in your subconscious. I’m not saying you should deliver your offering rigor mortis-style: clearly, considered and fitting movement is entirely welcome.
Earth Exercise ‘Ground’ or earth yourself by simply bouncing your heels up and down a few times, making sure you feel the contact with the ground through your whole foot. If you haven’t got your wobbling and drifting taped down by the time of your audition, do the bounce in the room as you are fixing your focus.
Invite someone to watch and count your wobbles. Observe someone else who is similarly afflicted in their acting and see how it detracts from what they are doing.
Leaking If you have absent-minded shuffles or wobbles, flicks, tics, eyebrows, or small or even big hand movements as you are speaking – or anything at all that happens unconsciously – then your anxieties are getting the better of you and leaking out in the form of semi-conscious movement. This also indicates that there’s a part of you that is not paying total attention. Some people refer to this as ‘non-verbal leakage’. If others can see your anxiety, they will feel anxious with you. If you don’t show it, they won’t know it!
Exercise to make you leak-proof – Burn it off Should you feel the urge for an absent-minded leak, then go for it big-time. You must consciously do these semi-conscious moves to the utmost and for the entirety of the speech. Exhaust them and yourself while you are at it. Purge them once and for all. Release yourself from their telltale presence. You may also get to see how daft and unconnected they are.
Exploit ‘The Wall’ to steady and still your mind and body. Do ‘The Mirror’ to spot the smaller facial leaks such as eyebrow-jerks or face-pulling. As you concentrate on just a really hot, precise vocal utterance, you might start to feel a slight impetus to tic. If you do, SQUASH IT! Better still, recycle the energy of ticcing into internal focus and connection.
Eye lines If the character you are speaking to is sitting or lying down, ensure that your eye line is not tilted down too much. Otherwise the panel won’t have contact with you. I have seen many people talking to the seat of a chair instead of (above the backrest) where the other person’s head would be, thereby rendering the other person only a few inches high. Worse, they are emoting into someone’s groin. More importantly, they are alienating the panel, due to the fact that there will only be partial facial contact with the actor.
The side-on profile prolonged is not so good either. So don’t put your ‘other person’ too side-on. If you are having a bit of a kneel in your piece, I would say it’s a good plan to try and stand again as-soon-as.
End well Please don’t break away as soon as the speech is done. Absolutely don’t cut off and then look to the panel for approval. (Yes, really, it happens a lot.) Stay in the moment for a couple of seconds at the end of your efforts. Staying ‘in it’ at the end also proves and reinforces that you were connected and focused in da fursht place.
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Stop ‘acting’. |
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Start well – fix your focus. |
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Speak, don’t sing. |
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Keep the flow. |
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Stand well. |
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Get your head straight. |
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Eradicate ‘chin acting’ and don’t huff, wobble or leak movement. |
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It’s all about the other person. |
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Get a good eyeline. |
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End well. |
Performance and delivery no-nos
Coming up are some things to avoid.
Don’t do spin-starts There is a notion that starting with your back to the audience, pumping up huge amounts of energy and then suddenly spinning round to start, will make things more dramatic. This only has the effect of making people jump. All of which bumps them out of the deal. As a result, they spend maybe a second and a half recovering, as opposed to being drawn into your show. Begin with your back to the panel if you wish, but bring the panel with you into your character’s world. Invite, entice. That way, everyone is ready for your best work.
But… don’t start by facing full-on-front, either. Be physically slightly away from, or to the side of, where you actually want to begin. Gather your focus there.
So do your prep (what you want, what the character wants, etc.) slightly side-on. Have a thought or reaction to something then maybe look up; take a pace back, forward or to the side, then start talking. If there is another character who has just been speaking, ‘hear’ the last words. Let these words entice or provoke your character into speaking. Maybe have a couple of thoughts or a change of mind, before speaking. We usually speak because we are compelled to. We feel the need to say what we are thinking.
Don’t ‘conduct’ yourself Self-conducting is a habit or shield related to bobbling, shifting, chinning, etc. Conductors like to augment their speech by adding extraneous business. The hope is that doing this will further convince us of what the character is doing, saying or feeling. Conducting can also be an unconscious leakage of movement.
Some conducting can be just little, weeny hand or finger movements. But we, the audience, will still see and experience them. Particularly enthusiastic conductors can be semaphore-like in their spasms. I saw a lead guy do this to such an extent that his hands were bouncing up and down in front of him, and in the faces of whoever he was on stage with, for the entirety of the play! It made me anxious.
If you conduct:
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Your speaking and rhythms will follow the conducting. |
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You will be unnatural, anxiety-ridden. |
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You will not be connected. |
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We will watch the movement, not you. |
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Everything will be the same. |
But… don’t impede any movement that is natural and apt. Meet the conductor with stillness. Be calm with your body and, if you can, be motionless with your mind. Experience the words, the intentions and the meaning. No rush, no panic, no flailing.
Exercises to combat the conductor Sit on your hands and do the speech, or find a way of disabling the particular movement you are prone to.
Or, burn it off! Conduct like crazy, with huge movements, and augment these with huge acting for the entire speech, doing it as big as you can. Knock yourself out! Exhaust the conductor. You’ll also get an idea of how dappy it looks to be doing small or large repetitive movements. Quite often, the excess of a burn-it-off exercise can release and free some interesting performance energies, too. Don’t forget to rein it all back in, though.
Don’t fade away at the end of your sentences! This will make you good to hear and that’s an advantage. If you master this simple technical issue, your thoughts onstage, your words and your sentences, will all be empowered, interesting and quite close to thrilling. People will want to watch you and listen to you. Even if you think you sound alien or odd, get to the ends of your sentences without fading away.
You have read this in several guises now, but it is such an issue. Nearly everyone I work with reveals, initially, a fade in vocal energy and mental focus towards the ends of their sentences. People tend do this in everyday speech, but also on stage and at audition. It’s a disaster, but tons of people do it all the time. Here’s the thing: your sentences will lack oomph towards the end. They will become dull.
Having said all this, don’t be a member of the upward-inflection crew?? The ones who sound like characters from Aussie soaps?? Who have rising inflections?? And say everything as if it was a question?? Doing this denudes everything of all meaning.
And makes you sound really dumb??
Here’s a way of training yourself out of the ‘fading’ habit.
Exercise for faders Stand facing a wall or solid object that won’t mind being poked. Stand arm’s length away. Then begin to point your finger, slowly, so that as your finger finally touches the wall, your whole arm reaches full extension. As you initiate the arm movement, start speaking the line, so that both events are simultaneous and they travel concurrently. When you arrive vocally at the last word of the line, arrive physically at the wall with your fingertip. Press your finger slightly into the wall as you ‘press’ the last word from your lips.
The two things must happen together, in sync and in harmony. They must finish/arrive together. Do the whole speech like this and do it often if you suspect that you are a bit of a fader. It takes a measure of focus and coordination to get this right, but this is good for you.
A physical action in conjunction with your vocal delivery will train you to keep your energy and intention moving forward continuously through the line and to ‘arrive’ at its end, without dropping off or fading away.
If pressing the wall becomes tedious or sore, then extend your arm and simply point in front of you. Or you could aim for the palm of someone’s hand. Just make sure there is some muscular pressure, along with vocal pressure, as you reach the peak of your ‘point’. Maintain your force and intention so that they are always running steadily forward and never falling back.
It can be quite difficult to detect fading in ourselves and it’s hard to hear in others, until you are tuned into it. Anything that physicalises the words and gets you to speak with energy and clarity is good.
Don’t talk to the Demon Don’t listen to it, either. Be in ‘the now’ while doing your speeches. If you engage with the Demon, you will be looking back at what just went wrong. You’ll be a millisecond in the past and not in the moment.
So, a no-no round-up:
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Don’t do spin-starts. |
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Don’t conduct yourself. |
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Don’t fade away towards the ends of your sentences, thoughts or lines. |
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Don’t talk to the Demon. |
Later in rehearsals, and into the auditions
It’s time to renew your energy. As you shift into this section of your campaign, you may be starting to feel a tad anxious, nervous and perhaps weary. All of these things are natural and common. But now is the time to renew your attitude and vigour.
It’s crucial that you remind yourself that it is all good and nothing bad, and that fear is your friend. Use any worries or weariness you are experiencing to spur you on in your quest to do your best work, on the day.
If you let doubt, fear or frustration get to you now that you have come this far, it’s a waste and it won’t help. So calm it; take stock, realign and get on the case. Worry, panic and tiredness will not support your best work.
Stay strong, brave and diligent A serious campaign is a long road and often a hard trail. It is notoriously difficult to get into a drama school and if you flag at this juncture, your chances will seriously diminish. But if you are feeling fighting fit and up for it, good – hang on to this feeling and maintain your edge!
Keeping things fresh It will profit you to shake things up a little, to refresh your work and ideas from time to time. You’ll gain new impetus from this injection. It is paramount, now, that you stay fresh, crisp and fragrant. Particularly if you are sweating it out at recalls. Speeches can silently deflate very easily once you have started your run of auditions, and the chances are you won’t notice.
Some locos get the crazy idea that not engaging with the speech at this stage is a way of keeping it fresh and not wearing it out. This is a bad move. I have seen so many people return in April/May, having done a few auditions and after a refreshing holiday period, but their speeches are stale and fearful. If you don’t keep working in ways that stir it up, you will go soft and floppy and you will be on autopilot, having forgotten all your connections, just bashing out the memory of a well-worn tune.
Many will tumble into denial at this stage, because they have worked so hard and come so far that it’s scary now to discover that perhaps their performances are not peaking, nor are they as sharp in their delivery as they once were. Others dare not look at their work, in case their secret suspicions are confirmed and they have to strip everything back to basics. I completely understand this fear. It’s normal. It’s also natural that when you discover things have faded, you become fearful and feel a little low. You secretly dread that now you might not be as good at acting as you thought you were, or your speeches won’t be as good as they have been.
Well, if this is the case, putting things right is only a matter of work and willpower. And you can do it, because you only get one shot. But should you find yourself in a flat, stale sort of state and you don’t dig in and fight, you’ll seriously shrink your chances.
So own up, face it and get cracking Now is the time to strip it all back to the words. Redo the exercises. Try it many ways. The people who do this at this stage are the smart, driven, conscientious ones. They are the ones who get in. If you suspect that you are losing detail and drive, act upon your suspicion. Often, it is only your fear of not being as good as you were last time that will stop you working. If you work, you will get better. It’s that simple!
Tending to your speeches is like tending a garden: certain things grow wildly and beg a ruthless pruning. Others seek a nipping in the bud, some need a bit of ‘fertiliser’ – and we know how to make that. There are some that just have to be ripped out and composted. Don’t be an ‘unweeded garden… grown to seed’. Have nothing ‘rank and gross in [your] nature’, don’t let it ‘come to this’… Okay, enough of the Hamlet already.
One shot Whilst you now know that you don’t have to be brilliant all the time, and getting it wrong is good, as you approach each audition day get back into a ‘one shot’ state of mind. Always keep exploring, but every time you run a speech, after experimenting and exploring (I promise you this will make a big difference), do it like it’s the audition. Get used to hitting the sweet-spot first time out. You get one shot!
Late recaps:
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Renew your energy and your will. |
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Stay strong, brave and diligent. |
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Keep things fresh by working them! |
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You only get one shot. |