How to prepare for your audition

Auditioning for parts is one of the scariest things an actor will ever have to do in their career. When you are invited to audition it is really important that you make a good and memorable impression as it is very rare that you will be the only actor auditioning for a role and it is up to the Casting Director and casting team as to who gets the part. Most of the time the Casting Director will already have envisioned what they want the character to be like before the auditioning process begins so it is always a good idea to research into the character as soon as you can.

Here are four things you may want to consider before attending an audition.

1. Learn your lines. Most of the time you will be requested to learn your lines if you have been sent them before-hand unless you have been told otherwise. Sometimes you will be sent a script overnight to learn for an audition the next day in this case the casting panel should be more lenient with you if you have at least made an attempt and learned as much as you can. If you do have any questions about learning your lines then you can speak to your agent or an actor friend who will be able to give you some advice.

2. If it states on the script that your character has an accent then you should do the accent during your ident as well as your audition. If you are struggling with learning accents then there are hundreds of online tutorials which can help you and inform you of some tricks that you can use to make the accent more dominant.

3. When you receive your casting brief it should state the characters appearance. Although you do not have to dress completely as your character it can help to style your appearance a bit so that you have some of the characteristics your character has. For example, if you are auditioning for the part of a 70’s pop star then you could style your hair or make up to suit the era but make sure you don’t go overboard.

4. You can use props as long as they are not going to be a distraction. For example using a phone in a scene involving a phone conversation rather than miming having a phone in your hand which won’t look very good.