Friday, March 1, 2013

Game To Play Before You Play

It is a really interesting thing to go through the audition process. There are some unpleasant aspects to it, but mostly things go in a way that minimizes pain and stress. That's what I find to be the case. I provide the anxiety. If you can get past the issue of putting yourself on the line or having anything at stake, there's some really fascinating stuff going on. I find that focusing on that puts you in a better state of mind than focusing on the audition.

As I have said before,  you see different types at these auditions. Often you don't really know what the commercial (or whatever it is) will be like, and so you see distinct categories of people that partly clue you in to the cast of characters. You find out soon enough what's what, but in that waiting period (which isn't as long as you'd think), it's a stimulating exercise to guess. I don't know how close I've come to guessing right.

When you've seen the script, it's an added stress, because you have a tangible thing to worry about doing justice. If there are lines, you can stress about how to deliver the lines. If there are no lines until the critical moment, you cannot worry, because you can only think about how to approach them just before you do so. I prefer it that second way, being from an improv background, though the unknown can be scary.

Having that script makes it so that the identifying of character types in the audition waiting room a little more interesting. If you've seen the script and know who the characters are, you can peg each actor for their role. Moreover, if you stand anywhere near the building holding the audition, you can peg people for being in on that audition the moment you spot them. This is especially the case in certain less savory neighborhoods. It's a fun time killer.

1 comment:

Frenchie said...

What an interesting way of looking at it! Do you strike up conversation with potential competition and try to mentally psych them out?

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