At the Audition
- Wear simple, attractive, comfortable clothes and shoes.
- Minimize jewelry.
- Style your hair so that it flatters your face, not hides it.
- Warm up your voice and your body.
- Assess the acoustic qualities of the performance space and make choices regarding how much vocal energy you will need to be heard.
Presenting a Monologue
- Find material that you could be cast in today.
- Use material that is within your age range, your vocal range (especially if you're singing), your emotional range, and within the scope of your movement skills.
- Avoid material that requires a dialect.
- See that the material moves to a conclusion. Begin somewhere and go somewhere through the material.
- Use material that focuses on your character.
- Avoid material that you have performed in a complete production.
- Discuss your choice of material with your director, and your other acting teachers.
- Choose material in which you have faith, and as you rehearse allows you to gain confidence.
Rehearsing the Material
- Make strong, positive choices aimed at putting your character in charge of the scene.
- Locate and exploit counterpoints and tensions between yourself and the character, tensions within the character, tensions between the character and the dramatic situation.
- Allow time for audience reaction when the character has to make a choice. Share choices with the audience.
- Give movement specificity, dramatic validity, and theatrical finish. Simple but completely realized movements and gestures are the most effective.
- Avoid literal interpretations of the text in movement and gesture.
- Keep body and face forward. Avoid too much profile.
- Maintain vocal control throughout the scene. Don't let emotions drive you beyond vocal expression you can control.
- Imagine the physical space appropriate for your scene; set the boundaries and maintain control of that space during the performance. Movement should develop organically from the material; the connection between the physical action and its emotional source should be strong and clear.
- Clearly specify the ending of the first piece and the start of the next. Do not run the scenes together.
- The confidence, poise, and polish characteristic of outstanding auditions is the result of dedicated, concentrated rehearsal and astute coaching. Ask your acting teachers and your coaches to help you with your audition. Adequate rehearsal is vital.
Note
Each student who elects to participate in UAB Department of Theatre auditions for main stage productions must audition for all productions being cast at that time, musical or non-musical. By auditioning, the student both acknowledges and consents that they can be cast as needed in any production for which auditions are being held.
Questions?
Call or write
Theatre UAB Head of Performance Dennis McLernon
(205-934-8300
or
Theatre UAB Department Chair Kelly Allison
(205-934-8776