In my classes and workshops, I’ve been fortunate to learn from some of the leading local casting directors. They would freely give us some great pointers. I heard the same advice from casting director to casting director on how to conduct yourself in the audition room, how to prepare, what they wanted to see. But when you are an actor, some of this advice just makes you more confused; the underlining reason being that you don’t know WHY you have to utilize these tools and tricks. Now that I have been fortunate to see what an actor really does in an audition, I’ll share some things for you from what I’ve observed.

1. Keep your script up. We didn’t care if you were completely memorized or not, but the constant bobbing of the head was annoying. Some people placed it on their lap and even if they kept their head up, you saw a lot of their eye lids. My question was this: how am I to connect with you if I can’t see your eyes that often?
2. If you can use the space, use it! Not only did we appreciate it when people asked what the frame was, we loved it when people used the space. It broke up the monotony of people just standing in one spot or sitting down and not moving at all.
3. Watch the improv. While some people did use the space, which was great, a few went a little too far. Just because the wording in the script calls for a fight to happen, that doesn’t mean that you have to put in your own jabs and kicks and re-create the fight. That can be really distracting.
4. Make eye contact with your reader and listen/connect with them as much as possible. This audition was a bit different in that we had an actor actually read with the other actors, yet there were so many people who still wouldn’t listen or barely looked at me at all. I had one actor not even make eye contact once! If you are in a situation where someone is reading with you and they are giving you something, use it even if it’s not what you expected. The people who got the callbacks are the ones who listened best.
5. Have some energy! I know it’s hot outside, but the audition only takes 10 minutes. Do some jumping jacks or something and wake up before you come in.
6. Never tell us you are not prepared. People would start their audition that way and the first thing I did, unintentionally, was look for ways they were unprepared. Or they would do a great audition and then apologize for not being fully prepared. They could have gotten away with it and we would have never known.
7. Have fun! We had a couple of people who read for us and they were shaking they were so scared. It made us feel nervous for them and of course not pay attention to their performance.
8. Don’t go too off book. It was fine that people wanted to make the character their own, they should. But we had the writer in the room who is also the director. He’s pretty particular about his dialogue. So, just on the safe side, stick to the text.
9. Ask good questions. Not many people asked questions. I loved it when they did because it also helped to break us out of our stupor.
10. Take over the room. I really appreciated when an actor, upon hearing they can do whatever they wanted, did just that and moved the chair, or sat against the wall, or did something to make the space their own. Not many people did that.

There were a few other things that I could mention, but that’s the top 10 for now. I’m so glad to have gone through this experience and met so many fantastic actors working here in Austin. It definitely inspired me to up my own game when I’m out there auditioning myself! Thanks to all the actors in Austin who came and gave so freely of their time. We hope to see you again at our next audition!

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