I'm being very pessimistic about my auditions. Please help me!?

Question

I usually just think to myself "OK, you can do it. You just have to do what you've been practicing for all along!" And yet, this time, it's different. You see, today, I auditioned for a role in my school play. I think I did bad because I was sick and nervous (and I just heard about it yesterday)...but someone told me that I didn't. I mean, OK, I might still get a part, but not the part I wanted. And also, tomorrow I have ANOTHER audition which I'm being really negative about. I think it's because this is the FINAL audition and the other person competing against me is REALLY good. She got more votes from the judges than I did last time (but since they want to make it unanimous, another round is to be held tomorrow). I don't think I'm going to get this part, I really don't. But I want to! Help me, please, I really need help with both my situations!

Answer 1

When you walk out on that stage, you own it. The only person you have to impress is yourself, so do a damn good job of it.

Answer 2

I'm gonna tell you two things, and they're gonna seem inconsistent. But they're both true and they will guide you.

1. Whenever I go to an audition, my intention is to get the job. That means sharing all my skills and preparing in every way to get the work that I'm auditioning for.

2. I don't compete with other actors. The other girl they're looking at is not in competition with you for the part. You are both unique and different.

You have no control over what your auditors are looking for, and you have very limited control over the basic framework of your physicality, your vocal instrument, etc. But you control how you use what you have. And you are in control of how truthful, open, and honest you will be in the audition.

Whatever you do, you should share what is best in you. This is no different from any other job interview, where you come with a portfolio, you present yourself in the best possible light and you let your prospective employer see what skills you can bring to the work.

You will have a good audition if you feel that you gave everything to the audition process--that does not necessarily mean that you "impressed them." Try and impress your auditors and you have already lost. I've sat on the other side of the table, and I can see someone trying to impress me a mile off.

Read honestly--try to find yourself in what you read. One of my early audition opportunities, I read for Agamemnon, by Aeschylus. They read me for the title role. Now I didn't feel I was "right" for that role. I wasn't tall enough, big enough, heroic enough. My voice is a tenor and I felt that Agamemnon had to be a booming baritone. But instead of trying to make myself into my image of Agamemnon, I tried something else. I imagined what it would have been like if I had been Agamemnon. Myself. If I had conquered Troy.

And I spoke in a calm, soft voice about destroying the city; I didn't raise my voice because I didn't need to raise it. My sense of the crowd was that they were so quiet and intent they could hear the slightest whisper.

I didn't get the role. I got the role of the Chorus instead.

Show them who *you* are. Don't try to be someone else, and don't even *think* of someone else. Focus not on the result of the audition (which you can't control) but on the performance (which you can). You don't know what they want, they don't even know it (or they wouldn't be holding an audition). So don't try to be it. Be who you are--and take complete charge of that audition. It's your time, they have to listen to you, and it's your show. A complete one-woman show, starring you--and you are in charge of everything, the blocking, the costumes, the set, and the performance. Have fun.

Who else gets to do this? Other people have to go to work at 8 in the morning. You get to *play*! Live it, love it, and when you are finished, forget it. Go out with friends for an ice cream cone. Go to the movies. Dance. Forget it. Until the next time. Then do it again, and again, and again.

You are an actress.

Let me hear you roar.

Answer 3

Just tell yourself you can do it. Think of the things your good at and maybe the other girls aren't. Do your audition in front of someone you trust to be truthful and have them give you tips.