Student Blog: Audition Tips & Tricks

Auditions stressing you out? Having a hard time feeling comfortable and audition ready? My name is Maxwell DeVivo, and I'm here with some basic tips and tricks for all young, aspiring actors out there who are ready to take the stage. Auditions can be scary and overwhelming, and that's completely understandable. You want to put your best foot forward and impress those people in the room when it's to show them what you can do. Hopefully, these tips help make your life a little bit easier when it comes to stepping into the audition room. None of these are guaranteed to work, of course, different actors have different preferred methods. So, hopefully you can try these out and see what works for you!

First off, it's important to know that YOU ARE WORTH IT. You've prepared and worked for this audition, and you're ready to get in that room and kill it. Some things I like to do before leaving for an audition are hydrating, warming up my voice, and meditating. Simple vocal warm-ups like lip trills or stretch out my voice by doing tongue twisters or fluctuating my voice from low to high. Drinking water or a preferred tea of your choice can help keep your voice healthy and clean. Prevent yourself from screaming or yelling if you know that you have an audition coming up in a matter of a few weeks. For meditation, I try to find the quietest space in my house, school, or in public, and put a guided meditation audio on. I usually set it for about ten minutes, and then leave for my audition as soon as its over. It helps get rid of the nerves, jitters, or any other anxieties I might have before leaving.

When you arrive at the studio, theatre, or wherever the audition is being held, it's important to be kind to anyone you come in contact with. This is just common sense, you should be kind to everyone regardless of whether or not your auditioning in the world, but this is important to note because those in the lobby may report inappropriate behavior to the people inside the room. If you choose to act unprofessional, directors, choreographers, musical directors, anyone who makes a production come to life, will not want to work with you. This is part of putting your best foot forward before stepping into the room. While waiting, you can go over your audition material, meditate some more, or politely have conversations with others who also may be in the lobby with you. It's all up to you and what your comfortable with!

Next, it's time to step into that room and show the people behind the table what you got. These people might be directors, producers, choreographers, interns, musical directors, anyone who might be involved in making the production you're going out for possible. This can all be a bit daunting. "What if they don't like me?" "What if my performance isn't good enough?" "These people are scary, I don't know them." Get those thoughts out of your head! These people WANT to see you shine. I promise you, the people behind that table are more stressed than you are. They have a show to cast and put together, and so little time to do it. They want you to come in, do well, and watch you walk out of that room with confidence. These people want YOU for their show. 

After an audition is done, I try to go home and not think about how I did or whether or not I'll be called back. One audition performance doesn't define you as an actor. If you hear something back and get cast, congratulations, you truly deserve it! And if you didn't, I promise that it's not the end of the world. You will have so many cool opportunities and experiences in the future, even if this one audition didn't work out for you. Again, One audition performance doesn't define you as an actor. Rejection can be hard, but it can also open up new doors and possibilities for you. It allows you to grow. But I'll write about rejection and how to deal with it in another blog. I hope these tips help you out a little, thanks for reading!