Student Blog: Auditioning: It's A Learning Experience, Not the Hunger Games

Whether you're one of the many LaDuca-clad bodies swirling through Pearl Studios or a shaking fifteen-year-old in a community theatre lobby (or even a high-school hallway, watching the athletes barrel past as you sit on the floor outside the auditorium), the words "audition" and "callback" certainly trigger plenty of stress within you. You think of the roles you're aiming for, or the spot you're competing for, and your eyes turn towards the other actors waiting with you, all of whom are experiencing equal levels of stress, and the sense of competition is palpable. You forget that these people are your friends- you probably got coffee with a few of them yesterday, or even have plans with them afterwards. But in the waiting room, all camaraderie is lost. It's an "every man for himself" environment.

Wait. Is this an audition room, or the Hunger Games arena?

The way we're taught to go about the audition process, we forget that we're supposed to be learning from what we're doing and not just competing for a spot. Yes, it's important to remember that you are competing, but there's no reason for audition processes to be made out as though they're battles. As this competitive tension takes over, all lessons tend to go amiss. Auditioning is, in reality, a multifaceted experience. This is the reason actors are often encouraged to have audition journals; it's important to be able to look back on the experience and reflect on what might have affected the results in an either positive or negative way. Everything is something to reflect on and learn from, whether it's an outfit, a greeting, an interaction with the accompanist, or a delivery. Yes, at the end of an audition session, it's true that someone will get cast and someone won't, but we're all on even ground at the end of the day. Every actor hears "no" more than they hear "yes," a lot of the time, so there's no reason to make the audition experience overly competitive. Instead, it should be seen as something everyone is in together- something we're all going to grow from.