9
Audition by Improvisation
By Christina Hamlett
Former actress/director Christina Hamlett is the author of 41 books and 171 plays. For Pioneer, she and her writing partner Jamie Dare have penned three “Seusspeare” comedies as well as a contemporary script titled “Fandemonium.” She is also a professional ghostwriter and a script consultant for stage and screen. http://www.authorhamlett.com.
Most theatrical auditions involve either the delivery of a prepared monologue or a cold reading. This proves two things: (1) they can memorize lines and/or (2) they can read. What these approaches don’t verify, though, is whether an actor can be immersed enough in a character to be able to think quickly on their feet and react in character to unexpected circumstances during an actual performance.
Just about anyone can commit “x” number of lines to memory and respond by rote to cues from fellow actors. But if subsequent lines are all that’s in your thespians’ heads, they’re vulnerable to distraction — including a flubbed delivery by someone else or a technical mishap that snaps their concentration.
The technique I employed in my own try-outs was a bit unorthodox, but it easily enabled me to single out which actors had the confidence and creativity to improvise. Specifically, two actors were chosen to go up on stage and each was handed a 3x5-inch index card which described a character/personality to portray and an objective to be accomplished. Such as:
- A repair person resentful of a homeowner’s after-hours call.
- A former diva seeking a comeback via her agent.
- A politician trying to sway an undecided voter.
- A parent being told their child is being expelled from school.
- A twin trying to convince a sibling to trade places for the day.
- A homeless person trying to get a meal from a college student.
- A celebrity eschewing contact with a friend from childhood.
- A florist delivering a bouquet to the wrong recipient.
- A bank teller recognizing the robber as their next-door neighbor.
- A car dealer trying to talk a prospective buyer out of a car that’s totally wrong for them.
Once the actors took the stage, I would supply the context of the scene — a dark alley, a hospital corridor, an elevator, a high school reunion — and give them three minutes in which to interact with one another. Neither actor knew what was on the other person’s card, nor did they have any chance to discuss whether the scene would be played for laughs, tears, or anger.
Absent the encumbrance of holding a script, the participants were allowed to act with their full bodies. It further required them to actively listen to what their counterpart was expressing and to figure out whether their own responses would support or thwart the other person’s objective. This provided invaluable insight on what they might do in a live performance.
Sometimes the audition exercise would involve a well-known character in an alternative scenario, and could either be a paired scene or a monologue. For example:
- Willie Loman applying for a loan.
- Ophelia speed-dating to find a new beau.
- Cyrano de Bergerac wandering around a convenience store on Christmas Eve.
- Vladimir and Estragon deciding to stop waiting for Godot and go bowling instead.
- Inspector Javert starting a blog in which he describes baking as a stress-buster.
- One of the witches in Macbeth starting her own psychic hotline, dispensing advice by phone.
What a great way to introduce variety and surprise at audition, plus reduce the angst that actors often have about their competitors showing up with the same memorized monologue — and possibly doing it better.
Improvisation can be used as well for warm-up exercises prior to rehearsals, much like singers vocalize prior to performance. In this context, your actors play the characters they have in the play but in situations that don’t occur in the actual plot (i.e., trying to argue their way out of a traffic ticket, discovering their bank account had been hacked, evicting a troublesome tenant, being the recipient of an unexpected kindness, getting turned down for a date). These improvs are especially helpful if the faux scenario calls for emotions such as anger, desperation, or jealousy, all of which actors often can’t quite seem to dredge up and project convincingly.
Another popular exercise I devised to help my performers forge a deeper connection with their fictional counterparts was called “In Therapy.” With my assistant director or myself playing the role of a therapist, the “character” would be asked personal questions such as:
- Who were you closest to when you were growing up?
- What’s the most recent thing you bought for yourself?
- Did you have a happy childhood?
- Who do you confide your deepest secrets to?
- If you could run away from your current situation, where would you go?
- Why are you always so mean to ______________?
- What was your best subject in school? Why?
- What’s the oldest/strangest/most nostalgic thing in your closet?
- What are you most afraid of?
- Who was the first person to break your heart?
Everyone had fun with this bit of improvisation because they had no idea what kind of questions would be asked. Likewise, it forced them to go beneath the surface and really think about the elements and events that may have shaped their characters’ lives and personalities long before the curtain went up. Obviously, there were no “wrong” answers since the responses derived from each actor’s perceptions of how his/her part was written by the playwright.
Endgame lesson: The more an actor can get under the skin of the character they are portraying, the less likely they are to freeze onstage when something goes wrong. Ultimately, it should be the character — not the actor — who will always know exactly how to react in a way that’s both natural and plausible.
