Auditions @ MindSay

Want more acting work?  Improve your Audition Success!

 

 

Note from webmaster:  One thing an actor has to have, walking into the audition room, is confidence and a sense of ease.  This is your very first contact with the casting director and whomever else might be in the room, including writers, producers and directors.  If you walk in looking nervous and insecure, you've already stacked the deck against you, no matter how brilliantly you then audition.  Also, the first words out of your mouth are vital.  If they don't come easily, if your voice is choked, over-enthusiastic or too low to be heard, you have already predisposed those with the power to hire you, to be concerned.  A great tool for the actor, to become more comfortable in the room and in their own skin, is to attend a good public speaking class.  I'd also recommend self-help programs geared toward creating a more genuine, relaxed presence in high-pressure situations because what they see then can color everything they see later.  Recommended: 

Cure your fear of public speaking

 

7 Public Speaking Survival Tips

 

I used to be terrified of public speaking - now it's natural and fun.

 

Dry mouth, fast heart, sweaty palms, blank mind - yeah I've been there! It's easy to fear public speaking. But I was never just content with overcoming fear. I wanted to be a great speaker. What I needed was a way of calming down and applying simple techniques and strategies to talk like a pro.

 

When I'd learned to relax (more of that later) I learned and applied the following four steps.

1. Reassure your audience - they need to know you know your stuff and you are human!
2. Hook them by being interesting and relevant. Tell them why what you are saying is relevant to them.
3. Inspire them by giving them information and ways of seeing that are new and applicable.
4. Leave them on a high by telling a story them encapsulates your central message.

How do you become confident enough to apply the four steps?

Here's some tips some of which are practical some of which are to do with the way you think about your public presentations and also how you can start to change the way you feel about them.

 

Public Speaking Tip One

Breath your way to calm. When you breath out you relax that's why people sigh when they're stressed.

Breathing in without breathing out causes hyperventilation and worsens anxiety. Just before your speech take five minutes breathing in to the count of seven and out to the count of eleven (quick count-not seconds!). On the out breath hold it a second before breathing in again. This will produce quick and lasting calm. Remember extending the out breath calms you down.

 

Public Speaking Tip Two

You have a responsibility as the presenter but relax you don't carry all the responsibility. Presenting is a team effort. Audiences are responsible for politeness, extending their attention and attempting to learn. It's not all you-it's a meeting of two halves. Never mind how they judge you. How do you judge them?

 

Public Speaking Tip Three

Use metaphor and stories. We all experience life metaphorically. The most technical logical person spends at least two hours a night dreaming! Talk detail if necessary but present patterns with metaphors. Folk from 4 to 104 love stories. Use em.

 

Public Speaking Tip four

Captivate attention by using words that evoke all the senses. Describe how things look, sound, feel, smell and taste. Paint pictures and sensations in their minds with your words.

 

Public Speaking Tip Five

Vary your voice tonality and speed of delivery. Keep them alert and engaged. Convey energy when need be and slow down when you need to 'draw them in close.' You are the conductor to their orchestra. And pepper your talk with humour. Your willingness to be funny shows personal confidence and confidence is contagious.

 

Public Speaking Tip Six

Tell them what they are going to get. What they are currently getting and then what they have got from you. Sell your sizzle!

 

Public Speaking Tip Seven

Watch and learn from other great speakers until compelling, relaxed speaking is a part of you.

 

Rehearse positively. You need to rehearse how your going to feel as well as what you are going to present.

 

Don't think about your forthcoming presentation whilst feeling nervous as this creates an instinctive association between fear and presenting. This natural negative self-hypnosis is very common with nervous speakers.

 

Hypnotically rehearse your speech whilst feeling relaxed. This produces the right 'blueprint' in your mind. In fact when you do this enough times it actually becomes hard to be nervous!

 

All great speakers know how to use great self-hypnotic rehearsal. Hypnosis changes attitudes and can bring emotion under control. I used hypnosis, to change my instincts around public speaking. Now I just can't get nervous whether it's 50 or 500 people. The world needs great communicators. Go for it!

 

Cure your fear of public speaking - if you want that extra boost of awareness and confidence the next time you have to speak in public, get the help you need with this fantastic hypnosis download.

 

Tonsillitis and sore throat information featured for actors:  hypnosis for great acting

Are you an Actor?  Increase Your Skill Level!

 

I got this email from my friend, Marc Zicree.  Marc, an accomplished writer (author of the Magic Time: Angelfire, Magic Time: Ghostlands, the Twlight Zone Companion and other books.)

is directing a new Star Trek movie starring the original Dr. Sulu, George Takai.

 

Here's the casting notice and it is very time-sensitive.  They only have a few weeks to get this vital role

recast.  Update.....well, the film is made and I'm hearing great things.  To read more about the Zicree Zone, visit Marc's blog

 

So, today went fairly well, as in first day of classes-wise, anyways. I think I am really going to enjoy all of my classes this semester, even with the workload I have laid out in front of me.

9:00AM - Shakespeare. The professor is new--Dr. Jim Casey. He seems pretty cool. The only thing that really bothers me about this class is that I have to buy all five plays, even though I have a huge "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" tome that I brought back to school with me. He wants us to be on the same page--literally. And there are articles in the versions he wants us to get that we are going to be reading. So. yeah.


12:00PM - Europe 1914-1945. I have Dr. Schneid. My sister was like his favorite student. So when he gets to my name in the roll he is like, "ohhhhh. I know who you are" when he is saying my name, which caused everyone in the class to look at me and I was like "AHHH STOP IT." But we're doing a role-playing project when we talk about the League of Nations. Which seems like it will be interesting, at least.

1:00PM - Survey of World Lit. I have Albritton again. Sarah Shef, Courtney, Soracha, and some other people are in this class with me. It's pretty chill. We're reading like almost everything I read sophomore year of high school. We got out half an hour early. And I don't have that class again until NEXT Wednesday because he's moving his son into college this weekend in New York.

Then Courtney, Amy and I went to Target and the Teeter. And then I went to choir, where we have a new choir director. She is SO MUCH BETTER than Judy was. Even if she is only an interim choir director until they hire a new one for the spring. We're doing two songs that we did my freshman year that I loved singing--"Be Thou My Vision" and "Be Still and Know."

I went and returned Almost, Maine to Ben. Things seem to be fine between us. I still am not quite understanding all of it, but it is for the better, I think. At least that is what he tried to convince me of yesterday. I'm not quite sure I believe it yet. But as long as I don't think about it and don't really hear songs that remind me of him or this summer in general, then I'm okay.

Scarlett, Amanda and I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. We ran into Daniel there and kept passing him on the various grocery aisles. It was hilarious. I accused him of being a stalker. And then when we got back he was just getting back from there too and we talked for a bit. Then I ran into him in the laundry room while Amanda and I were putting our clothes in the wash, and we all talked for a LONG time--we stood at the elevator on the third floor just talking for a while, keeping the elevator from closing with laundry detergent. After 15 minutes the elevator started buzzing angrily at us and started closing despite the laundry detergent, and we all tore down the corridor and he tore upstairs to his room. It was hilarious.


Between grocery shopping and laundry-doing, I went to visit Alanea and we helped each other with our monologues and songs for the auditions for Almost, Maine and The Robber Bridegroom tomorrow. I said the monologue for Amanda while we were coming down with our clothes and she said it sounded really good. I hope it goes well. I'm using a monologue I performed back in SOPHOMORE YEAR of high school and it's working pretty well. I need to decide what I am doing with my hands and such. But I have it mostly memorized.

I don't know how this year is going to go.

Second day of classes tomorrow. C.S. Lewis and Feature Writing. Then an EC Retreat at 5 until 8. I haven't done shit for preparing the notebook for the next Phi Director... but I have all semester.

I don't know what I did to my knee, but I can't bend my right leg when I walk or it's nearly excruciating. Lame. And it only happens when it wants to! Sometimes I am fine when I walk, but others I have to limp. Sigh. I'm a gimp.

 

 

I need a monologue and a song to sing for auditions for the play & the musical. Auditions for both are on the 28th of August. The play we are doing is Almost, Maine and the musical is The Robber Bridegroom. I'm not expecting any large roles, because I'm not a theatre major, but I just want to be involved in a show again more than anything.

 

Any suggestions for cool monologues that I could do? Hahahaha.

 

PS: Brooke, do you own a copy of Angels in America? And if so, can I borrow it. :)