Acting Auditions 101

Lesson 1: VOCAL PREPARATION: MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!

Recommended Resources:

• TEXTBOOK Make Your Voice Heard: An Actor's Guide to Increased Dramatic Range Through Vocal Training, by Chuck Jones.

• NOTEBOOK.

Please note: Books are recommended but not mandatory.

This lesson will start you immediately on developing the power of your voice through tried and true techniques.

The strength of any audition begins with clarity of voice and emotion. In this lesson we will discuss the following essential pieces:

• Practical Knowledge and Discipline Begins Today

• Relaxation Techniques

• The Daily Voice Workout

We will rely heavily on our first text, Make Your Voice Heard, by Chuck Jones, throughout this lesson.

Ready? Let's begin! You will need your textbook Make Your Voice Heard, a notebook, and a pencil.

Begin Today.

How long did it take you to learn to walk? If you were close to average, it took you about twelve months from birth before you could stumble from couch to chair to table. Your loved ones must have cheered as you took those first wobbly steps. And by walking those first tenuous steps, you reminded everyone that life was something to celebrate.

But you didn’t arrive at that point overnight. How did the process begin? Obviously at the moment of birth. You laid there, limp and barely able to do anything but cry, eat, and poop. And everyone admired you – or at least they should have! You were a miracle, with no-one else just like you.

Now answer this: “Why is it that we accept that it takes a year to go from a gooey glob to a mobile menace?” Write down your response in your notebook. (Your response is important, because you, too, are building your "walking legs" towards successful auditions. So just trust me in this. If you've not yet recorded your response, please ponder this again.)

Write down why you think we accept that a baby will take nearly a year to learn something as straightforward as walking. Very few people lose patience because a four month old is not yet running in the neighborhood 10K. Why? Your thoughts are important and deserve to be recorded, record them now.

Now consider your response to this question as you approach this course. You plan to improve your audition skills, otherwise you would not be taking this course. You are to be applauded for proactively improving your career (or hobby) as an actor.

It is imperative, therefore, you remember the toddler example as you work through not just these lessons, but your entire career as an actor. Rome wasn’t built in a day, a baby doesn’t walk in a week, nor is a successful actor (which implies successful auditions) built in a month. You must be gentle with yourself in the process.

At times you may feel that the saying, “One step forward, two big plops falling down,” applies to you. Don’t believe it. Every time you move forward proactively, you actually are leaping toward success – no matter how dismal the situation may appear to your present viewpoint.

In summary, just as it took you nearly a year to walk, it will take some time to incorporate the concepts taught in this lesson about new, healthy voice production techniques and overall audition skills.

Now before we move onto those techniques, it is important to remember: A successful audition requires two things - Practical Knowledge and Discipline. In the next section, we will discuss the first of these essential audition tools: Practical Knowledge.

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