Stop the audition panel in their tracks

Do you know how to start your self-tape off with a bang? 

Do you find it easy to drop straight into the action, even when you have to achieve a big emotion, or do you find yourself ‘warming up’ over the course of your monologue or scene?

I’ve heard so many coaches talk about finding a monologue or scene that has a powerful start, so you can win over the panel from your very first word of your self tape.

But the truth is – most monologues and scenes have the potential for a strong start, and what is usually going wrong is to do with the actor’s technique, not the writing. 

That’s right. I said it. It’s about you!

Actor, it’s time to fix your moment before.

When I mention the “moment before”, most actors think of a psychological trigger. That might a cue line that a character says to you, maybe a “where have I just come from?” memory, or a particularly interesting bit of the given circumstances that help you connect to the situation.

But that’s just a tiny little smidgeon of what you need to do before you start speaking, if you really want to bowl over the audition panel from the get-go.

When I work with students for the first time, I usually ask them to perform their monologues for me so I can see where they’re at.

 Most often, I’ll get a nod, and then some awkward shuffling of the laptop for the best angle (we’re on Zoom of course), then suddenly, a bunch of words come tumbling out of their mouth.

They don’t take a moment to centre themselves – they don’t take a breath even – they just launch into it.

This is what I see with the majority of actors, even experienced ones.

Makes total sense, right? You’re in an audition situation, your mind is racing, you feel pressure to get started so you don’t keep the audition panel (or your coach) waiting.

And with all that adrenaline pumping through your body, it probably feels like you’ve taken a decent moment to centre yourself. You think you’re clear and connected, then you suddenly realise you’re halfway through your scene and you’re only just feeling ‘in it’.

Here are some technical things that the audition panel can spot when you’ve launched in without really preparing yourself physically or mentally:

• Your energy is too low, and you end up forcing emotion to communicate the stakes.

• Your eyeline wanders.

• You trip over words or forget lines.

• You rush through big moments, so the character journey doesn’t really land.

• You get flustered or anxious because you’re aware that you’re not nailing it, you spiral mentally, and it all ends up being way less amazing than it was when you rehearsed it at home.

Nobody wants to walk out of an audition feeling like they haven’t shown the panel their best work. And really, it doesn’t take much to go from flustered to fabulous.

You just need to add a couple of steps to your moment before, and you’ll find yourself dropping in quickly and easily, ready to slay your scene.

The Perfect Moment Before

This is something I share with all my private students, and it’s time you all knew it too.

In my experience, a powerful moment before or drop in sequence contains 3 essential ingredients:

1. Releasing tension,

2. Grounding,

3. Rebuilding and focusing energy.

Let’s talk about each of those separate ingredients, what they do, and how you can achieve them in your own rehearsal and performance.

This process is all about finding what you need to do in your body to allow your energy to flow. This takes experimentation, so I’m going to give you plenty of examples that you can try out in your rehearsal.

What I recommend is creating a long version of your drop in process for your rehearsal, and a short version for auditions.

It works something like this:

Long version: You’re at home, maybe running a monologue or prepping to shoot a your self tape. You give yourself one to two minutes before each take to go through the full ‘moment before’ process. You experiment with different combinations of releasing tension, grounding, and rebuilding and focusing energy, so you know what works for you. Most importantly, you get used to that feeling of being fully connected when you act, and it becomes your new normal. Your body stores it away in your muscle memory so you can access it easily, at any time.

Short version: a) You’re in an audition. You suss out the vibe and can tell that the casting director wants things to be efficient and move along quickly. You do a tiny, almost imperceptible version of your moment before, and start your scene with a bang.

Or b) You’re in an audition. You can tell the audition panel is chill, they want to see what you can do – in fact they seem to be interested in seeing how you work as an actor. You do a relaxed-but-efficient, ten second version of your drop in process, and nail that powerful start to your monologue.

Sound good? Let’s break it down so you can put it into practice.

Part 1: Releasing Tension

As human beings, we’re carrying tension around all the time, whether we realise it or not. Maybe you’ve had a stressful week and you’re carrying it all in your shoulders, or you’ve been working nights and your back aches. On top of that, you’ve got a bunch of nerves because you’re doing an audition you care about.

This tension creates a bottleneck effect that stops our energy flowing. And as I always like to remind my students, “Emotions are just energy in motion”.

 If you want the emotion to flow, you need the energy to flow. So you gotta release those blocks.

I’m not going to tell you to write in your journal, or meditate, or go to therapy, (even though those are usual ways to release mental and emotional blocks and you should probably do them anyway), I’m going to give you a somatic practice that you can do right now so you get the result you want 

Somatic practice means we’re going to work through the body. Releasing tension in your body will usually do just as much good as all the other lovely holistic practices we love to do, like journaling.

Examples of tension release actions (try all of these and see which ones you like!):

•  Shaking out arms or legs

• Jumping

• Rolling shoulders or stretching your neck

• Lip trills

• Gentle jaw massage

• Wiggling your booty

• Big sighs

Honestly, I could go on. If in doubt, ask yourself, “Where am I holding tension?” and then give that bit of your body a stretch or a wiggle. It helps to be a bit silly about it – we’re not curing cancer here, people! This signals to your body that you’re safe and can be fun and playful right now, which keeps you in a nice, open, responsive state.

Part 2: Grounding

This is all about getting reconnected to your body and reconnected to the earth. This will stop you swaying, wandering around, or losing your balance. It also helps you connect to your power. Another handy by-product is that it will help your breath support muscles kick in, making it easier for your voice to operate safely.

Grounding actions usually involve lowering your centre of gravity and/or bringing your focus to where you connect with the earth. Actions like:

• Grinding the feet into the floor

• Hip circles or figure of eights, allowing the feet to naturally roll

• Wiggling your toes

• Rocking back and forth

• Bouncing your butt like a basketball

• Stomping and swaying (I call this “ogre walks”)

• The ‘sigh and sag’ (big vocalised breath out, and let your arms and body sink down as if you were really heavy)

It can also include practices that raise awareness of physical sensation, like listing “5 things I can see, 4 things I can feel, 3 things I can hear, 2 things I can smell, 1 thing I can taste).

Part 3: Rebuilding and Focusing Energy

 Now that you’re free from tension and you feel connected to the earth, you need to rebuild and focus your energy so it flows through your body and out to your scene partner.

If this sounds a bit “woo woo” to you, recall a time when you’ve felt like “I don’t know what to do with my hands”. That’s the first sign that you don’t have enough energy in your body.

Or worse, maybe you’ve experienced “flappy arms” that result in accidental thigh slapping when your un-energised arm flops back down to your leg after your half-assed gesture.

Or “air hostess hands”, where you go through the motions, but it’s completely robotic.

It’s actually quite simple: you need enough energy in your body that it can reach your extremities (your hands and feet)! You need your hands to operate as a result of the energy within you, not as separate entities.

Sometimes teachers describe this as “coming from your centre”. Personally I don’t always find that image helpful. The energy might feel like it’s coming from your hips or feet – we’re all different. But what’s certain is that it’s all in sync.

You also don’t want to keep all that energy inside you. Some of it is going to spill out. How much will depend on the tone or style of the material, but at least some of it will be visible, through your gestures, facial expressions, and movement.

And when it spills out, you want it to be sent towards your scene partner, because it’s an exchange.

To bring our energy up again, we usually do a few of the following things:

• Visualise energy coming from the floor, or our centre (whatever works for you)

• Shift the weight towards the balls of the feet, almost like you’re about to run a race

• Engage or contract your muscles slightly (which ones will depend on the character and the situation)

• Visualise the imaginary location around you

• Recall the given circumstances (psychological moment before), maybe including a cue line

• Find your focal point and imagine your scene partner in detail, or take in the details of your scene partner if you’re lucky enough to have one with you

• BREATHE. Seriously. Take a FULL BREATH before you speak. Never, ever sigh before your first line! NEVER. Got it?

Notice how connecting to the given circumstances (the usual psychological moment before, i.e. “He’s just done X and now I feel Y) is right at the end of this process. Because there’s SO much more to do than just get your brain ready.

If you’d like to see this in action, pop over to my Instagram profile and select the highlight “Moment before”.

Got questions? Let me know below.