It doesn’t happen often that I have an opportunity to audition in an accent or language other than straight-up-neutral-American. However, I was pleasantly surprised to have an almost-last-minute invitation to an audition requesting an accent I actually know and perform well. (Unlike those auditions at which I am instructed to put-on an accent I do not know, cannot perform, and which remains unlisted on my résumé for good reason.)
The audition being almost-last-minute, immediately I got underway with preparations. It was evident which character I should prepare, so coordinating the various physical accoutrements was simple. However, it being awhile since I’d used the accent in question, I knew I needed to hit the books, as it were, hard. I began by reciting everything in sight. Bills. The label on my wood furniture polish. Magazine blurbs. Any commercial text I heard. And the instructions of the pasta recipe I made for dinner. One of the most important aspects of acting with an accent (besides producing … Read more »
One of my favorite motivational quotations is known by many and comes from American transcendentalist author and poet Henry David Thoreau. It reads:
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
What I find inspiring about these words is the inherent notion that dreams and goals need not remain ethereal things, but that their existences can be affirmed by making concerted efforts and taking practical steps towards realizing them. These past few months, I’ve been taking time to evaluate where I am currently in my career, where I would like to be, what I would like to be doing and, more broadly, who I am as an individual and who I would like to become. I’ve been engaging in a few activities as I move through this liminal phase to help define and achieve the required foundations:
A few days ago I tweeted about soliciting for a film audition for which I didn’t think I’d receive a glance of consideration. Well, on Wednesday evening of this week I received a call about this very audition, which would be held the following afternoon! So, I had little time to prepare and no time to waste on my waning cold. In reviewing the sides that had been provided, the scenes presented in a straightforward manner. The elephant in the room? The lines written in English marked as being spoken in another language–a language I have never heard of.
As the dutiful actress I am, I spent two hours researching this obscure-sounding language and came up empty. Nothing! I had found nothing and I excel at research. So, I took a break to review my options:
- I could always provide the lines in English since that is how they are written.
- I could ask, once at the audition, if the language for … Read more »
Many of you know I have a personal tricolon: I go. I do it. I leave. And, sincerely, I try to abide by this in all cases–auditions, performances and gigs. However, recently my memory has betrayed me and how it irks me!
A couple of weeks ago, I auditioned for a big commercial. As with every other audition opportunity, I prepared meticulously. Ahem. I cannot tell you, though, how much I hated one particular line. Yes. Hated. I would meander around my apartment in rehearsal, saying to myself, Ugh! I hate this line. I hate this line. And I did. Of all the lines in the copy, there was one that–for the life of me–I could not figure out and how I detested it. How to deliver it? How did it fit into the message of the spot? What did the copywriters intend? What was I missing? With the clock ticking down, I knew I could only do my best, whatever that was … Read more »
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