The Other Side; Auditioning Revisited
Last month I wrote about my experience of auditioning for theatres over the past several months. I’ve always been curious about this particular activity and its efficacy in accessing an actor’s ability. As I wrote previously, the auditioning process for an actor is quite alienating and abstract in relation to the proper practicing of his/her craft, which is on a stage with fellow actors (or alone) and in the presence of a live audience. Stripped of all the other elements which go into a stage performance, I’ve always wondered how an audition can provide for a director an authentic evaluation of the actor in front of them. But while reflecting on this as I wrote last month’s blog, I had an insight into the audition process which I believe now allows me to see it from the other side.
Basically it is just that observing an actor in an audition allows one to see how convincing he/she can be using only their imagination to fill the space left empty by the absence of all other elements of performance.
It brings to mind, once again, just how powerful the imagination is. Now clearly there are many more factors which are involved in the auditioning process for a director, but this is what I believe to be the prime virtue in it. If an actor can convince you of the character he/she is playing using only their imagination, then all else is simply fleshing out in detail what was merely raw and naked in the room. It’s not a profound insight, but one that has allowed my own perspective to widen ever so much.
Latest posts by Brendan Patrick McClarty (see all)
- Brendan: On Filling the Audition Room with Imagination - October 10, 2014
- Brendan: Relying on someone else to give me work as an actor is just too limiting of an existence - September 3, 2014
- Brendan: Theatrical Magic in The Winter’s Tale - August 8, 2014