When my students
want to learn to cold-read, I always send them to Margie Haber's
wonderful classes. She is THE colding-reading maven in Los
Angeles. Years ago, Margie worked for me as a work-study student
at the Strasberg Institute helping our foreign students reduce their
thick accents. Margie says that she formulated her fabulous Haber
Phrase Technique® while working with those students. Her book,
How to Get the Part without Falling Apart, is a must for
anyone who wants to be a professional actor. It's an audition primer
that has all kinds of great information from how to nail that great
headshot to how to nail that great part. If Margie's technique works
for Halle Berry and Brad Pit it'll work for you!
I cut my teeth
on cold-reading by doing staged readings while still a theatre student
at UCLA. But I really didn't know what I was doing. My cold-reading
instruction consisted of a single sentence. I was told to look down,
grab a few words with my eyes, look up, and say them.
I didn't realize
at the time that cold-reading demands a polished technique. Or that
how well you cold-read dictates how well you succeed in the acting
business. Even if you're a great actor. I learned cold-reading
by trial and error. My cold-reading is pretty good . . . it got
me jobs. But I wish I had had Margie in my life then.
Margie gives
you that polished technique. She gives structure to the nebulous
nature of cold-reading. That's why the great, near-great, and soon-to-be-great
flock to her. The Haber Phrase Technique® is about not only
grabbing a few words with your eyes but saying a phrase that makes
sense. And not looking up all the time but instead looking up for
emphasis. As a result, your cumbersome cold-read can effortlessly
flow. I wish I had known about this technique when I was struggling
to be fast-paced and glib at all those comedy cold-reads I did in
the 70's and 80's.
For example,
here's a snippet I chose at random from the looseleaf full of monologues
I keep for students. I've underlined the parts where I would look
up:
It's a state
of mind. I mean, you look at those 17th Century Rubenesque women
and they're sexy. See, here's the problem. The moment you
take her out of Rubensville and you make her dress 90's and make
her head of personnel . . . forget it.
Notice that
I look up at the beginning and the end of the monologue . . . to
start the thought and end it. Then I look up when I want to communicate
with the person I'm talking to and/or make a point. There's no carved-in-stone
way to make a point, however. The next time I read this snippet,
I might look up in another place. But I always keep my intention
strong whether my eyes are on the page or off of it. And I always
look up at the beginning and the end. And I always finish a phrase
before I look down. Margie calls it "landing". Landings
instantly involve you with your partner . . . a important component
of a good audition. For more information on the Haber Phrase Technique®,
I highly recommend that you read Margie's book and attend her classes
if you're in L.A. And I'd look up for that!
Here's some
things that might be helpful for negotiating those harrowing auditions:
Be yourself! I can't tell
you how many times Casting Directors have told me great stories
about actors who impressed them more with their personalities
than with their acting. Confident authenticity is the key. Remember
that Casting Directors are people too . . . despite contrary
rumors. And that this town is all about relationship. Actually,
I have a fun Casting Director story to share with you. When
I was working at the Strasberg Institute, I was occasionally
in charge of introducing our Monday-night seminar celebrity
guests. I don't know if it was because she was such a great
person or because she was on MY turf, but I flippantly asked
one of our guests when I could come do a scene for her. She
also happened to be one of the most powerful casting agents
in Hollywood. And Renee Valente immediately said, "how
about Tuesday. Call my office and arrange it with my assistant."
It also helped that my scene partner was someone she liked and
remembered (Renee was famous for remembering EVERYONE). Renee
got me several parts, including my first-ever star turn on a
sitcom pilot.
DON'T MEMORIZE LINES! I
know they did it inthe audition scene in Mulholland
Drive and I know that most actors get their sides way ahead
of time these days, but there's reasons why you shouldn't. A)
If you memorize, they'll think that's the best you can do. Unless
you just have a few lines and most of your part is physical,
like my actor who tried out for an under-five in a very successful
sitcom today, don't go there. B) If you memorize, you never
have enough time to break down the scene and do the real work
of choosing the intentions and adjustments that will make you
stand out from the other guys. A student called me recently
to tell me that she had FIVE auditions in one day. She asked
me which she should memorize and when I had time that day to
coach her. I said, "you're not going to come see me and
you're not going to memorize ANYTHING! You just don't have time.
We're going to brainstorm adjustments over the phone and then
you're going to go out there and be your wonderful self!"
Of the five, she was on hold for two by the end of the day.
C) If you memorize, you may drop a line and panic. Also, if
you don't say the line as written, you may throw off the casting
people, who have heard the same lines a hundred times. So you're
not going to wow 'em if you try to memorize your audition scene.
But, after your preparation, you may have committed some key
words and phrases to memory. So use them to your best advantage
when you actually audition by looking up and landing!
Auditioning is a numbers game!
You're not going to get everything you go out for, and sometimes
it breaks your heart. And then you'll get something you really
want and they decide not to do it, and sometimes it breaks your
heart. I did 100 . . . count them . . . 100 auditions before
I got a professional job. And when I was cast as Petra, the
maid, in the L.A. company of A Little Night Music they
decided to bring in the touring company instead. Both of these
are normal events in an actor's day. My advice is to go on as
many auditions as possible so that you can get really good at
them. Look at auditions merely as a way to get that coveted
job. And . . . for goodness sakes . . . don't take them personally.
Because acting is a business as well as an art. And the business
of acting begins with the audition.
Use everything you've got,
including your fear. Lee Strasberg always said . . . "Use
it!" Lee meant that you should not only use your preparation
but also channel whatever you're feeling at that moment in time
into the material. And not let it stop you. You never
know what you'll encounter when you get into that audition room.
The phones may ring, there may be a whole panel of people you
have to read for (this is a good thing! You may be reading for
the director AND the producer, and they're already considering
you for the part), you may arrive after meticulously preparing
your sides only to be asked to read something else . . . or
you may unexpectedly find yourself breathlessly face to face
with your childhood idol . Whatever it is . . . don't ignore
the feeling. Channel it into your performance. Use it to lift
you beyond the ordinary.
Do your homework. Your
homework is the the One-Two-Three-step process below. If you
don't prepare for your audition, you might as well stay home!
And this is the way you prepare:
One: Break
down your scene
The first thing
that you should do whether you're on your comfortable couch at home
or a rigid chair in a casting office is break down your scene into
beats, or what I call "thought units". Beats are changes
in thought and/or topic throughout each scene. Beats can vary from
very long . . . a couple of pages . . . to a single line or brief
exchange . . . a baby beat. Finding the beats in a scene reveals
the rising and falling action . . . also called the arc . . . of
a scene and is the framework upon which to hang your intentions
and adjustments. There's a wonderful explanation of beats and how
break them down in Margie's book. Margie suggests that you draw
a box around each beat so you won't lose your way during an audition.
Here's an example of how to separate a simple scene into beats:
He: That meal was great, honey!
She: I think I overcooked the risotto a little. (Puts her head on his shoulder)
He: Now let's watch a movie and cuddle.
She: As long as it's not a bang-bang shoot-'em-up!
In the example
above, "He" shifts his focus from food to watching a movie,
thereby beginning a new beat. In good scriptwriting there's also
usually some sort of transition that prompts the beat, such as when
"She" puts her head on his shoulder. There may be many
beats in a scene or just a few depending upon the nature and arc
of the scene. But finding them for yourself is crucial for auditioning.
Sometimes you can't even act the scene without finding the arc,
as in all the Neil Simon plays I pratfalled through in the 70s.
I think the
most important beat, however, is what I call the "Moment-Before
Beat". As actors, it's our responsibility to actively create
the reality of the character's experience. The best way I know to
do that is by defining the parameters of what went on the moment
before the scene takes place both intellectually and sensorially.
Start by answering these questions:
Where am I? You need to not
only create the place for yourself but enter it. Starting a scene
without creating a place jars the fragile reality that actors
have to create for the audience. Maybe that's why Stanislavski
actually had his actors live in the set for weeks before a production.
Creating places sensorially adds to your reality. Finding the
fragrance, the texture of a piece of furniture, the feel of the
ground beneath your feet can instantly catapult you into the right
place to be for the scene
When is the Moment-Before? What
are the circumstances that lead up to the scene? Is it late at
night or early in the morning? Have you just gotten up after 8
hours of restful sleep or have you been awake for 36 hours straight?
What else is going on? Have you just come from a painful, stressful,
or peaceful place the moment-before? What have you been saying
or what has someone just said to you? What is the quality of that
experience? Find a way to create it for yourself.
Who is in the scene and what
is my relationship to them? Even if you're doing a monologue,
you're in a scene with someone. Are they family, lovers, friends?
Define your character's relationships with the people in the scene.
Then choose personalizations, a type of "As-If" adjustment,
to make them real for yourself. I talk about personalizations
in the December issue of
Acting Magic.
How am I feeling? Definingexactly how you feel the moment-before about the place, the
people and the circumstances can instantly thrust you into the
reality of the scene. A strong Sense Memory or As-If can connect
you with whatever feeling or combination of feelings that you
choose for the scene. Read about Sense Memory and As-Ifs in the
August and December
issues of Acting Magic.
What am I doing? In real
life, we're always doing something, even if it's just waiting
around. Choosing an activity not only helps your acting reality
but creates place. For example, if I were ironing, which I do
most days . . . yes, I admit it . . . I even iron my T-shirts
and my sweats . . . I would be instantly in my tiny, warm kitchen.
Stella Adler made Shelley Winters iron a shirt in exactly the
same way 100 times during tryouts for A Hatful of Rain
because of her chronic difficulty with props. And she never had
any problem with props again! I'd suggest that you don't actually
act out this activity during your audition because it'll detract
from your reading. But getting a sense of it can add to your acting
reality.
I always used to carry a mechanical
pencil with me to quickly dissect the scene because, in my acting
days, we didn't have computers and faxes. I'd get to an audition
as early as I could, whip out my pencil, and box away. Sometimes
I only had five minutes on multiple-audition days. So I had to
learn to be quick!
Two: Choose
intentions and adjustments
If you're auditioning,
you don't have alot of time to chose intentions and adjustments.
So go for broke. Choose the strongest intentions and adjustments
you can conjure up. And . . . let's face it . . . the first idea
that bursts into your head about how to play the scene is usually
the best one. So go for it!
Intentions. Intentions are,
quite simply, what your character wants in the scene. I like to
define intention with a "To" followed by an active verb.
For example, you can't act "To confuse", but you can
act "To desire" and "To fear", opposing active
intentions that show your character's confusion to the audience.
Intentions can also be revealed . . . obvious to the audience
by the character's actions and words . . . or concealed
. . . hidden in some way. I like to act opposing intentions .
. . "To this" but also "To that" . . . and
include one concealed intention in a scene to give a character
her humanity. This is how people actually play out their lives.
For more information on intentions, read the October
issue of Acting Magic and the "First-E" section
of The Five-E's: Creating
a Character from Text.
I'll never forget the improvisation
two of my most gifted actors did one day in class. I just gave
them the premise that they were living together, that they loved
each other and that one of them had cheated on the other. These
two actors acted the intention "To love" so strongly
that the scene was one of the best I've ever seen. They fought,
hurt each other, flew apart and came back together. They could
use this intention and what they learned in the improvisation
in any one of a vast number of love scenes. What they did was
very real and very human.
Adjustments. If the intention
is what you want, the adjustment is how you do it. You can use
Sense Memory, As-Ifs, Personalizations, physicality . . . anything
that helps you find your character's reality. You might also want
to consider the layers of feeling the character is experiencing
in a scene. One of my best friends belly dances. So the image
of fragile bare human feeling covered by veils of varying thicknesses
and qualities appeals to me as a way to define this concept. Margie
calls this "Core and Masking". Margie also suggests
lots of ways to make adjustments, including defining the character's
history and values and the similarities and differences between
yourself and the character. For more information about adjustments
and how to make them, please read her book, the November
and December issues of Acting
Magic and the "Second-E" section of The
Five-E's: Creating a Character from Text.
The right acting
class can teach you the basics about intentions and adjustments
and how to use them in a scene. Learning these basics and putting
them into practice on a daily basis is great training for the day
that you have to walk into the pressure-cooker atmosphere of an
audition where you may have to figure all this out at a moment's
notice. I like to write intentions and adjustments in my little
beat boxes. When you carry all this information into the audition,
it enables you to be alot more specific because you have a framework
upon which to hang your expression.
Here's the scene
that we broke down before with intentions, adjustments and bare
and veiled feelings added for the actress. You'll notice that choosing
the strong intention "To seduce" gives this simple scene
. . . which could possibly be for a commercial . . . a whole new
meaning. The veils of feeling along with the adjustment of treating
the guy like a purring, then a clawing kitten adds an interesting
dimension of absurdity and humor. I don't know about you, but I've
personally veiled sexual passion in gauzy layers of yes and no and
further shrouded it in a thick fabric of teasing. And not only in
scenes. If you want to see this done wonderfully, watch Kim Catrall's
Samantha and the way she relates to Smith in the last few seasons
of Sex and the City. It's probably one of the reasons why
she continually wins the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.
He: That meal was great, honey!
(Intention: To Seduce) She: I think I overcooked the risotto a little. (Puts her head on his shoulder)
{Bare: Sexual Passion; First Veil: Ambivalence; Second Veil: Teasing}
[Adjustment: Stroke with every word like a kitten]
He: Now let's watch a movie and cuddle.
She: As long as it's not a bang-bang shoot-'em-up!
{Still seductive, but now annoyed at the possibility of an action movie}
[Adjustment: Push away like a clawing kitten]
Three: Practice,
Practice, Practice
You're
probably sick of hearing the sayings, "Practice makes perfect"
or "If you don't fail to plan, you plan to fail". But
acting is like any other performing art . . . you have to be ready
to do whatever you do best on demand. And in order to perform on
demand you have to fine-tune your acting apparatus . . . your body,
your voice and your acting expression. Musicians and dancers practice
four to eight hours a day. You should, too. If you really want to
be an actor, you should think of little else.
An old student
of mine wrote me just yesterday that she cut back on acting class,
but is still studying by watching films and reading. I was flattered
that she missed my Acting Magic E-zine, which I didn't publish in
January, 2004 because of three arduous weeks of house remodeling.
But I was also sad that she didn't move heaven and earth to get
to class in some way. Even if if wasn't my class.
Because you
need the third eye of a person you trust to get better. And a place
to work out that's not only safe but nurturing. And you need to
work out every day. Even if you're not in class. So I'd suggest
that you find a class you love and get there at least once a week.
More if you can afford it. And find a group of actors to work out
with . . . possibly by joining a networking organization like The
Actor's Network. And, most of all, practice your cold reading
daily. Grab any script, box it up, choose intentions and adjustments,
practice phrasing and landing. Read the paper aloud while having
breakfast at Starbuck's. And don't worry if the guy at the next
table is looking at you funny. You have a higher purpose. You're
doing whatever you can do to be ready when that big audition finally
comes. You owe it to yourself and to your talent!
