Someone help!! AMDA audition..need 2 monologues
Bill Wellington
Dramatic Academy), and I am in need of 2 monologues. I am really
stumped...can anyone recommend some really good ones?? I believe I have
to do one comedy and one drama...and they can be maximum 2 mins
each...no more! If anyone can help...I would greatly, greatly
appreciate it!! Thanks,
-=Eric=-
Thuy Van
Um I don't know if what I have heard is true, but I have heard some
rather lousy things about AMDA (some people called it SCAMDA). So far,
more than a few people have had bad experiences with this school,
saying the class size is too large, the instructor never show and the
administration wants nothing else than your money.
Perhaps these claims were false or perhaps they refered to a different
institution, but I would look seriously consider other options before
going there.
Thuy Van
Bob Stewart
before an audition and someone needs a monologue.
Here's a tip that will save you much frustration and give a a much better
chance of succeeding as an actor:
KNOW AT LEAST TWO MONOLOGUES BEFORE YOU NEED ONE.
I hate to say it, but if you work a monologue for a week or two in front of
the mirror, you will NOT be ready to perform it in an audition. When you
use a monlogue, the person you are auditioning for is looking for a finished
production. It should be polished, honest and you should be completely
confident in the piece. You should perform it for friends and relatives,
you should live with it and it should fit like an old shoe. An audition has
enough pressures as it is. Why add to it and make you look bad?
Any actor worth their salt should be able to pull out two monlogues and make
them sing with little work. To do that you must be prepared. Period.
Don't wait. Go out and find some now. Once you know them, you can pull
them out and brush them off for an audition. Invariably you will like some
better than others ONCE YOU LEARN THEM. Problem is, if you wait until you
need it to pick one and then you hate it once you get into it (happens all
the time) you are never going to make a good impression.
IMHO it takes a good month to work on a monologue. Reason is, you have no
support system on stage with you. You are alone and doing a snippet of a
play or movie that the auditioner may or may not have seen. If they have
seen it, then you better know more than they do about the piece. If they
haven't seen it, then you have to convey everything through your 3-5 minutes
with no props, no other actors, no set up... nothing to help you convey any
nuances except you and the text. So the monologue MUST fit you and you MUST
spend the time to work up the character. You need to research the play,
understand the character, make strong choices, know the conflicts of the
scene and 'play' with it.
If you're going to call yourself an actor, do the work. Pick your monlogues
NOW.
Bob Stewart
Fred Gloor
have at least four ready in case (miracle of miracles) they like your work
and ask to see more. If you do not have anything else to show them they
will tend to think you are unprepared. Also, a larger compliment of
audition pieces will allow you to pair your pieces together in an order that
fits perfectly with whatever it is you are auditioning for. A Shakespeare
festival's requirements are different than those of a theater that does
mostly new work and your audition should reflect that you know what it is
you are auditioning for. Good Luck.
Fred Gloor
Bill
(snip)
> KNOW AT LEAST TWO MONOLOGUES BEFORE YOU NEED ONE.
(snip)
I rather liked your practical advice, Bob, in fact, I'll post it on my
Studio bulletin board tonight (giving you full credit, of course)
..... and heh-heh, I noticed that Fred upped the minimal standards to
four cutting, citing Shakespeare (imabic pentamater is a bit different
from the latest Mamet and Simon.)
My standards were set by one of my mentors, Bobby Lewis, who in the 60s
suggested a minimum of 12 monologues (and he also recommended "cut 'n
pastes".... similar to Jack Poggi's approach in his text, THE MONOLOGUE
WORKSHOP.... still in print.)
(I am copying Jill Charles, friend and colleague, who audits hundreds of
actors and also publishes the definitive texts on headshots/resumes,
summer theatres and university/conservatory training.... in the hope
that she will "de-lurk" on this matter.... she gives more common sense
in 20 words on the matter of audition monologues, than most of us....
with the possible exception of Ed who takes 40-100 words <g>. Hopefully,
Jill will put in her 2 cents worth.)
> I hate to say it, but if you work a monologue for a week or two in front of
> the mirror, you will NOT be ready to perform it in an audition. When you
> use a monlogue, the person you are auditioning for is looking for a finished
> production. It should be polished, honest and you should be completely
> confident in the piece. You should perform it for friends and relatives,
> you should live with it and it should fit like an old shoe. An audition has
> enough pressures as it is. Why add to it and make you look bad?
And possibly, it's a good idea to "play-rehearse" your piece with a
coach, teacher who has the credentials in the industry.... a good stage
coach for stage, a good on-camera coach for the occasional film audition
that requires a finished, memorized, polished and fully-explored solo
cutting.
>
> Any actor worth their salt should be able to pull out two monlogues and make
> them sing with little work. To do that you must be prepared. Period.
> Don't wait. Go out and find some now. Once you know them, you can pull
> them out and brush them off for an audition. Invariably you will like some
> better than others ONCE YOU LEARN THEM. Problem is, if you wait until you
> need it to pick one and then you hate it once you get into it (happens all
> the time) you are never going to make a good impression.
> IMHO it takes a good month to work on a monologue. Reason is, you have no
> support system on stage with you. You are alone and doing a snippet of a
> play or movie that the auditioner may or may not have seen. If they have
> seen it, then you better know more than they do about the piece. If they
> haven't seen it, then you have to convey everything through your 3-5 minutes
> with no props, no other actors, no set up... nothing to help you convey any
> nuances except you and the text. So the monologue MUST fit you and you MUST
> spend the time to work up the character. You need to research the play,
> understand the character, make strong choices, know the conflicts of the
> scene and 'play' with it.
> If you're going to call yourself an actor, do the work. Pick your monlogues
> NOW.
Good advice, Bob.... and the only thing that I'll add is that the day of
the 3-5 minute cutting is long gone..... with a few excpetions. The
attention span of auditors (for stage or film) is two minutes or
less.... three minutes is increasingly the top limit for two contrasting
pieces (contemporary & classical).
(My suggestion to actors is a range of cuttings from 1 to 1 1/2
minutes..... but that's just my very humble opinion.)
The issue, folks, is to create a diverse range of audition pieces....
which you use not only for auditions, but simply for the joy and delight
of growing in your craft.
One is a fool who uses a cutting from a Neil Simon when auditioning for
a George Bernard Shaw. And you don't use "To be or not to be" when
reading for a part in a play by David Mamet. Make your audition
selections appropriate to the material. And by ALL MEANS, as Bob
suggests, don't make last-minute, desperate choices..... the piece you
try to memorize and explore two days or a week before an audition is
prone to memory lapses and gross misinterprations.
Break a leg,
Bill
--
THE ACTING STUDIO
http://gvtg.com/theactingstudio
Bill Wellington
Bob Stewart wrote:
> I often see these cry's for help on this group. Usually it's a week or two
> before an audition and someone needs a monologue.
>
> Here's a tip that will save you much frustration and give a a much better
> chance of succeeding as an actor:
>
> KNOW AT LEAST TWO MONOLOGUES BEFORE YOU NEED ONE.
>
> I hate to say it, but if you work a monologue for a week or two in front of
> the mirror, you will NOT be ready to perform it in an audition. When you
> use a monlogue, the person you are auditioning for is looking for a finished
> production. It should be polished, honest and you should be completely
> confident in the piece. You should perform it for friends and relatives,
> you should live with it and it should fit like an old shoe. An audition has
> enough pressures as it is. Why add to it and make you look bad?
>
> Any actor worth their salt should be able to pull out two monlogues and make
> them sing with little work. To do that you must be prepared. Period.
>
> Don't wait. Go out and find some now. Once you know them, you can pull
> them out and brush them off for an audition. Invariably you will like some
> better than others ONCE YOU LEARN THEM. Problem is, if you wait until you
> need it to pick one and then you hate it once you get into it (happens all
> the time) you are never going to make a good impression.
>
> IMHO it takes a good month to work on a monologue. Reason is, you have no
> support system on stage with you. You are alone and doing a snippet of a
> play or movie that the auditioner may or may not have seen. If they have
> seen it, then you better know more than they do about the piece. If they
> haven't seen it, then you have to convey everything through your 3-5 minutes
> with no props, no other actors, no set up... nothing to help you convey any
> nuances except you and the text. So the monologue MUST fit you and you MUST
> spend the time to work up the character. You need to research the play,
> understand the character, make strong choices, know the conflicts of the
> scene and 'play' with it.
>
> If you're going to call yourself an actor, do the work. Pick your monlogues
> NOW.
>
Bill Wellington
Thanks for your advice, however I'm going to have to disagree.....I have
a friend whom I was talking to, just the other day. She too auditioned for the
school a few years back, and she made the same if not a bigger mistake than I.
She went to the audition in NY, and she went with a friend. The first 3 days
there, they spent roughly $500 at local bars and pubs getting drunk. It wasn't
til' the night before the audition, when she sat in a hotel room intoxicated
that she realized she needed 2 monologues because at that moment, she had
nothing. She raced for a pot of coffee and stayed up the entire night looking
over some monologues....she went to the audition the next day, w/o any sleep.
She performed the two monologues in front of the school president. Within a
week, she received a call from the school....she had been accepted. So after
saying all of this, I believe while pulling this off....she may not shown very
good organizational skills but I believe that in these moments you show your
"true acting ability". I intend to do an excellent job...I came on this
newsgroup to ask for any strong titles I could look for....funny seems evertime
I post on this NG I get criticized. I believe a true actor/actress should be
able to use his/her skills at any given moment in any given situation. Like it
or not. Sometimes we don't have that option.
-=Eric=-
Pokketman
>She went to the audition in NY, and she went with a friend. The first 3 days
>there, they spent roughly $500 at local bars and pubs getting drunk. It
>wasn't
>til' the night before the audition, when she sat in a hotel room intoxicated
>that she realized she needed 2 monologues because at that moment, she had
>nothing. She raced for a pot of coffee and stayed up the entire night
>looking
>over some monologues....she went to the audition the next day, w/o any sleep.
>She performed the two monologues in front of the school president. Within a
>week, she received a call from the school....she had been accepted.
Can you fake your way through a couple of monologues? Maybe. Sounds like your
hungover friend did. I had friends who got through college that way. ....wait
a minute....*I* got through college that way!
But let's be honest Eric. 1 week for an audition?? What about reading the
play? We're not talking about a TV audition when you've only had the material
for a few days and you're not given time to adequately prepare. Your only
excuse for not having monologues ready is that you've put it off. That's
fine. No one is going to get on your case about it, believe me. OK, well maybe
in a NG, but not in the real world. The more actors that don't prepare, the
more work for those who do.
Bob and Bill are dead on. I think you should have at LEAST 2 monologues ready.
4 or 5 is safer. Maybe you can cram for this AMDA and fool them. But you
better hope they don't ask you any questions about the play. Boy is that
embarassing when you haven't read it. I learned that the hard way.
Good Luck
--SHANE
Mike Stanley
Eric,
Not to criticize you, but did your friend audition for this school? Do
you WANT to go to a school where all you have to do is fake some
monolouges? I've heard more bad than good things about AMDA. One
poster recently said they don't even do plays there and defended them!
I still didn't understand that even after it was explained.
Mike
Bill
> I came on this
> newsgroup to ask for any strong titles I could look for....funny seems evertime
> I post on this NG I get criticized. I believe a true actor/actress should be
> able to use his/her skills at any given moment in any given situation.
Bob was hardly being critical of you, he was on then other hand offering
valuable advice concerning professional standards for actor.
I wholeheartedly agree with your point that actors should be prepared to
audition at a moment's notice, but respectfully, I do not buy your
assertion that actors can let slide one of their primary self-marketing
tools (and training techniques) -- the development over a period of time
of a repertoire of audition monologues.
True story: An actress scheduled a private session with me to work on a
monologue (the session was set for 11AM and she had an appointment with
the director for 1PM, the same day.) Anna had found from a stack of
monologues at my Studio a cutting from the play, SAVAGE IN LIMBO. She
memorized it the night before, and though she was a little rough on
lines, she presented to me a very strong interpretation. Alas, she had
not read the play and had completely missed the clues provided in the
text.
Anna had assumed that Savage was a sweet tender young creature.... and
in fact, she played the piece like "Little Mary Sunshine." In truth,
the character is a desperate, embittered woman who is trying to pick up
a low-life in a sleazy bar.
I knew the director she was about to meet, and suggested to Anna that it
was very likely that he knew the play and would be most amused by her
off-the-wall interpretation. And Anna realized that she had better
correct her approach to the character if she also wanted the director's
RESPECT.
No, Anna did not get the role, but she learned her lesson. She reads
plays constantly, always looking for new cuttings.... so far this year,
she has been cast in 2 stage productions and is shooting a principal in
an indie next month.
One anecdote doesn't prove much. But you might want to re-think the
advice Bob gave you.
Bob Stewart
hundreds if not thousands of monolgues and know what happens after the auditions. I
have seen the lack of planning, the nervousness, the incorrect characterizations and
the dishonest performances. These people DON'T get the job. Especially in TV and
Film where you have little or no rehearsal time.
While your friend may have gotten in, that is the exception, not the rule (unless
this school accepts a LOT of people, which you should check). Frankly I'd be more
impressed if it were a job, not a school. At John Robert Powers or Barbizon, anyone
can get it despite their "auditions". (And no, this is not an attack on the school.
I know nothing of it. I only suggest you do your research before you go.)
While you state that raw talent is enough in this business, it isn't. I see
brilliant performers who can't get an audition, let alone a job. I see even more
untrained but talented people fail every day. What it takes is preparation and
opportunity (some say those are the elements of luck). IF you are prepared AND you
have the right opportunity, you can get somewhere.
If raw talent is enough, why train? Why not just move to LA and become a star? I
think the answer is obvious (but that never stopped me from stating the obvious
before :-). This is like any profession. You must learn the craft and educate
yourself in the career. Playing it off the cuff rarely gives you an advantage. An
actor must train until the muscles become loose and limber. They must study and
understand the craft. Too many people take a few classes and call themselves and
actor. You aren't an actor until you work as an actor. Period. And then you are a
novice actor until you work more.
My comments were meant to assist everyone and certainly not meant as a critique of
you. I have seen to many actors make this mistake over and over again to not try to
help others avoid it. Acting is serious work. It is creative, but you have to do
your homework. Part of that homework is preparing numerous monologues (I actually
think 6 is a great number to have) and brushing them up when you need them. Would
you take the Bar exam without studying? Would you audition for Juliard as a
violinist without rehearsing? Then why would you go to an audition unprepared?
Bob Stewart
Also, feel free to disagree anytime. Discussion is an art unto itself.
Bill Wellington wrote:
> Dear Bob....
> Thanks for your advice, however I'm going to have to disagree.....I have
> a friend whom I was talking to, just the other day. She too auditioned for the
> school a few years back, and she made the same if not a bigger mistake than I.
> She went to the audition in NY, and she went with a friend. The first 3 days
> there, they spent roughly $500 at local bars and pubs getting drunk. It wasn't
> til' the night before the audition, when she sat in a hotel room intoxicated
> that she realized she needed 2 monologues because at that moment, she had
> nothing. She raced for a pot of coffee and stayed up the entire night looking
> over some monologues....she went to the audition the next day, w/o any sleep.
> She performed the two monologues in front of the school president. Within a
> week, she received a call from the school....she had been accepted. So after
> saying all of this, I believe while pulling this off....she may not shown very
> good organizational skills but I believe that in these moments you show your
> "true acting ability". I intend to do an excellent job...I came on this
> newsgroup to ask for any strong titles I could look for....funny seems evertime
> I post on this NG I get criticized. I believe a true actor/actress should be
> able to use his/her skills at any given moment in any given situation. Like it
> or not. Sometimes we don't have that option.
>
> -=Eric=-
--
Bob Stewart
Inglewood, ext. 44564
CTSaen
working on a show NOW..I am getting paid...AMDA worked for me..The proof is in
the puddin'...I am happy with my training!
Saen
"Ducking for apples, change one letter and its the story of my life!" Dorothy
Parker
EMoore1975
A professor of mine in my MFA program (musical theatre) taught their while he
was on a sabbatical. He didn't say too many positive things about the program,
but he is an extraordinary teacher, as proven by his track record and both how
I feel with the progress I've made.
He never speaks negatively of the school, however. It was obviously a learning
experience for him and he knows students who got something from the program.
I'd always choose a conservatory style college degree-granting program myself,
but some people want to go the AMDA route. More power to them.
I auditioned for the school two years ago (musical theatre program) and was
accepted with a decent scholarship. I know where I stand now and how far I've
come since then. I imagine they honestly don't get a wide range of skill
levels there, as evidenced by how well I came off. I know how much work I have
to do to become castable professionally. Take that how you like it regarding
AMDA.
Eric
Renee Pezzotta
auditioned for AMDA 12 years ago when I was seventeen. I traveled from
Memphis,TN to Atlanta, Ga. During a SNOW STORM to the audition...I got
there about 2 hours before my scheduled audition. Red eyed and VERY
sleepy I acted and sang my tired heart out for them. I was excepted
However, I went for the first semester, before changing schools. I
don't want to discourage you, and if it is the only way for you to "get
to NY" go for it...If you can get to the CITY, without attending SCAMDA,
I would suggest looking in to the more reputable schools.
Renee Pezzotta
http://members.home.net/reenay/index.html
Pokketman wrote:
>
> Eric said:
>
> >She went to the audition in NY, and she went with a friend. The first 3 days
> >there, they spent roughly $500 at local bars and pubs getting drunk. It
> >wasn't
> >til' the night before the audition, when she sat in a hotel room intoxicated
> >that she realized she needed 2 monologues because at that moment, she had
> >nothing. She raced for a pot of coffee and stayed up the entire night
> >looking
> >over some monologues....she went to the audition the next day, w/o any sleep.
> >She performed the two monologues in front of the school president. Within a
> >week, she received a call from the school....she had been accepted.
>