“The Right Choices Get You Cast”

“The Right Choices Get You Cast”

Written by Amelia Morse Kolkmeyer

Hearing that come from my client made me hurt inside. I know all too well what she meant. I corrected her though. “No,” I said, “the right OPINION gets you cast.”

As Actors we are told what to do and how to do it. When we are in class or in a show, we are given so much freedom to choose what to do with the character. I’m sure I myself as a teacher has made the unintentional mistake of telling an Actor what to do. However, I do my very best to pick my words wisely to help teach my students. I don’t want to hand them the “answer” because I don’t believe there is one. The playwright has already given us the answers in the script. It's our job to interpret the script. To decide what anger, happiness, greed, etc. looks like on our character(s).

I’m not a Director, so I won’t be speaking about the relationship between them and their Actors. I’m an Actor, Acting teacher and a coach.

From the perspective of those viewpoints I know some Directors will ask you to do your audition piece or cold read differently to see how you take direction, how you work in the moment, and/or what choices you make from said directions. To me personally I like seeing what choices people make.

Actors stress so much about doing what they think is right and this in my opinion keeps them from doing what feels good and clicks with them.

So this is a big risk that I’m asking, but I encourage you next time to focus on what are the right choices for you as the Actor. Spend some time rehearsing your audition pieces with this mindset and see where it takes you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please comment below.