Sunday, August 5, 2012

Acting Auditions - Working with the Bare Framework of the Story

By Kirk Baltz


Conflict is typically avoided by the majority of people. Anxiety, fear, and chaos can often be the result of conflict. However, during an acting audition, conflict is essential to delivering an impressive reading. In order to have a good audition, it is necessary for an actor to find the conflict within a story and within a character.

Perhaps one of the most common conflicts, internal conflicts are those that consist of the psyche battling between opposing desires and feelings. There are also external conflicts that a person takes on with the environment, fate, God, and the world. Relational conflicts are yet another form of personal conflict that are in present in almost every person and, therefore, character's life. Before an audition, the actor is only provided with basic information about the character and the story. Conflict always exists in a story, whether on the surface or hidden beneath a complicated exterior. The actor has the responsibility of finding the conflict and demonstrating it's effects in their audition reading.

There is no doubt that conflict is interesting. Instability in a character or story adds depth and movement. Once the desires and needs of a character have been discovered by the actor, obstacles are inevitable. That is life. Our life's hurdles must be overcome and manipulated until they become collaborators in our lives. "Midnight Run" is a perfect movie to consider. In the film, Robert De Niro is a bounty hunter who has the responsibility of finding Charles Grodin's character. Jack (De Niro) is required to track down Mardukas (Grodin) in order to collect his bounty. Jack is met with a number of conflicts including his personal insecurities, rival bounty hunters, and the infamous Mardukas.

All of the answers may not be provided to you in the material provided to you at the audition. Improve your acting audition by using the dialogue and the clues therein to create a character full of depth and truth. In this way, you will be more likely to grab onto and hold the auditor's attention and make the performance more real for the viewer. Far worse than creating the "wrong" conflict is delivering a performance without any emotion and depth. With these skills, your auditioning skills are sure to improve.

Real conflict is rarely one-dimensional. The typical person has numerous inner demons that are in constant turmoil. Keep this in mind when doing your reading and you will be sure to add intrigue to the character you are portraying. The lines being recited are not nearly as important as the character that is created by the actor.

Although your character may be the only live person in the scene, there are doubtless other hidden forces affecting his or her life. To have a successful reading, you as an actor must know how to draw these emotions and circumstances out of the text and take the character to the next level. There is another aspect of conflict to keep in mind. A small amount of comedy should also be present within any conflict. Comedy is present even when the conflict is dark and deep-rooted. Neglecting to add comedy will make the reading unwatchable. In short, conflict and comedy are both an integral part of a successful and impressive reading.




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