THE DREADED COLD READING:

IN MY OPINION;

WILLIAM REYNOLDS;

THE DREADED COLD READING:

Many actors may go in with a prepare monologue, that in the eyes of the CASTING DIRECTOR, have nothing to do with the character in the script, so it is not accepted many times.The problem is that many very good actors confess that they do fine once they’re on the job, but are terrible at cold readings. And why should that be? To some extent it makes sense that cold readings are difficult. Auditioning is difficult, just as going out for any job is difficult, nerve-wracking and uncertain. You are “selling yourself” to a prospective employer and that can be inherently uncomfortable. In addition, you are often not given adequate information to give a decent performance. If someone hands you “sides” from a scene a few minutes before you have to do that scene, how can you tell what the scene is about and how to approach it? In addition, how do you know what the auditors are looking for? Well, you don’t. In some cases you will have a chance to look at the script while you are waiting your turn, or in some cases may even be given an advance copy of the whole play or script or at least a detailed breakdown and description, but in many cases you will have no advance information and very little at the time of the audition. So an actor has to be prepared to deduce the correct approach to the scene from the scene itself, a very zen exercise: “Here is the material you will be playing, and it is all that you have.” Most actors when faced with the above prospect – going into an uncertain and tense situation with little information, in which one is seeking employment – will hate the experience. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it seems not to go so well, but either way the actor does not look forward to going out for the job in this way. It is very uncertain and uncomfortable. And when you contemplate the fact that this is the way that most professional actors will be spending most of their time, that is pretty depressing. Actors do not work all the time – that’s just the way it is. And rather than finding one job and keeping it for a year or perhaps many years, the actor has to look for work over and over again, usually one project at a time. And so he or she is faced with this unpleasant prospect of over and over again encountering an unpleasant situation in order to get the very means of doing their craft. So what to do?????? AS MENTIONED IN EARLIER POSTS, COME UP WITH A CHARACTER THAT 'YOU' THE ACTOR FEELS IS APPROPRIATE AND JUST GO WITH IT. AND REMEMBER..'YOU ARE AN ACTOR'.