Short and Sweet

Hi everyone! Happy 1/11/11! Wouldn't it be cool if you were turning 11 years old today? It'd be like a golden birthday, only better.

I have a video in the works that I will be sharing with you hopefully in the next day or two. I'm introducing the first two worksheets that Whitney mentioned in her last post, so stay tuned for that!

Today, I wanted to share a note about what I call short and sweet monologues. (I talk about this some in the video, but I wanted to elaborate here)

It seems to me the standard audition is one monologue, under 2 minutes. This is pretty basic for most non-musical audition situations, but I've noticed lately a lot of companies have been asking for something under 1 minute.

To a non-actor, 1 minute might seem like forever, but it's really a very short amount of time. There's not a whole lot you can do with 1 minute. Take a paragraph out of your favorite book and read it out loud. It probably takes you roughly a minute to read it at normal speed. See how fast it went by? Now try to pack something of substance in those 60 seconds.

Part of this project has been to look for monologues in non-traditional places and a great place to go for short and sweet monologues is television shows. I know, I know, it seems weird, but think about it. TV writers have 45 minutes to tell an entire story. So any monologue they write has to get to the point and get there quick.

The current monologue I'm working on is from Grey's Anatomy (my fave show :)). The show is in it's seventh season. My monologue is from season 5. If you chose to do a monologue from a currently running TV show, it's probably a good idea to go one or two seasons back. One of the problems you run into doing a monologue from television is that your auditors may have preconceived notions about what this character is supposed to look and sound like. After all, someone is already playing this character in front of millions of people weekly. If you chose a past season, most likely no one but the hard-core fans will remember that speech. Also, since characters tend to change from season to season, there's a good chance that your character in season 5 is not the same character in season 7.

I always stayed away from doing TV monologues in auditions because I was embarrassed to say, "My name is Kristi and I'll be doing a monologue from *insert TV show here*" However, my friend Brandon, a fellow actor, gave me a great tip recently. He uses a monologue from a popular TV show quite frequently and when he does, he states the title of the episode not the title of the TV show. If they ask, you can certainly tell them what TV show it's from, but by telling them the title of the episode, you hopefully keep them from passing immediate judgement.

I mentioned above that the auditors might have preconceived ideas about who this character is, but it can't be denied that you do as well. I watch Grey's every week and have been living with this character for 2 years, so I certainly have an idea about how she should be played. However, I'm doing everything I can to rid myself of those brain worms*. I only watched the episode once and that was so I could get the story. I got the text of the piece off the internet, but I couldn't quite remember the context, so I watched the episode exclusively for that. During the scene in which my monologue occurs, I didn't pay any attention to the acting, only to the text of the piece to make sure I had it written down correctly. After all, the internet isn't always right.  ...

Once I had done that, I put the DVDs away and I won't pull them out again until after I have finalized my version of this piece. In the video to come, you'll see that I've done some of my KK homework and I'll be finishing the rest this week. It's so incredibly helpful and I can't wait to share with you how I feel her homework has impacted my audition. We know it's done well for Whitney! She got cast in a great show!

Have a great day everyone and don't miss my next video, coming soon!

With gratitude-
Kristi


*Does anyone remember that Private Practice/Grey's cross-over episode when Addison's brother had parasites in his brain?! Intense.

Face Time

This was supposed to be posted last week, but I had technical difficulties. Better late than never!

Farm PBJ

Let's hear it for Kristi and her great audition!! HOORAY!

Well, my audition is now a solid 5 days away, and I think I've found my two pieces. (ok, you can pick your jaw off the floor now). Now the process stands in the copy, cut, paste...re-copy, re-cut, re-paste stage. My favorite stage. Well, this stage is a close second to the stage where I'm walking off of *the* stage, finally finished with the darn audition. We'll get there.

Now, you may recall I was looking for classical and contemporary pieces.  Well, I took a leap and went to Classical Spanish plays-not to dear old Willy-and a wackadoo poem entitled "Cow".  Where does the farm theme come in, you ask? Well, the classical is Lope de Vega, and the play is Fuente Ovejuna (also know as "The Fountain Where Sheep Drink"). Get it? Cows. Sheep. Eh? Eh?!

Oh what connections actors find to justify the "perfect" audition package. Heh.

Its a tricky one, this "audition package". I almost think finding one monologue "with considerable range" is easier than finding two monologues. Why? That's a good question.

I think a solid audition package is like the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Bear with me now.)

Now you've got two pieces of bread (this is like your time slot: 90 seconds, 2 minutes, etc.). You search for the best peanut butter and the best jelly to make the perfect sandwich (your assignment: two monologues *or* one monologue and a song for instance), to make the perfect audition package (delicious and nutritious!).

But what do I find at times?

That I've found the best peanut butter. I put that on one slice. Then I go to the pantry and find, gasp, the best crunchy peanut butter! Its good, just as good as the smooth, but different...right? But put it on the other slice of bread and all you have is a PBPB sandwich. Unfortunately, the sandwich is "just so" without that compliment zing of the jelly. There's no variance, no excitement-and the audience definitely stops listening to the same tone of voice, the same objective after about, oh, 1 minute. Not even that sometimes.

When finding an audition package, you *must* look for two pieces that can stand alone, but can also stand together without mushing into one long one-noted speech. Show the audience that you can be the antagonist and the protagonist, that you can embolden them and make them sick, that you can make them laugh and cry.

Make the best PBJ sandwich you can muster! Even if it does smell like barn.

On to editing,

-Whit