Audition Process - Unit 12 extended project

Audition

The audition process for One Flew Over was different this time around because instead of doing a monologue from the script, for the certain character we wanted, we had to make our own acting CV's as well as get updated head shots and find our own monologues. My monologue ended up being from a script called 'Peoples, places and things,' this wasn't the first monologue I had in mind though. The first monologue I was thinking about doing was Joey's monologue from Jim Cartwright's 'road' script. My main reason for steering away from this monologue was because I was having a hard time connecting with the piece and understanding it. I ended up asking around if anyone had good ways to look for monologues from contemporary pieces as I wanted mine to be from a stage show. I got some websites sent to me from a friend last year who was on our course and that's how I found the right monologue that was exactly what I wanted and could connect with as well. It's about a lad in a rehab centre and they're having a therapy and he decides he wants to share his experiences of the first couple of times he went through treatment and went cold turkey and felt like a failure so he went back to his dealer and almost overdosed and killed himself twice. He then starts to open his own eyes up by mentioning what it's like for other ages to go through hardcore drugs so he sort of reminding himself that's not what he wants. Then towards the end he starts talking about the one good thing that happened to him this morning showing that he is seeing the positive side of things.

I chose this monologue because he goes through an emotional story, from just a small period of text ranging from various emotions, the main emotions being vulnerability and anger towards himself for going down that road. Vulnerability, links in with our end of year show because all the characters are vulnerable in their own way for example Billy Bibbit relationship with vulnerability within the play includes his broken relationship with his mother and the way Nurse Ratched treats him as a result of his trauma. Preparing and learning my monologue didn't take me too long, I started off by breaking it down into chunks and learning it that way then moved onto performing it in front of family members so they could help and prompt me. Before my audition we had a group of us upstairs who we performed our monologues for and got feedback. My feedback before my audition was to show how powerful of a story this character goes through in this monologue and to have certain parts where my emotions rise for example when he's talking about going to the canal the second time he tried to overdose. 

So when I entered the audition room I handed in my acting CV with my new updated head shot and then Kelly asked me questions as usual. The questions consisted of what I think about the end of year show and if I had read the piece. I mentioned that I had read it but never got round to finishing it but I had watched the film. I also then explained what my monologue is about and why I think it links into the show. I started off my monologue and took in all the feedback I had been given before and used it in my audition. After my audition had finished I felt really pleased with myself as I felt I got across the point I wanted to get across and this time without rushing. Kelly pointed this out and said this, 'out of the two years of you being on this course you finally slowed down and I could really understand the journey your character has been on and it was lovely to watch.' After leaving the room I felt amazing, I know how much of a challenge this show is going to be and wanted to put across that I am ready for this challenge and I think my audition helped me state that. I think if I was to do this next time I wouldn't change anything, for me it went how I wanted it to go I had all the different range of emotions, I had the journey of the character mapped out clear for the panel and I hadn't rushed for once which is always one of the big things I struggled with. Something's do still need work like pronouncing my T's but because I didn't rush it I managed to pronounce majority of my T's minus one or two words.

In conclusion, I believe this audition has shown my progress and growth as an actor within my past two years on this course and no matter the outcome of the audition I believe this milestone is still to be celebrated. 


We had to record our monologues/auditions for our blogs and here is mine. I uploaded it to youtube since the file of the video was too large. 

https://youtu.be/BLRNAr7mt9k - Monologue/Audition