How to prepare for a theater acting audition

 How do you prepare for a casting?

Avoiding nervousness during the audition or the preparation phase is one of the most crucial aspects of casting preparation. The first and most crucial consideration is that the casting director, or the person who will conduct your audition (or his assistant), will make the process as simple as possible. You will be called for an audition if you meet their requirements for physical attributes, age, appearance, and vitality. You may be confident that your acting style has already piqued their interest if they have already seen you in a play, micro-cinema, video book, or even just a home video that you took with your phone.

But you can't let your guard down, because perhaps what they saw is that with interest and effort you can play the role for which they are looking for an actress or actor, so you have to arrive after having rehearsed the handout they sent you quite a bit.

It is very important to arrive at the casting with the audition very, very prepared, but be careful, not spoiled. That is to say, you have to have one or better yet several proposals for the character for which you are going to audition (more intense, less, crazier, more serious, more posh...), but you must be sufficiently "malleable" during the casting so that when the casting director asks you to change your interpretation to a register that you had not even thought of, you can do it. This is perhaps the most difficult. Without a doubt one of the most important things in preparing for a casting is to have trained as an actress or actor, because if not, although it may seem that this profession is very intuitive, it requires a technique that you can only learn in a school, workshops or with a personal coach.

When we are beginners we always ask ourselves the same question: how do I prepare for a casting when the time comes? Let's be clear about one thing: we will approach it better the more prepared we are thanks to the training we can receive.

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Tips for preparing for a casting

Being as well prepared as possible for the casting is crucial, and please don't read this to make yourself nervous, read it so that you can succeed and start working in the profession as soon as possible.

Casting with such good preparation is so important because the impression you give to the director of the series or film (who are sometimes at the audition) and the casting director will last over time. That is to say, if you do a test in which they detect that you are not prepared, they may not call you again until years have passed to give you time to train, even if the next day another character appears that fits your profile. However, if you do the test well, even if they don't choose you for the character for which you audition specifically, you may be given another role in that same production, or another character in another series or film from the same production company. This is something very common in the industry, but beginners don't know. The casting director will have you in mind if another character appears that you fit if you do the test well.

Analyze the character

Start by reading the handout and analyzing it. Analyze the character. Imagine him. Contextualize the action… if it takes place in the present, in the past, in the future. Contextualize the social environment in which it takes place, upper class, lower class, a neighborhood… Adapt the character’s movements, energy, and way of acting and speaking to the contextualization of the sequence and the character.

Study

Study the script thoroughly. Interpreting is impossible if you are constantly “pulling from memory” during the sequence. You cannot interpret if you are trying to remember what line is coming next… Simply put, if you don’t know the script inside out, you are not going to do well in the casting. Study it by heart as best you can.

Dress according to the role you want to get

Find some clothes from your own closet that remind you of the character. You don't need to buy anything or dress up, that's excessive. But with what you have in your closet, try to choose some clothes or accessories that bring you closer to the character to play it and so that you are associated with it at the casting. For example... if you play a girl in a disco in the 70s, and you have big earrings, even if they are current but remind you of that era, wear them. For the camera tests, we advise against wearing black (it takes light away from the face), white (it saturates, ivory or off-white, beige are recommended), and loud prints (unless you play a psychedelic, chav or chav character, for example).

Rehearse

With the part perfectly learned and analyzed, start rehearsing it out loud. If you can, with a professional coach. If not, with professional actor friends. If you can't find one, with student friends or former students of Performing Arts or Dramatic Arts, and if you are alone and without the possibility of meeting anyone, by yourself. But always out loud. Rehearse it standing and sitting, you never know what the casting director will ask you. Record yourself with your mobile phone, review your interpretation and correct it.

Relax the nerves

Go to the casting calmly, as if it were just another exercise in your long career as an actress or actor. Put as little pressure on yourself as possible, and go prepared to enjoy yourself. Being able to audition is a very difficult thing, so just being able to do it is a privilege. Go with the desire to enjoy yourself, feeling like you are another person, with the desire to play.

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Are you applying for a casting for theatre, film or television? ESAEM can help you

If you are applying for a casting in theatre, film or television, ESAEM can help you. On the one hand, we have training for actors, dancers and singers in these three disciplines. On the other hand, we have training for the best professional actors and actresses, singers and dancers.

All our teachers have been selected, among other requirements, for being active in the professional world, so they have done dozens of castings, many of them successfully, which is why they have been selected by ESAEM, thanks to their extensive career in theatre, musicals, television and film. In our team of teachers we also have teachers who, in addition to being performers, are casting directors and mentors who are currently directing series such as “La casa de papel” or directing musicals, such as Antonio Banderas, who declared in 2018 in the press that ESAEM was becoming the source for his productions.

Our students have successfully passed castings, and are currently working on series, films and theatre. The most recent signing for the new Netflix series called “Feria” has been our student Carmen Navas, who landed a co-lead role.

ESAEM student Carmen Navas co-stars in the ESAEM production “Road to Broadway”

Our students (from 3 years old to postgraduate) make up the artistic pool of prestigious production companies whose casting directors have travelled to Malaga to carry out auditions in our studios, such as Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano (and their assistants) among others. American series that have been filmed in the province, such as “Snatch” or “Warrior Nun” have also included students for their casts.

Our most recent collaboration has been with ESAEM choreographer Lena Zafra, who just finished her work on the series “Valeria” broadcast on Netflix a few days ago, and then joined “La voz” (Antena 3).

The singer Rosalía was thrilled in the show choreographed and created by Lena Zafra produced by and for ESAEM, on the occasion of the Antonio Banderas Performing Arts Awards (annual gala created/produced/organized by ESAEM and chaired by the actor). To find out more about how to successfully pass auditions, keep an eye on our news website, or don't hesitate to call ESAEM to find out about our classes.

Ana Escobar Author Esaem

Ana Escobar

I have been working in the communications sector for over twenty years. I am very familiar with the workings of radio, press and television. I have directed, supervised and presented radio and television programmes of various kinds, interviews, musicals, magazines, etc. In recent years I have been in charge of writing and distributing to national and international media all the written and audiovisual content generated by the Escuela Superior de Artes Escénicas de Málaga (ESAEM).

Along with a large group of professionals at my side, I have been at the forefront of the news arising from the large number of artists who have been protagonists of our shows (Rosalía, Antonio Banderas, India Martínez, Madonna, Pastora Soler, Ruth Lorenzo, etc.) and all the events that have taken place at this school. This has always generated great media interest, thanks not only to the good work of this school, but also to the close relationship that this school maintains with Antonio Banderas. Castings, press conferences, interviews, recordings, etc. of numerous artistic works by the most international actor from Malaga have been held here.