Depending on the experience of the team behind the venture (you mentioned Starnow...) - you may find that those auditioning/running the casting have very little experience of working with children. They may be brilliant or they may have no idea how to bring the best out of young actors - so do be prepared for the fact that they may not give particularly good guidance. The best auditions and the best CDs and directors make things really easy for actors to show what they can do.
I think Flosmum's advice is terrific! (Are you Pandy's 1st AD?) Especially the bit about it not being about memorising the lines but being about the role - brilliant.
If you do have the chance to film some goes at it, he can also practice keeping his eye line up and not looking straight in to the camera (unless they ask him to do that in the audition). It's useful to have someone or something for him to look at slightly off camera so that he can address his lines to them. That is probably what will happen in the audition. It's important that the camera can see his eyes - some of the time, because that is the main area the audience reads someone's thoughts from. That doesn't mean he can't look anywhere but at the eye line or the person he's speaking to - that looks totally false - but just to be aware of not looking down at his hands the
whole time he's talking or listening
The important time to have your eyes up is when you are listening. Actors sometimes make the mistake of looking at their lines in auditions when they are not speaking - they lose a great chance to make an impression this way.
On screen, reaction is just as important (maybe more so) than action. If the scene has lines from others in it, then the "listening" is even more important than the speaking. It helps if you can work on what is going on in the scene. It may be as well not to talk about listening being important (but for
you to be aware of it) because he mustn't "act" listening - he just needs to listen, absorb what has been said and then respond. You may have seen actors that anticipate their lines, where you can see them waiting for "their turn" - it's always off-putting!
If it is well written (that's a big IF as well) - then learning the lines by responding to what is going on may come quite easily. I have had scripts at short notice that I have been able to learn in less than half an hour (short ones! my memory is NOT what it was) because the writing has been so brilliant. I have had others where the writing has been so clunky and awkward that, despite every effort, I have felt uncertain of it right up to the "action" moment.
Auditions are not memory tests. A few hesitations or fluffs of lines will not mean he is unsuccessful - it's the whole package someone is assessing at a casting/audition.
Best of luck!
