NotaPushyMum.Com

Hi

I'm still fairly new to all this and finding this site really useful. On the information pages, under Auditions and Castings there's a section on "what to expect". Right at the end it says

"A word about taking direction. Your child might be asked to repeat a scene a second time, but slightly differently. This may be to see if "

and then it just stops. Can anyone fill in the missing bit. I am really curious as to what it should be as this is exactly what happened to my daughter. Thanks for any help.

They can take direction and adapt accordingly

I don't know whether it's helpful to expand on that a bit and put forward a director's view:

rambling pg post warning

The first delivery of a scene might be excellent - it might even be just what the director wanted/was hoping for. Never assme that being asked to do it differently is because the first way was somehow "wrong". The director is trying to find out a few things 1. Whether the delivery (if it was good) was a fluke 2. Whether the delivery (if iit wasn't great) was due to nerves or some other factor 3. Whether the actor has been excessively coached 4.. Whether the actor is flexible enough to take on different ideas and can very quickly change his/her approach to a scene.

As ash says, being able to take direction is vital. In a short audition it can be difficult to assess how easy an actor will be to work with. The instruction to "do it again differently" is a test. As an actor, it can be a bit alarming. I always found it alarming until I started to direct and undertood a bit more about why actors are often asked to do it. I think it's particularly hard if you have learned the scene beforehand and spent a lot of preparation time on it. If you do the scene, feel that you have done it well and are then asked to do it again in a way that hadn't really occurred to you, it is hard to be brave and leave behind all of the given circumstances/back story, objectives, actions etc you have sweated over before you came. Doing it again differently can seem much less truthful, because you haven't had time to absorb all the new objectives, back story etc for the new approach. The danger here is that you only give a grudging flavour of what the director has asked you to do because you are anxious that really going for the new approach will result in acting that's not very truthful. It's important to remember that the director will have your first truthful reading to consider as well as whatever you do the next time. So: go for broke. Really embrace what you have been asked to do and be brave. If it's too much you can be asked to tone it down.

The short (non-pg-type) summary of all that is:

If you are asked to do the scene differently - don't do it the same!

pg...can i just be annoyingly sycophantic and say how much I enjoy and how useful your "ramblin" posts are! So keep them up!!

Thank you. That is so helpful. My daughter didn't get the part, I don't know whether it was down to this or not but at least if she's ever asked again I can prewarn her as to why it might be, and what to do about it. Thanks again

agpark - with regard to the comment you made about why your DD may not have got the part....My Dd does an audition preparation / technique class through her Agency and it is drummed into them that there are a gazillion reasons why you may not get the part after a casting or audition and therefore it is not worth over analysing! If in doubt they are taught to say to themselves "clearly I had the wrong colour eyes" Hope that might help!

Hi Willali,
Thank you for that thought. My daughter had a very sensible reaction to not getting the part. She just shrugged, wished the successful girl well and moved on. (But I think it may help me to remember that she just had the wrong colour eyes. I can't seem to help myself from analysing, think it's just in my nature).