Audition Prep - Sight Reading
When sight reading a piece in a class context or for an audition the most important piece of advice anyone give you, is to breath. Sight reading is examining your ability to think on your feet, your adaptability and your skill as a performer.
If you are familiar with the character you’re reading then give yourself time to create a very clear mental picture of that character in that moment. This gives you grounding and a visual reference to then think about layering movement and voice work. For example, reading Lady MacBeth from MacBeth, think of her visually in that moment, she is out of breath, she might be frantic, she is carrying the weight of actions up until this point.
Practice sight reading, all different kinds of texts & give yourself intention or objectives. This can be poetry, dramatic texts, monologues, the back of shampoo bottles.
When sight reading dramatic texts / monologues duologues, always do the following :
Breath, calm your breathing. A good exercise for this is breathing in through your nose and holding it for the count of 2 beats then releasing slowly out through your mouth for the count of 2 as well.
Warm up your voice, this not only shows you are prepared as an actor but will settle your nerves and adrenaline.
Read the entire monologue, take notes of any clear intention/objective/aims
Note down who you are delivering this too, is it a lover/enemy/sister/religious figure What is your relationship with this person like? Are you warm or cold with them?
Use punctuation to your advantage, pay close attention to full stops and commas, exclamation points. When reading the monologue before you present it to a panel, walk for the length of a sentence, stop on a full stop. Turn or change direction on a comma and on an exclamation jump on the spot. This will get the monologue into your body and offer you a movement vocabulary for when performing.
Make sure to direct your monologue to the panel, don’t keep your face or eyes fixated on the text. Let them see your face, this is where you show the most emotion.
Do not be afraid of pausing or using pauses if it makes sense too. We often pause in our natural speech so use this to your advantage to look at the lines or calm yourself.
Use your energy, really commit to the emotion of the character. Do not feel like you have to half act it because you are sight reading.
To keep your place in the monologue, use your thumb down the page as a guide. This is a tried and tested technique and stops the unnecessary and distracting crumpling of paper.
Listen, this is key Listen to yourself when practicing sight reading, do it as much as you can. Use whatever texts you can get your hands on.
Read them out loud and repeat them, this will flag up any vocal quirks to be mindful of.
Remember this isn’t a memory challenge, so let go of the thought that you need to know it. If you have a difficult time reading text / speaking text you are unfamiliar or a learning need such as dyslexia, you can communicate this with the audition panel or your audience before hand. They may offer you an extra few minutes to read the text.
