Recently, my agent got me a selftape audition for Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, due in two and a half days. My knowledge of Shakespeare was limited to the one class session in my high school theater class about iambic pentameter, so I was pretty spooked. But I survived! (Partially because of these tricks that kept me ready for any audition!)
*8/25/19 Edit: I just found out that I got a callback! How exciting!
*9/7/19 Edit: Today, I got hired as the 3rd Witch, Lady Macduff, Fleance, and Gentlewoman!
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Here are the steps I took to finally send in that selftape:
1) Actively read the play.
Sit down with your pen and notebook and get reading! There are a lot of words in Shakespeare that I didn’t recognize. It’s going to take a while, but I promise you it’s worth it; define/Google every word you don’t know, even if you’ve seen the word before but are slightly unsure of its use in the sentence. Power through and be patient!
2) Research Shakespeare’s verse.
Shakespeare’s writing has specific accents on specific words, so it’s important to understand the rhythm and say the right words. I think of it like music, and that way my brain remembers all the words.
3) Pick a monologue for your character.
The casting director’s notice told me to pick a Shakespeare monologue for the selftape. I looked up some Shakespeare pointers and learned:
- Don’t pick a monologue from the same play that you’re auditioning for.
- Do pick a monologue that is reminiscent of your character.
- If not noted in the selftape/audition notice, don’t let it go over 3 minutes.
4) Perform it in your natural accent.
Don’t do an English accent if you don’t have one! Apparently it makes you look like an amateur, and you definitely don’t want that if you already feel like you don’t know what you’re doing.
5) Take Shakespeare’s advice.
Shakespeare, in Hamlet, wrote a special note to players (actors!) on how to act in Act 3, Scene 2! Here is an excerpt:
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o’erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure.
If you’d like to read this in a highly-simplified modern English, I’ve translated it below:
Do it like I taught you, with energy; but if you just play the general mood, I’d rather a newscaster do it. Don’t move too much; move simply and in a relaxed manner even when over-excited to give it an actor’s grace. Don’t be so loud and melodramatic that the audience has to cover their ears. Don’t rant at the audience. But also, don’t have too little energy; match the action to the words and the words to the action. The point of theater is to show the world’s truth.
If you’d like to read the whole passage, Google “Hamlet’s advice to the players,” or read Hamlet!
And don’t forget to have fun!
I didn’t know just how amazing and inspiring Shakespeare’s writing was until this audition. I’ve truly turned into a fan, and I’ll be reading lots more of Shakespeare in the near future! Enjoy this!
And that’s how I survived my first Shakespeare audition! I hope you enjoyed this article, and don’t forget to email subscribe below for exactly when our articles come out, and check out our Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!
