Acting with Impact and Auditioning

Okay, you haven’t heard from me in a while. I’ve been completing the final adaptation of my book, Acting with Impact, Volume One. Yes, I said Volume One. When I first finished the writing and rewrites and cuts and more rewrites, edits and cuts and rewrites…I learned I had written too big of a book for just one book.

The good news is I now have a bible for actors, or should I say Torah? Anyway, it turns out I have two volumes and a supplemental book of processes. And soon, Acting with Impact, Volume One, will be available to you. Yes, you will be the first to know!

Now, let’s get back to our passion, getting booked. Recently an actor shared that she is always lending out her highlighter when she is at auditions, which is becoming quite a bit of a concern. What else do actors forget to bring to their auditions? I promised this would be my next blog.

What you need to bring to your audition:

1. A highlighter! In case you have more sides to highlight your new dialogue. This makes cold reading material so much easier.
2. Your photo and resume: already stapled or adhered together back to back.
3. Your sides: if you were able to get them on-line, which is usually the case.
4. Pen or pencil: just in case to take notes.
5. Dictionary: in your car. One that not only has definitions but notates the punctuation of words. You can always mosey on out to your car to check out words you don’t know so you can commit to that dialogue!
6. Mints: for obvious reasons. You don’t ever want to feel self-conscious about anything, especially your breath.
7. Bottled Water: don’t need anyone to bring you anything.
8. Your PDA cell phone turned off! There is nothing worse than “apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur” blasting out during your reading.
9. Your coaches phone number: just in case you would like a last minute suggestion for the reading or to get feedback on your choices.
10. Heels, hair accessories and makeup: (women) in your car. Just in case the role calls for a more feminine presence and/or to freshen yourself up.

Don’t bring:

1) A tote bag or huge bag of stuff and lug it around…unless it’s part of the character.
2) Animals or other living things, unless they are gifts.
3) Gifts. Leave those to a more appropriate time, other than an audition.
4) A bad attitude. Always be ready to take direction and enjoy the process of auditioning.

Have a ritual of working out both your body and voice in the early part of the day prior to your audition. You’re body needs to be tuned up and present. Also, by executing a few vocal exercises you won’t squeeze your throat from nerves or tension, and you will be able to drop that voice into your body.

Finally, always plan to be a half hour early. That way with LA traffic and parking, your guaranteed to be there at least 15 minutes early which gives you time to catch your breath and center yourself so you don’t feel rushed. If you are always early, you will always be on time, which is essential for production. Being on time is one of the few things you can control as you apply your commitment to getting that gig.

If there is any theme you would like me to hit on in this blog, don’t hesitate to comment and I will gladly address it in the next one.

Happy auditioning!!!!

xoxo,

Kimberly

The Value of the Inner Animal

Have you ever been with a friend and caught a glimpse of the animal that lives within them? Sometimes bone structure lends to a certain species. One of my best friends shared that her grandmother (an artist) perceived that people are either like birds or fish. I was told I was like bird. I think I hang around with a lot of fish… Lately my actors communicate that I’m very feline, perhaps because I live with two cats!

Within all of us lives an inner animal. Of course our human reality exists as well… but within each of us dwells the instincts and breath of a primal, earthly creature that needs and wants for shelter, freedom, food, safety, pleasure and companionship. And at times, there is great value to live into the thinking of our inner animal. It can allow us an innocence that surrounds an animal’s perceptions. We can experience a profound depth in being quiet and listening to the drum of the turning of the earth from the animal within.

Every character also has an inner animal. In acting you can use this insight in hearing the voice and finding the physical confidence and behavior of the character you’re developing. You can discover nuances in rehearsal with the great support of an inner animal in mind. It can guide you into a depth that can be found without words. The inner animal can inspire the actor from a core that moves past the intellect into the unknown. Any movement into the unknown has great value for the actor.

Daring to risk beyond a safe choice and moving to the new is courageous, which is what great acting is made of.

So how does one apply this in the work? By exploring this tool when it doesn’t count. In other words, practice it at home and in class doing scene work, using this perception. See how it affects the needs and want of your character. Own, discover and apply the insight of the life of that animal so that it is part of you, so that you aren’t hiding behind the work but revealing that part of you that has discovered the life of the Inner Animal.

Eventually, when you master this tool, you may use it professionally. Remember, the bigger the role the bigger the risk. It’s not necessarily practical to use this on an audition that is under five lines. But with a larger role, and with a solid director working with you, you may find that it will bring about great choices in your work and more great opportunities will follow.

Email me if you have any questions and I’ll add the answers to this blog.

The Opportunity of the “R” Word

The hazard of being an artist is that, often, those that could hire you may reject you. And the experience can feel like an attack on your confidence, immune system and the very thing you have to give, your art. But the process is actually a strange kind of opportunity to experience your strength, clarify what you have to give, and grant you the grace of intentionality recommitting to your goals.

In my experience and on every level, anyone that cares about accomplishing a goal, when kept from achieving it, experiences loss. You may immediately feel threatened to protect the very part of you that needs to be kept alive, your talent.

However, there waiting in the very experience of rejection, lies a gift that may not take us where we thought we were supposed to go, but forward with a new understanding and a deeper appreciation for where we actually arrive.

Our response to rejection maps the direction of our journey. We are rivers flowing downstream looking for the larger lake we long to become in the expression of our art. And in that travel, we will bump up against rocks and boundaries, and sometimes things will look like stops. There will be times when our very determination will discover that we must push our aim in a new direction and risk flowing into mid-air off a cliff, like a river that turns into a waterfall. The water takes the risk of falling off the stones to land in a lake of opportunity to serve the life of those that touch it.

The lesson feeds the river. When we let rejection stop us, our river can easily dry up, evaporate and keep us from the beauty that awaits for us beyond. The lesson fuels the journey and keeps us optimistic that we will find our home, and way.

We must grow from every rejection and allow it to shape our success. We must build ourselves with strength and determination to find the place in our art that will nourish and serve. Rejection must be experienced, for it is part of a process that refines us as the boundaries of learning shape us.

When we move into acceptance of the journey, we gain an advantage and the necessary edge to rise up to the next opportunity. When we allow ourselves to be shaped by the lesson, we become useful contributors to the art. When we see the positive and bless the lesson, we are granted grace.

You’re welcome to share your experiences of the opportunities you have unearthed in the experience of rejection.

In acting, freedom is found from within

A large budget can enhance the quality of the filmmaker’s story, but the budget has nothing to do with the actor’s talent to deliver the performance.

In acting, it’s not about the venue, it’s about the freedom within to access character and emotion.

You can put an actor on an empty stage with a single light and the actor’s gift will emerge — because an actor needs only access to their imagination.

In fact, the more limits or boundaries you put on an actor, the more creative the actor will become. This is how great direction works. The director will give you an impossible way to act the scene and it is your freedom that will allow you to deliver it in such a way that the direction becomes genius. A great actor understands this flexibility. Your freedom allows you to inspire greatness in others and brings the project up as a whole.

This is true for writers, artists, poets, musicians and any artistic expression born from the gift to create.

All that an actor has is the sense of their own internal freedom to express. This freedom delivers confidence, depth, and the euphoria of a process that happens because it comes from you, and is held by you from within.

So how do you tap into your own freedom to create? When you release judgment of yourself and your process you acquire freedom to create. The less judgment you put on yourself in the process, the more freedom you gain. The less you judge the writing, other actors, or the direction, the more inspired you will be to deliver a performance that makes an impact.

Over the next two weeks, observe your judgments and begin allowing yourself to be more neutral to your process. Forgive your judgments and put them aside. Focus on the enjoyment of the process itself, and take the risks necessary to experience that source that lives inside you ready to create!