Unit 12- task 2- audition process

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 Little Women Audition Process

Today (April 18th) we got told the audition requirements for little women. We have to go through our script and find a monologue from the character that we with to audition for. It was a few weeks ago when I read the script so I am wondering if there will be actual options for monologues or if each character will only have one monologue. We also have to devise our own monologue that we think the character would say. I think this is a really tricky task because these characters are so specific and deep however I do understand why Kelly requires this as it shows who’s willing to put in the effort and who understands their character.

Since the audition requirements are quite tricky, I’m only going to focus on one character. My two favourites are Amy and Meg however I think Amy would be more of a challenge for me so I’ll focus on her and tell them Meg is my second choice. 

After college tomorrow I’ll stay back to find an audition monologue from the script. Ince I’ve found one I love, I will start to devise a piece that is more contrasting to show I’m a diverse actor. 

Today (April 18th) we spent the morning preparing for the little women auditions. We were sent to the LRC to do some independent learning. I was looking through the script trying to find a monologue for Amy because I’d decided that I liked her the most and she was most of a challenge for me. However, I spent a long time looking for a monologue for Amy but I couldn’t find anything that popped for me. I was speaking to charley who had a similar problem and we went to Kelly for advice. She said she was looking for a younger scene and she wanted to see Amy as a bratty little girl. This is when I realised I didn’t want Amy anymore. I loved the character but I loved when she was older more and that’s not focused on in the play. I then wanted to look into Meg more because she was my other favourite. I found so many amazing scenes that I had forgotten about. I think Meg has so much more depth in the play than in the movie, she’s a far better character. I crossed Amy off my audition sheet and wrote Meg on instead. Now I’ll have to find a juicy scene for her. I want to use a scene where she talks about the pressures of being the oldest child and being expected to save her whole family but she is at war with her brain and her heart because she has fallen for a poor man. I think that is her key moment and I’d love to show a piece of that. For the piece I have to devise I’m thinking about writing a piece about living in poverty and how it’s worth it for the riches of love. 

Here’s the monologue I written for my audition, I started with a speech for Beth’s death but I didn’t think it was personal enough so I just brainstormed and completely changed it.

My dearest Beth. How I wish I could be standing here celebrating you rather than mourning you. You have always been such a gentle soul, designed to give and love without asking for anything in return. How I wish there were more Beth’s just like you, but you were one of a kind. You believed in the kindness of strangers, you were the best of us. And it pains me to imagine Christmas morning in marmes home without you playing you’re sweet songs on the piano. You’ve always been such a talented girl. I’m so glad you got to meet the twins, hopefully, as they get older they will be influenced by you and you can live on in them. The March family will never be complete with our you our sweet Bethy. 

Meg

The one I used;

Oh John aren’t they perfect. They’re the sweetest babies I’ve ever laid my eyes on, and in the summer we can take them on picnics in the meadow, and we can take them on walks through the park and- (pause look in eyes and gulp) oh John, this, right now, this moment is all I’ve ever dreamed about, since I was just a small girl. To be in love, and to have a family of my own who I can care for and feel content with. That’s it. And, I’m so grateful that it’s with you. and it pains me to think that ,that you’re not enough because you’re not earning as much as my cruel aunt March would want you too. Because that’s not what I care about, it’s moments like these, that I can treasure forever. They’re worth the most. 

On Monday night I stayed back with Harvey to go over our duologue. We were holding hands and standing close for chemistry but we still felt like it was a bit flat. I had to leave though so we said we’d rehearse in the morning before the audition, I wasn’t feeling too confident about it but was hopeful I’d fix it in the morning.

Tuesday (audition day)

I came in and went to rehearse with Harvey but he was filming straight away. So I went with Alayah and we went over our monologues together and gave each other notes. Performed hers and I was impressed, these were some of the notes I gave her; very strong American accent, her monologue was very emotional and matched the character, she could perform the monologue more upset that she was going to die. 

Her notes for me; very good accent as well, understands the character very well, very emotional. I felt better after performing it for someone because after staying up at night rehearsing, I still wasn’t 100% confident because of the monologue I had to write on my own. But the positive feedback made me feel better. Then harvey finished filming and we rehearsed as well. My number one concern was making the chemistry spark, because their love story is a key part to the show. I told him to hold my face when he says he lives me instead of just my hands, and we said which parts to make eye contact because we wanted it to be perfect however not look stiff. We asked Jack and Dev to give us feedback and they said we seemed very I love and Jack said he feared up which was very nice to hear. Dev told us to make more eye contact so we did. 

Then we went into the audition. I was so nervous before because this is my final show here and I really love the play! Me and Harvey quickly went over the lines and I went over my monologue. We went in and spoke to Kelly and Kane. First we did our duologue. It went really well. We didn’t forget any lines and we remembered to show lots of chemistry and emotion. I was worried Kelly and Kane wouldn’t find it believable but Kelly said it was very real and later used us as an example to the class on what chemistry we should be portraying. I was very happy with the duologue. 

Then for my monologue I was very worried I’d forget my lines and freeze up or rush it but I kept calm and told myself that nobody knows what the lines are supposed to be so if I forget I can improvise. Luckily this made my brain a lot less foggy and much more calm so I didn’t forget any lines. I also kept telling myself about the paving so I made sure not to rush anything. I do think I could’ve used more body language but because I wrote the scene I didn’t know how to add it without loosing the emotion of the scene. But i still think it went good as I was really in Megs mindset. 

This audition is so much different to my first audition here. In my first one I was going for a small part with absolutely no confidence. I was afraid to perform and kept myself in a very small box. But now I can wait to perform and have so much fun planning what I’m going to do for my auditions because I want it to be great. For this audition I was afraid they wouldn’t see the potential that I know I have for this role whereas I was afraid I had no potential in my fist audition. This is the best audition I’ve ever done. I didn’t have to stop or start again I was very clear minded. I’m happy with my performance but I’m going against some very talented actors so I’m not too confident. 

Today we came in a few hours early and did sister chemistry reads. Kelly told us to get in groups of four and do a certain scene that we would show back to her as a further audition. She told certain people if she didn’t think they suited the part they went for but she never said anything to me so that’s a good sign. I paired with Kadie, Charley and Gracie for this scene. We went to 224 and started with a read through, once we knew what was going on we blocked the scene. We staged where we wanted things and then we did the scene. We would stop and change things if we thought it felt right. I thought it would be good to go to the costume room and get some swords for the scene because they were needed. No other group thought about this so we could perform better since we had props that fit. Then we ran through the scene with our props and decided we were ready to perform in front of Kelly and the other girls. We had put as much characterisation into it as we could with the short time we had and we went back to the class room. We watched the other groups do it and they were all very good! They did it different to each other and to us which was fun and refreshing. Then we did ours, it went quite well, there were some lines we forgot but it’s okay because we only had around half an hour to learn them and Kelly expected us to still be on script anyway. 

She didn’t give any feedback, she just said that it was going to be really hard to cast and then said she wants us to perform them later after more auditions. 

We had to go to the dance studio where she sent a list of duologues she wanted us to do. She wanted the Megs to do the same audition duologue with the Mr Brooke’s to see chemistry. I was paired with Harvey again and then Jack didn’t have a partner so I went with him as well. I’d already rehearsed it a lot with harvey so we just ran over it a few times and I went over it with Jack a lot because he hadn’t done this scene before, so I taught him the staging and I helped him learn the lines and I tried to make it seem like there was chemistry because it’s very important for Meg and John (mr Brooke). We showed them back to Kelly and the class but she didn’t really give much away she just said they were good. I think I embodied Meg as much as I know how to this early on in the process.