It has been said that auditioning is the actor’s real job and that performing is just icing on the cake. If that is the case, then Michael Shurtleff’s book Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part is the job manual that every actor should study.
In this wonderful book, Shurtleff provides actors with 12 guideposts that will help them to focus their auditions. These are:
• Relationships – how to create them onstage.
• Conflict – what are you fighting for?
• The moment before – how to start a scene.
• Humor – why jokes don’t work.
• Opposites – finding hidden tension in your scene.
• Discoveries – making things happen for the first time.
• Communication and competition – reaching the other actor.
• Importance – locating the dramatic core.
• Find the events – what’s really happening in the play.
• Place – create it on a bare stage.
• Game playing and role playing – play them for reality.
• Mystery and secret – adding wonderment to the scene.
In truth, this isn’t just a guide for auditions; it is a great book on acting that offers clear and concise approaches to the work. In addition to the guideposts, Shurtleff’s observations and thoughts on style, monologues, comedy, and other topics of interest to actors are alone worth the cost of the book.
Michael Shurtleff has been a casting director, writer, and teacher. While Audition tends to focus on the theatre, the lessons are valuable for every actor and if you read carefully they will help you as prepare for all your auditions, in any media. This is a book that you should have on your bookshelf and it should be marked up and coming apart from reading and rereading.