Don't be Polite!

What I love about acting is I get to do stuff that in real life I have to censor in order to be a polite, socialized person. Many actors struggle when their good training from mom gets in the way of their scene work. When we're polite, our scenes lack conflict, drama and stakes. Believe me, I understand this one. My acting teacher always told me I was being too polite in my scene work. And now my writing coach says the same thing about my dialogue!

So when you're acting - TAKE EVERYTHING PERSONALLY! Yes! Let it in, let it hurt, let it sting, let it feel good, hear it, feel it, and respond to it -TAKE EVERYTHING PERSONALLY!

And on the other side of things: GET A REACTION OUT OF THE OTHER PERSON. Don't be polite - poke, prode, cajole, tickle, get under their skin - make the other people in the scene feel or do something now. So stop being polite - in your scene work that is!

What's the scene about?

As you know, I believe a strong intention and high stakes make for a good audition, but you can't even begin to find your intention or have high stakes if you don't know what the scene is about.

To find out what the scene is about you have to imagine yourself as the fly on the wall watching the scene. As the fly, ask yourself these questions: Where is it? What's going on? What are these people doing? What's that experience like? When you ask yourself these questions, I can guarantee you'll start picturing the scene in your mind like a movie and you'll start to recognize the experience of the scene as something you either have experienced yourself or can imagine going through.

Now you know what the scene is about and you can ask yourself, what would my character want in this situation (Intention) and you can raise the stakes. Knowing what the scene is about will increase your odds of booking the job because you are now an actor who is connected and present in the scene and you have something to do.