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.