Originally from San Francisco, Mike Romo worked on a variety of (small) stages in New York for years before coming to Los Angeles. In-between auditions, Mike works in the software industry and writes a weekly column on comics and comic book culture for iFanboy.com. You can find more of his work at mikeromo.com and follow him on Twitter @rikemomo.

Over the past year or so, I have been going to quite a few workshops and standalone classes with variety of film and television casting directors, and I’ve gathered a few tips and tricks that I am finding to be extremely useful, especially in casting situations where there’s a CD, a reader and a camera.

The trick is, of course is to remember these audition tips when dealing with the pressure and anxiety of an actual audition, so I would suggest writing shortened versions on the back of a business card and keeping them in your wallet or purse.  Not only does it help you remember, it should relax you a bit as your realize, “Oh yeah, I know how to do this!”

Much what you’ll find below is Acting 101, but it’s amazing how easy it is to forget the basics when you are trying to perform a cramped office after waiting for over and hour worried whether or not you’re going to get a parking ticket!  Let’s get to it.

1 – Make a decision in the scene: Are you helping or hindering?

This is super basic but super helpful. There’s no “right” choice, of course, but you do need to make a choice, and this very basic directive will inform the scene for you. Even if you are “wrong” you are showing the casting director a different take, which is valuable.  I have heard countless stories about actors doing something totally different than what was called for and booking the part, or at least making an impact on the CD, enough to bring the actor in front of producers. Sure, this choice may not always going to be valid in the context of the full script, but make it anyway — it gives you something work with. This decision to help or hinder is especially useful for last minute script changes, or if they give you a new script before your audition.

2 – Who are you talking to?

This is useful for regular auditions and vital for voiceovers. Just choose someone in your life to do the scene to, someone that will bring up the appropriate emotions. If you are frustrated at someone, talk to an ex-boy/girlfriend, etc.  It sounds like Acting 101 because it is Acting 101, but I admit it, I wasn’t doing this all the time. It just provides more grounding to the scene, and, like the first tip, can help with sudden auditions.

3 – Focus on the reader–really.

I spent six hours in a workshop with casting director Risa Bramon Garcia and this was one of the (many) things that really stuck with me. When you are working with a reader and being filmed, focus on that reader, even though you might be tempted to look away, take a sigh, glance to bolster an argument–you know what I am talking about–resist doing that. We tested this on camera and, without exception, the audition–the audition–was much more effective and powerful when the actor stayed focused on the reader. The performance just lit up the screen.  When we take little breaks, little moments, it weakens the moment, it chokes your momentum. Yes, sure, when you are doing the real filming, you can play around, take pauses, do all that fun business, but when you stay with the reader, it makes for a much more engaging audition. When you don’t take your eyes and your emotional focus off the reader, the people watching that tape won’t take their eyes off of you.

4 – Bring yourself to the audition.

This sounds obvious, and I guess it is, but it’s worth repeating that your very being makes you different than the other actors, moreso, in some cases, than the actual performance. Yes, you may get the time to create full-on characters, but sometimes you’ll get that last minute audition and you’ll need to work quickly. Bring aspects of yourself, your attitude, your demeanor–whatever–to the character. This is not saying be yourself, because it’s easy to forget the other aspects of the scene when you just try be 100% yourself. It’s a fine line and the differences become more obvious when used a classroom exercise, but I had to include it.

5 – Don’t play the end of the scene at the beginning/there is always an arc.

Basically exactly what it says. No matter how short the scene is, there’s going to be a beginning, middle and ending. Let the scene’s beats carry you along–if your character is bummed at the end of the scene, figure out how to make her, well, less bummed at the beginning. And, obviously, if a scene is more than one sentence, it most likely has beats that you need to cover.  Again, Acting 101- figure out the beginning, middle and end, and make sure your character is different, has a different attitude toward the subject being discussed or the person they are with, whatever , during those beats.

6 – Pick up the cues.

Wow, am I seeing a lot of actors tank in these CD workshops because they don’t have their scenes down and are constantly looking down, oftentimes missing or dropping cues. You do this more than once and you’ve lost the scene, and, with it, the audition.  Memorize the scene.  You have the memory, you can learn a few pages in 10 minutes or so, enough, at least, to keep the scene moving. Again, this was by far the most obvious thing that the CDs have been looking for–for actors to carry the scene. You drop the ball, they move on.  It’s a killer, I gotta say, to watch the rest of the class just tune out when the actor just kept looking down and fumbling along. Yes, hold the script and yes, memorize it. If you have a crappy memory, then memorize a page of a script every night. Spend an hour on it and then write it out or record it to see if you got it right.  Memory is a muscle, the more you use it, the better it gets.

7 – Raise the stakes.

Again, this was really useful to watch in a classroom situation but I know it’s going to be useful, especially with the smaller scenes.  Raise the damn stakes. Most actors will play it safe and the CD will not have much of a choice between her actors. Care more about what is going on, make an emotional connection that pushes you in a particular direction, listen more intensely and focus more intensely–the actors that heighten the situation were the ones who were getting called back. Yes, of course, things may change when you get the real script or when you are on set, but if you just show folks that you are truly giving your all…that’s whom they want to bring to producers.

More often than not, there are cues in the script that give you some footholds on what you can focus your emotions on. The script has all the information you need, you don’t need to make anything up. If another character says you are a drama queen in the scene you are reading, you’d better make damn sure you show that in the scene–the character is saying it for a reason, you know? Again, this is for the audition, which is all you get, right?  Make the audition its own thing–the thing that will get you in front of the director.

This is not an excuse for bad acting, obviously.  You can care more without resorting to melodrama and histrionics.

8 – Almost done–figure out what you want in the scene.

That’s first day of acting class again, but, again, I got lazy and it was not helping me. I want ____ from ____. Bam. That’s all. I am even doing it for the one page scenes. Even if it’s wrong, it’s still a choice and I am convinced that many, many actors are relying so much on just “being there” that they are not doing this kind of basic thing that makes auditions more interesting.

Finally, and I got this from Risa Ramon Garcia and Michael Laskin, when you are auditioning, you have the role. No one else is doing it.  You’ve booked it for those few minutes. You are not “trying out”–hell, you are not even auditioning; you are doing the role. You are the actor playing that character at that moment in time. Own that moment. I know it sounds cheesy, but, it’s true, you know?  Give it to them.

So there you go, a few tips that I hope will be helpful this coming pilot season. If you have questions or comments, please drop me a line at mike@mikeromo.com. Break a leg and I’ll see ya out there!