Syllabus TDPS De-Cal Spring 2008

Audition Techniques: How to Get Your Foot in the Door

Student Course Facilitator: Siobhan Doherty
Phone: 805-886-9960
Email: SioDoherty@Berkeley.edu
Wednesdays 4 - 5:30pm
Required Text
Audition by Michael Shurtleff
Requirements: Attendance, participation (including discussion), preparation and a level
of mastery. Things like attitude, levels of commitment and concentration, listening,
willingness to try, willingness to fail, and ability to grasp concepts will be noted on a
daily basis and will impact your final grade.
This class will explore practical audition experience and career planning including
practicing audition skills focusing on monologue selection and performance, cold
readings, movement/dance calls, warm-ups and basic audition etiquette and protocol.
Since monologues are the most common way actors interact with possible employers,
talent representatives, and casting offices, we will spend a good portion of our time
working on them. At the end of this syllabus you will find a timeline for the semester
including mock auditions and feedback sessions at various times during the semester.
During the feedback class we will discuss how your audition went, if you were called
back or cast and about what went into the decisions made in each case. You should
approach each audition exactly as you would a real audition situation. How you
present yourself at the auditions will factor into your overall grade in the class.
Two semester long projects:
1. Audition Log: You will be required to keep a log of all you real and mock
auditions this semester. You may copy the form I made for you (attached to the
end of this packet), or you may do your log in the form of:
a. A loose leaf notebook
b. 4x6 cards in a box OR
c. A Holdon log (http://www.holdonlog.com/pages/hl-actorlog.html , $25,
but very useful.)
2. Monologue/Song Binder: You will also be required to create a binder containing
monologues and songs that you are prepared to perform at auditions. The binder
must contain a minimum of the two monologues you will work on in class, and
either the one song you choose to sing for the mock musical theater audition or
another monologue.
Goals: Our goal is to work towards becoming confident and skilled auditioners so we
will have the best chance of obtaining the opportunity to practice the art and craft that we
call acting. In order to be a successful auditioner you must be able to distill down your

process, so that with little or no preparation you can create in one to two minutes
truthful behavior within the given circumstances in order to get the all important
callback and, hopefully, a job. Lets face it: you dont get to act if you dont get cast.
Through practical applications of the concepts we learn through our various reading
assignments and subsequent discussions we will strengthen our confidence and hone
these skills.
Grades:
Participation
Preparation and level of mastery
Assignments

30%
20%
50 %

Attendance Policy: You are allowed one absence, due to the limited amount of class
meetings. Each subsequent absence lowers your grade one half letter. Repeated or
extreme tardiness will count as absences.
Semester Timeline
(subject to change)
January 23: Introductions, review syllabus, discuss auditions, resumes and headshots.
Shurtleff pg. 1-32 due February 6th.
First monologue due February 6th.
Resume due February 20th.
Monologue/Song Binder and Audition Log due May 7th.
January 30: The warm-up how to focus and prepare before an audition. Vocal, physical,
and mental techniques. Developing your own warm-up.
February 6: Discuss Shurtleff reading. Work first monologues.
Shurtleff 33-87 due February 13th.
February 13: Discuss first 6 Guideposts from Shurtleff reading. Continue working first
monologues.
Shurtleff 87 142 due February 20th.
Second contrasting monologues due March 5th.
February 20: Collect resumes. Discuss second 6 guideposts from Shurtleff reading. Work
first monologues with guideposts.
February 27: Discuss and return resumes. Type discussion. Continue to work first
monologues with guideposts.
Revised Resumes due March 12th.
March 5: Discuss Cold reading. Work Second Contrasting Monologues.

March 12: Collect Revised Resumes. COLD READING AUDITION.

March 19: Discuss Cold Reading Auditions. Continue to work second contrasting
monologues.
(March 26 off for Spring Break)
April 2: Work second contrasting monologues with guideposts.
April 9: Finish working second contrasting monologues with guideposts.
April 16: Discuss preparing for a musical theater audition and dance call.
April 23: MOCK MUSICAL THEATER AUDITION. (One monologue and one song OR
two monologues.)
April 30: MOCK DANCE CALL.
May 7: Collect Monologue/Song Binder and Audition Log. Discuss Mock Musical
Theater Audition and Dance Call.Feedback.

Todays Date ________

1st audition

Audition Details:

st

callback

nd

callback

Project_________________________________________________________________
Film

TV Commercial Industrial Theatre Other____________________

Audition Date _________

Time __________
Date of Job/Booking/Shoot ____________________
Role/Character Description _________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Location of Audition ______________________________________________________
Contact Name _________________ Phone Number _____________________________
Headshot Submitted

Post Audition:
I met with: ______________________________________________________________
I wore: _________________________________________________________________
Thoughts:_______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Pieces:
Monologues: _____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Songs:
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________