Things You'll Need:
- Car
- Detailed Directions
- Resume
- Headshot
- Patience
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Step 1
Finally. Your agent or manager has called with an audition for your child. Hopefully, your agent or manager emails you the sides and directions. Print out and read the sides and highlight your child's part. Print out directions to the audition. If the agent or manager doesn't tell you and you see you are going to a studio casting office then call to see if you will be driving on to the lot or parking on the street. If onto the lot the agent has to give them your name and you will have to get a pass before you go in. This can be time consuming and make take another 15-20 minutes for this process.
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Step 2
Make sure your child practices his sides and knows them. Some younger children that cannot read will need you to read them the lines so they can memorize them.
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Step 3
Prepare your child's clothes. Have them wear a shirt or blouse with no logo. One set of "audition" clothes is a good thing to have. A polo shirt with a pair of jeans or khaki pants works well for the boys. A unpatterned dress or collared blouse and pants work well for girls. Do not dress for the character. Even though the sides says the character wears glasses or uses a prop, do not bring one to the audition.
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Step 4
Make sure you leave plenty of time to get there. If you are traveling over 60 minutes, carry a complete change of clothes, including sandals, (my own son threw up, one car trip and it went into his shoes) hairbrush, cooler with water, healthy snacks, directions, maps or GPS, small vinyl binder with several headshots and resumes and Gameboy or book.
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Step 5
When you arrive brush your child's hair, going over the sides one more time, and take a deep breath and collect yourself. As you begin to know the different casting offices, you will know which ones have the bathrooms and they are a good place to go into to collect yourself.
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Step 6
As you go into the office search for the sign in sheet. It will usually be on a clip board or setting on a table with pens. Sign your child's name. Sometimes they are using old forms and will ask for the SSN. Do not under any circumstances put down your child's SSN. It's too easy to get stolen. Usually commercial auditions want you to sign out, too, so make sure you do that when the time comes.
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Step 7
Sit down and wait. Have your child sit quietly by you and play with their Gameboy or read. Don't worry about going over the sides. Your child will be as good as they can be at this point. Tell your self several times to relax and take a deep breath. Have the resume and headshot pulled out of your vinyl binder and ready to give to your child.
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Step 8
You will see the Casting Director come out and look at the sheet and call a name. When your child's name is called, hand them the headshot and resume and smile. Sometimes if you glance at the sign in sheet, you can see who is before you and have your child ready before their name is called.
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Step 9
The most important part of the whole process is this step. When your child comes out of the audition, gather them up and walk out the door. Once outside, you can ask questions. Please don't over do it. Your child has worked hard to get this far and should only hear positive comments from you.
Comments
Niki1K said
on 1/10/2009 This article is very informative however I have to disagree with a point in step 3. By all means don't bring a wizard costume to dress the part but if you can pull off certain things for props such as glasses do so. If your child normally wears contacts but the character wears glasses have them wear their glasses. Always have your kids take in their backback with a water bottle and books. They most likely can use these for little props and it helps them get into character and look like they are thinking fast on their feet. Casting directors need help to see the part. Just tips I picked up from our kids acting coach (he's well known)