How to Deal with Stress in Acting Auditions

Video Transcript

"I'm Dr. Charles Grimes. I'm speaking on behalf of Expert Village about how to deal with the day of your theatrical audition. Okay, so you're sitting there at the audition, looking at a whole bunch of other people who are also there to audition. This is a situation where you're going to feel lots of stress. Also, because you're doing a monologue, when it counts with other people, you're going to feel that extra jolt of adrenaline that you perhaps didn't have when you were rehearsing. Remember that for your timing, as well. You may end up going through your monologue quicker. You don't want to go through so quick that you're going to speed through it and lose a sense of the acting and the drama. So remember all those things as you're sitting in the audition environment. Mentally, remember your successes. Remember what you've done right. Remember what's brought you to this point in theater. Pat yourself on the back for all the hard work that you've done so far. And this will help you with your stress, and maybe help you convert that adrenaline into excitement about what you have to offer. And your chance to do this monologue for real, in front of a whole bunch of people who are going to be wowed and amazed. Physically, you can try doing some exercises to bring yourself some kind of relaxation. You might want to think about exercises of clenching and relaxing. Whether that's your hands, your arms, your eyes and your face. So you might want to think about scrunching up your face, and then releasing, so that you get a sense of exercising your muscles and you get a sense of ridding yourself of that tightness that sometimes comes when you have stress. You should probably have a number exercises that you feel good doing. You can do them in public. It's perfectly fine. So those are some ways to deal with stress and adrenaline. Some mental and some physical ways of dealing with that part of the audition environment."