How to Avoid Reading Monologues in Auditions

Video Transcript

"This is Dr. Charles Grimes, and I'm talking on behalf of Expert Village about rehearsing a monologue. I'm going to give you one more hint that helps with the maturation of your rehearsal process. At some point you have to move along from simply reading the words to speaking them out loud. And again, you have to measure yourself on a stage, a larger one than what we're on, probably, addressing people who are a couple hundred feet away from you. The important thing is that you have your full voice. Anything that happens in a play has to happen with you speaking in your full voice, making sure that you're being heard by everyone in the theatre. Also, when we read to ourselves, when we speak to ourselves, we generally do so in quiet ways. We like to keep ourselves to ourselves and not be rude. People who speak loudly in public are generally thought to be crazy. You have to do that very thing in order to begin exploring the depths of your monologue. So stop reading and start speaking. Start speaking out loud in your full voice. Can you give us a shot at that, Hank? The man issue is a singular issue and quite distinct from your previous work. That's very good, Hank, I might say, being a snotty director. But let's go even fuller on that. I don't want to hear your conversational voice, I want to hear your theatrical voice. The man issue is a singular issue and quite distinct from your previous work. Certain elements of or might well approximate points and procedures of some of your other activities. But all events, McCann, of the job will be accomplished without any excess aggravation to you or myself. That's very fine Hank, thank you. Good. So it's a very simple thing when you're performing and rehearsing your monologue, it has to be full voice all the time. Otherwise you aren't engaged at the proper level emotionally."