Preparing a notice for auditions of a musical I’m working on, it will often instruct actors to NOT use a song from the show that’s going to be done. I’ve nearly always included that in my instructions for auditions … and why is that?
Actors make decisions about how to sing a song – and a lot of focus is on the character in the show … particularly why the character is singing that song and what is the song about. That’s great! And it is what an actor should indeed do. But the actor is fleshing out her/his idea of the character which may not be the direction we’ll be taking once we begin rehearsals. And because of the preparation, the actor may have a difficult time steering clear of her/his own interpretation that they’ve worked so hard to develop.
I’m more interested in overall personality, presence, and ability
Not just the question of, “can you sing in tune?” I’m really more interested in what more can an actor bring to the table. Does he have a personality that I’d be interested in seeing more? Or is he a piece of wood just standing there? Does she have a presence – that difficult-to-define quality that is interesting to hear and watch?
I’m interested in your range … range of emotion, vocal range, range of your personality … just as much as whether or not you can sing.
Take the stage! Own it! Wow me!
It’s difficult (really difficult!) to break a rehearsed interpretation
I mentioned this before, but it’s worth expanding on …
Because an actor prepares for the audition, and decisions are made as to the nature of the song and the character, it can be extremely difficult to move away from that interpretation. In fact, nearly every time an actor sang from the show, he has not been able to move away from the interpretation. So, basically we get stuck in the audition interpretation and never progress.
Rarely are these songs in the actual key
There are so many wonderful resources for actors to use in a musical audition. Rarely, however, are these in the same key signature as the actual song in the show’s score.
And I’ve had conversations with a director that went something like:
[director] “He could sing that part.”
[me] “Ummm … actually, I don’t think so because this was in a different key.”
[director] “Is that a problem?”
[me] “Well, yeah – it could be a big problem.”
[director] “What do you mean?”
[me] “Well, if this is the limit to their vocal range, then they’re not able to sing the role from the score.”
[director] “What’s the worst case scenario?”
[me] “They’ll sound like crap!”
An actor is really not doing any himself/herself favors when singing a song from the show for an audition.
Yet another reason to be sure one reads the audition instructions.
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