Audio transcript

Drama audition advice with Dean Carey

EPISODE ANNOUNCER: Have you ever wanted to know the secrets to performing an amazing audition? In this episode, we speak with Dean Carey, teacher and founder of Actors Centre Australia and author of iconic actor's bible 'The Actor's Audition Manual'. This podcast is hosted by Jane Simmons, with questions from drama company members Kevin Fernando, Jeremy Jenkins, Reuben Odlum and Olivia Staniforth.

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ANNOUNCER: Listen @ The Arts Unit.

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JANE SIMMONS: Dean Carey, thank you so much for joining us.

DEAN CAREY: Oh, it's my pleasure. It's great. It's just fantastic to talk to other people in the industry or who want to be in the industry. It's the most exciting thing. I can't imagine my life without having done it, and I can't imagine my life without it in it. So it's a truly exciting industry.

People often say it's tough. You've got to get ready for the toughness. It can be tough in terms of waiting for jobs and trying to get jobs, but I've never really met people who don't want the best. Every director, producer, writer and cast want the show to be the best it possibly can. Not 8 out of 10, not we're aiming for 6, not we'll settle for 3. They go, 'We want this to be amazing,' and that's just a wonderful place to be.

BOY INTERVIEWER: Would you say that there are any benefits to performing for an audition a less known or a more obscure piece as opposed to more common or more popular pieces?

DEAN CAREY: The number one tip for me for people auditioning is choose pieces that you love, that you absolutely love. Not that you think you should do, it'd be important if you were seen doing it, it might impress people behind the table, somebody told you you should do it. No, no, no, choose 2 pieces that you absolutely love.

The 2 pieces I chose for my NIDA audition in 1979, I loved the characters. I loved the situations they were in. I loved the words. I loved the ideas. I loved the meaning. I loved saying in the words. I loved everything about it.

So when it got time for me to do my audition, yes, I was nervous, but what topped that was I couldn't wait to open my mouth and share these words. Not because of me, but because the writing and the meaning was so important, and that topped everything.

Number 2 for me is it's a performance. It's not an audition. Yes, it's an audition, but think of it like a performance. There is a stage. You're the actor. There's a character. There's been a writer, written this wonderful thing. There's an audience out there. You love performing, perform it.

Don't think, as you walk up onto the stage, 'Wow, I hope I get the job.' Of course, we're hoping to get into the drama school of our choice or the job, but that's not where your focus needs to be. It's about loving the piece and performing the piece. You love performing, so perform.

And that's what changes the atmosphere in the room from an audition to a live theatre experience, and that's what it really should be. Often people will ask the question, 'Who's the most important person in the room?' They ask me that question, and I go, 'Well, it could be the people behind the desk,' which you think that would be the answer, 'or it could be me, or it could be my character, or it could be the audience.'

For me, the golden rule is it's always the other character. It's always the other character. No matter whether they're a king or a beggar or you're a king or a beggar, it doesn't matter who you are, what you are, every word is directed to that person to change them in some way, and so your entire focus is on that person, and everything happens because of that person.

Now, if you're doing the monologue, then you're talking to the audience or a part of yourself. Make them the most important people. When Viola is saying, 'I left no ring with her,' she's hoping the audience have the answer, and by making them really important, she discovers it during the piece that Olivia is in love with her.

Once you do that, the focus is then off you coming up with the goods, being interesting, exciting, dramatic, truthful. You'll be all those things once the other person becomes more important. That's a really big thing.

To remember that every piece has a beginning, a middle and an end and you want to keep those things as far away from each other as possible. One of the exercises I gave my actors many years ago to get them to understand this was to say, 'Think of where your character is beginning of the piece, and go and stand or sit somewhere in the room that reflects that.' But I would suggest everyone works out where does the character start from physically, where do they move to, and where do they end up, and then you could do the whole piece standing in the same position, but dynamically and tonally, you will take the audience on a journey.

I tell people to take into the room the 3 things they love about acting. To walk in the audition door knowing it's fun, it's dynamic and it's playful, and that's why you're there in the room. Yes, you want to get the job. We all know you want to get the job. But getting the job is not what you're doing right now. You're going to be fun, playful and dynamic, and when you sit down and they call your name, that's what's present to you.

The other thing I ask people to do is, what does acting give you? So I wrote down for me, I become fully present, I connect deeply, and I share feelings that matter. That's what I wrote as Dean this morning when I woke up about this interview, and I went, 'Wow, would I love to be fully present, connect deeply and share feelings that matter?' Absolutely.

OLIVIA STANIFORTH: If you go into an audition thinking, this is where I've said it, this is what my character's intentions and objectives are, is it better to prepare that before the audition process?

DEAN CAREY: Never second guess yourself. People often ask me, 'What do the auditioners or what do I want to see when somebody comes into the room?' and the answer is, 'Exactly what you've brought.' Don't change a thing. Don't worry if I like it, not like it, disagree with it, doesn't matter.

If someone yawns behind the desk in the panel, who cares? If someone gets up and leaves the room, which has happened to me in an audition once, it doesn't matter. You love what you're doing. You love why you're there. The other person is the most important person, and I'm not going to doubt myself. I'm giving myself full agency.

You can't control the outcome, even though we might like to. We simply cannot control the outcome. So let's not put any energy into that. What we can do is command our focus and our energy.

So you placed your focus and your energy on your character, on letting them speak. You fly the flag for your character. You say, 'I am Hamlet,' or, 'I am--' whoever it is, and this person has a voice and they demand to be heard. So those little doubts that we'll all have won't match that, because that's your passionate pursuit.

The biggest ingredient for auditions is discovery. If the character discovers and gets blindsided by things and finds things out and trips up and gets hurt and suddenly has an amazing thought. Audiences are addicted to watching people change on stage.

We change continually in life. We don't know what's going to happen. Every day is an improvisation. We might have certain things planned out, but we get knocked off course all the time. I didn't know it was going to happen. I didn't know I was going to feel this.

Discover. Allow Hamlet to discover the fact he's trapped. Allow him to find his feet. Allow him to move and have ideas and thoughts that might change something. Allow him to get trapped in a thought, then freed by a thought. So audiences love that.

So when you're rehearsing a piece, look for the changes, not because you should or you have to, but because that's what life is about, and that's what makes a piece feel alive and dynamic and spontaneous. It's a great industry and it's great to find your calling and passionately pursue it, because it's really worthwhile.

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EPISODE ANNOUNCER: Thank you for tuning in to 'Listen @ The Arts Unit'. Art for your ears. This podcast was created on the lands of the Gadigal and Guringai people. The NSW Department of Education acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of these lands and pays respect to the Elders past, present and emerging. Thank you to Dean Carey and the staff at Actors Centre Australia.

The music was supplied by Envato Elements. For more information on all of our programs, podcasts and performances, visit our website at artsunit.nsw.edu.au. Copyright, State of NSW (Department of Education), 2021.