Ep. 3: Nail your next audition

This episode is seriously jam packed with tips on how to nail your next audition. It's more than just singing well or even acting well! These are must-know things that directors are looking for and how you can put your best foot forward.  Best of luck on your next audition!

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Transcript

0:01

This podcast is for the Jewish female singer who's ready to get out of her head and finally take exciting steps towards the singing career she's always wanted. I'm your host, Nechama Leah, and I am so excited and honored to be a part of your singing journey. Okay, hello and welcome to another episode of the Jewish Singer podcast. I am recording this podcast on a whim, a last minute bonus episode, because, uh, there have been some auditions around the frum community recently, and there's been the regal auditions. I know Rachel's place in the U. S. One of my students had auditioned for them recently. There are callbacks for regal. There's a Beit Shemesh women's theater audition coming up in the very near future and it's just audition season and you know what I was like, oh, I really better hop on that and actually do something related to auditioning because There's so much to say about auditioning. It can be like a really frustrating process. It can be really scary. Obviously everybody gets nervous for auditions and I want to give you over some tips that I have incorporated into my own process of auditioning over you know, years of having to audition since I was seven years old. I think I did my very first audition for a musical. So here we go. There's so much to say. The first thing that I want to say about this is I'm, I'm going to speak mostly to a musical theater audition, even though I know there are other types of audition that you might be going out for, but musical theater tends to be a little bit more specific and you can apply anything that I'm saying to a non musical theater audition as well. Some of that you might. not need. So the first thing I want to say is that it is very important to know what you are going out for. That seems kind of obvious, but so many singers are like, yeah, okay, I'm just going to go and I'm going to pick a song and I'm just going to sing it my best. And that's going to be, it's going to be fine. Right? Like I'm going to do great. And yes, that may be true, but You are so much more likely to get a callback or get cast in a role if you're being really specific about the role that you want and what is it that that role requires of you. So, get to know as much as you can about the production company themselves. Get to know as much as you can about what the director likes. in her actors first of all, I know from my own experience that I tend to really favor my preparation with the singing aspect of an audition because I'm a singer primarily and I'm a singing teacher, but there are so much more going on in an audition, right? Obviously acting is a big one and dancing could also be a big component of that as well. So you have to get to know the ins and outs of the song that you're going to prepare from an acting perspective just as much as the singing perspective and vice versa. You might find that one of those comes more easily to you than the other. And so then you have to make sure that you, you know, you strengthen the one that is maybe not so strong or doesn't come as easy. So this is going to help you to figure out number one, what song to sing. So if you know, what is the director looking for? What kind of person are they looking for? Do they really like people who are just strong singers and the acting is like, okay, maybe, or do they, they first and foremost, just want you to be able to emote and singing is almost secondary to, to her. That's an important thing to know. So with this, you want to be very intentional with your song choice. Get to know the character and the show that you are auditioning for. So, uh, does this show call for somebody who is really funny or quirky or serious? And that might depend on which character you see yourself. So you've got to read all the breakdowns. Hopefully you are, you were provided a character breakdown and you go like, uh, yeah, that one's not really so much me or, oh yeah, I could totally see myself in that role. So you're going to, you're going to in your mind go, okay, that's the one I want to go out for. Obviously they're going to see you as they see you. But if you have that intention of like, this is the role that I would really want, you're going to prepare the song that would help. them best see you as that character. So is this character male or female? Okay. That will help you decide what kind of song to sing. Are you going to sing a song that's in a lower register or bring your song down to a lower register so that you can appear more masculine. Is this part a young part or an old part that will also affect the way that you use your voice in a song? Again, is it funny or is it serious? You want that song to be those things if that's how you want to be seen. Okay. I just went out for the regal auditions last week. Just as an anecdote. And I chose a song that I thought was very much in line with the character that I wanted to be considered for. But in retrospect, I realized that I, I should have lowered the key like a lot because it ended up being a little soprano y and while I think in some ways that could have, um, showcased a certain part of me that is important for them to know, It didn't put me in that like, I'm going to be seen as a masculine character. And this character is, is a man that I was going out for or that in my mind I want it to be considered for. So, um, I think in retrospect, I would have, I would have done that slightly differently, but you know, it turned out okay. So the next thing to know is that if you need an audition cut that you choose the section that will make you shine. the most. And what's really cool is if you, if you know your way around like GarageBand or some of these other, DAWs, you can actually like slice out parts of the song. So you're like, Oh, I really want the beginning song. And I want the end, sorry, the beginning of the song. And I really want the end. You can, instead of just being like, okay, I'm just going to take the first minute. Or the first 32 bars, whatever they're requiring of you, you can actually, you know, splice it around. I spliced up my audition song last week, like crazy. And nobody, nobody would know or, or care. They just want to see that, that you're bringing the best. Parts of you to the song. So that is a really important thing. And if you need help with that, you can always, you know, you can reach out to me. You can reach out to other people who you know would be good at that kind of thing and ask for some help to do that because it really is kind of a crucial part of nailing your one minute or whatever time limit you're given. Okay. So still within this umbrella of preparation before the audition, you need to plan your acting and there's different schools of thought on this but, there's really two ways that I go about this. And one is that I try to really just get myself into the emotion of the character. So if I'm singing a song, That is serious or emotional, whatever the, the, the words are giving you, you're going to internalize those words and try to be living those emotions. So you want to figure out what's the main emotion coming across in the song, and you might also find that there's an underlying emotion. So could be this is like an angry song, but maybe underneath it there's some sadness or some hurt, and you want that to come across as well. So the more layered and the more like depth you can give in terms of the The access to the emotions, the better, the, this, like, you'll be so captivating, you know, rather than just get up there and sing the song beautifully. And maybe even in a way that conveys some type of emotion, but if it's sort of like a vague emotion of just like, Oh yeah, like she had a grimace on her face while she's sang, and she closed her eyes once or twice. That was emotional, but like. What was the emotion and did you, as the singer, as the actress connect with the specific emotion and that's an element of this that will set you apart from others. Okay. So going with that, you want to think with this emotion that I'm, my character is feeling be more naturally expressed with like, you know, these big grand gestures. Like, what does your body want to do when you're feeling those emotions? So really the key is like tapping into it yourself. And then feeling what does that feel like in my body? Does my body want to just like kind of close in my body? Want to hold, do I want to make fists? Do I want to throw my hands up? Do I want to, you know, I don't know, whatever else kick my legs up. Like that's also, that's also an option. Or, you know, is it just small understated just all in the face kind of things with a very still body that's also can come across very powerfully. You have to allow that to come through your body and see what feels comfortable. And, and then the trick is when you get to the audition to allow that to come through as well, but we'll get to that in a second. So part of this preparing the emotion of the song is get in the habit of speaking the lyrics out just in a natural speaking voice. So this will help you to really pull out the story instead of always attaching it to the melody that you have to sing. So pull the lyrics out of the, of the melody, speak them out and decide for yourself what's really going on there. And then you can insert them, back into the song. Also I think it's really important to video yourself once you've done this work. Practicing a song, and then you can see objectively what you look like. I think first and foremost it's important to embody the emotions like I spoke about first. And then, See what you've got and then do some tweaking I don't think it's very authentic to start first from the externality of this like okay, so um, it's a happy song and therefore i'm gonna stick out my jazz hands, you know, like So let it be really organic and then you might see that whatever you're doing on video is like not coming across the way you thought it is. And then you can tweak it. I find that to be the most effective way to go about that. Okay. So this brings me to the next thing, which is once you've done this sort of internal work with the emotions, you have to practice it. And sometimes I find for myself, like I get. I get so nervous at the idea of going to the audition or the idea of going to the callback that I'm just like, I sort of almost, um, like avoid, like, it'll be fine. It'll be, I don't know. Like I'll practice it a few times. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. But you have to move past that fear of Rejection or even fear of success and, and practice it more than you think you need to, because you want to get it in your body so firmly that when you go up to do the audition, that your body just knows what, what to do and that the fear and that the nervousness isn't going to override, which. It may, it's probably still going to get in your way a little bit because it always does uh, keep coming back to their audition last week that I went to my friends and I too, we're like, Oh, I could sing that so much better than I just sang at the audition. And we know that that's a given. Like, I don't think anybody, not even professional singers. going to Broadway auditions are like, yup, sang that the best I ever sang it in the audition, like, no, there's always things that get messed up because of adrenaline, because of nerves. As long as we do, like, maybe I call it like 85 percent of what we think, then you were doing awesome. You know, 85 percent of what you, You think you could have done in your bedroom, then you're doing amazing. And even less than that is still good. But I'm just saying like, it's never gonna be 100 percent the way that you can sing it at the audition. Okay. So just like, let that, just let that go. Okay. But we have to still practice so much so that we can even perform the 85%. So, I want to say about that is that singing your song over and over and over and over again. Just like, you know, by rote is not really practice. That's not really considered practice. I'm sure as you're doing that you might find that there are things that are not Sitting well either vocally or acting wise and it is imperative that you stop and you work the sections that are not working and that you give your Your muscles, literally, the input of the correct way of doing it, without repeating it over and over again in the quote unquote incorrect way. Okay, because your voice and your body work on muscle memory. So if you repeat something incorrectly a bunch of times, it's just going to reinforce that. Okay, so if you just do it a bunch and bunch and then you look at it on video and you're like, Oh, that doesn't look good. Or that does not sound how I thought it sounds. Then you've already done it so many times that way it's going to do take a lot of work to undo that or rewrite that muscle memory. Okay. So like I said, before doing the videoing of yourself, like do the internal work of processing the emotion and processing the technique of it, but then take the video pretty soon after that process and then tweak and then, you know, practice it a few more times and then video it again and then tweak, you know, this is how you're going to get to make your progress much quicker and without like extra effort and extra work. All right. So another huge, huge thing when it comes to auditions is the nerves. And I'm sure that you get nervous. I get nervous and I. TMI, I have to go pee every five seconds when I'm, at the audition place. And I'm like, I'm sure I don't have to go to the bathroom again, but it really feels like I do. This also happens to me before I go on stage for an actual show too. Like it's just, I don't know. It's just a response. So we get nervous. It's normal. And, you know, we can on a psychological level just give ourselves the mental input of like, these nerves are excitement. Fear and excitement feel very similarly in our bodies. And so if we get nervous at the audition and we tell ourself, I'm so nervous, I'm so afraid, then that's what you're, that's what the body is going to understand. You're giving it that mental input of its fear. But if you say like, wow, this is really exciting. I'm so excited. And I'm, I am feeling nervous, but this is exciting. Like, and I know that that sounds like maybe a little cliche but It can make a difference. It can really make a difference in whether or not you succumb to just feeling super afraid. Or whether you can psych yourself out to say, like, this is super exciting and there's an aspect of unknown here. I don't know these people. They don't know me. Or maybe you still, maybe do know them, but still there's like, oh my gosh, like, they're going to hear me again. And like, what if I get this part? And what if I don't? And this is exciting, unknown territory. You know, we can, we can just tell ourselves that and it can lessen the edge just a little bit. So having said all that, we do get nervous. And it's important to practice getting nervous before the actual audition. So as much as you can put yourself in situations of becoming nervous and that could be a few different things. I have some ideas. Um, an easy one that you can do even by yourself is to jog around your room. And Sing the song even while jogging or directly after jogging. So like take a take like a one minute jog around your room stop and you'll notice that you're a little short of breath or feeling that like Adrenaline going and then try to sing your song as you would in the audition and you'll see This is sort of reenacting how you might feel in an audition setting When the adrenaline kicks in and you might feel a little short of breath, so you're forcing your body to practice getting a proper airflow, even in, in an instance when you're feeling a little bit like, you know, winded. Another thing that's really important is to sing for other people. So pull your husband in, pull your friends in, pull your parent in and say, sit down. I'm going to sing this song for you just as if I was in the audition. So this will be after you've. You've already like done your work of, you know, how you want it to sound and look and then perform for them and get nervous, get nervous in front of them. And you can ask for feedback if you trust these people's feedback. If not, you can just say, I just want to perform it for you and that's okay too. And remember if you are performing your song for a friend that you perform it exactly as you would in the audition. So don't stop. If you mess up, if you forget a word, if you flub a note, if you go super sharp one note like I did last week at my audition, Don't stop nobody cares and nobody nobody wants to see that you have some kind of feeling about that You are your character. You you can't you're not caring about if if your voice cracked a tiny bit. You're in your emotion You're in your in your story. Okay, so that's what we need to see because this is a really really important point. The director wants to see that you can keep moving because things happen on stage. A lot, you know, people fall, people, uh, a prop goes missing, um, a, you know, a voice crack. I had so many voice cracks last year in the Regal Show. I'm not sure anybody noticed, but, um, I noticed, but I couldn't let anybody know that I noticed. So what you do on that audition stage is like you're on the stage stage. And so they need to know that you can keep moving and stay in your character when, you know, not ideal things happen. The next tip for, for getting nervous in the audition is a crazy one. If you're feeling daring, you can take a cold shower here in Beit Shemesh where I live. It's um, still the water's like not that cold because it's so, so, so, so hot outside. So, uh, even the coldest cold is not so cold, thank goodness. But you can take a cold shower and sing your song and see if you can stay in the character while you're getting all of this, like, stress to the body, basically, right? Your body goes like, oh my gosh, it's cold. And you have to sing through that. It's a very similar feeling to nervousness. Okay? So, uh, you gotta be, you know, you gotta be a little bit brave for this one. But it actually really, really helps. I have done it before. I have done it before and it's, it's actually not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. If, if it were wintertime where you are, it would be much more difficult. If your water Super duper duper cold, but and also you have to get out of the shower into cold. It would be hard, but in the summertime, it's like not so bad. It can be even kind of kind of enlivening. Oh, there's another really, really important thing that I wanted to tell you. And that is that if there is some instructions that you get from the director, either in advance or in the audition, please, please make sure to follow the instructions, particularly if there is a time limit. So if you get the opportunity to do a one minute audition and you go up there and you, proceed to do a two minute or five minute audition or whatever. Even if it's good, chances are you will not get called back because they are They're seeing that you are unable to follow directions. Now some directors might be a little more lenient about that. Maybe it's some kind of a more general, suggestion, the time limit, but in most cases they're seeing so many auditions. They do not have time to watch five minutes audition. And if you kind of take it upon yourself to do what nobody else got to do, it will not look good for you. So that is a really big one. And another thing is, do not apologize for anything. Do not go up into your audition and go, I'm really sorry that I, I didn't really have a lot of chance to prepare this song and I'm going to do my best. Or, uh, Um, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm a little phlegmy today. I've been sick. You know, don't do not apologize for anything. Okay. You might think that it would be good for them to know that you're not at your a hundred percent vocal best, but it just makes you look like you are making excuses for, for maybe not sounding great. Just do what you can do. Um, give them what you got and hope for the best. Okay. There's no, don't go up there and apologize for anything. Smile, be confident and do your thing. Okay. Those are really, really, really important, important points. Okay. So I'm going to leave it at that for the preparation component of the audition and kind of move to, well, what happens when you get there? While you're waiting to go on for your audition slot, it could be that you are like the audition that I went to last week. We were all in the same room together and we're sitting and we're getting to watch everyone else's audition and you're also getting to get nervous as the numbers go on and you're like, Oh, I'm almost to my number. Or you might be, be waiting outside the audition room and not hearing anybody else and getting to the sort of zone in and then go in on your turn. So whatever the case may be, take a few moments to like do some breathing to calm your nervous system. And the best way in terms of calming down your system is to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth slowly. The slower the out breath, the better. So breathing in quickly through your nose and out slowly through your mouth. And you can say a few affirmations to yourself in your head like, I, I am ready to share my gift with this audition panel. I have a voice that deserves to be heard. Or, I am amazing and whatever happens I will be happy with the outcome, I just want to share my voice. Whatever that resonates with you, I'm just giving you some kind of like off the cuff things that you could be thinking, but something that's positive and that feels true to how you feel about your voice and the task at hand. Okay. So when you walk into the audition room, the casting director, is forming impressions of you in a matter of seconds, literally two to three seconds, and they they're picking up on your essence. And some of these things we have control of, and some of them we don't. They're just kind of like, they can read you, right? They're looking around to read you as a person and go like, what's this woman, what's this girl all about? Does she have a grounded energy? Does she have an excitable, uh, passionate energy? Just, you know, whatever, whatever that they're seeing there that could be matim for, The part that they're auditioning and so some of that you can turn on a bit, right? Like if you're auditioning for a very energetic excited part then maybe you want to make sure that you walk into the room with a lot of excitement and a smile and if it's a more serious part, you might, you might find that getting to sort of be more relaxed in a grounded way and, and showing your depth that I think, I feel like that one is kind of like it's either there or it's not, um, that can be more appropriate. You, you get to show off the part of you that's maybe just a little bit more serious. Although of course you want to smile. So be yourself. I guess that's really what it boils down to. That's why I said, like, you might not have so much control over these things. It could be that they see something in a person that is just like, I feel like their essence is not right for this role, you know, as much as we like to be good actresses. Sometimes that's, that's just the reality of it. That somebody who does have a more excitable, crazy, fun essence naturally. It's just going to be a little bit more right for the part, you know, so we, we just never know. We never know these things. Those types of decisions are left in the hands of the director, but it's our job just to show up as ourselves and to be positive and to welcome them into our world. And I find that to be the difficult part. We really have to be vulnerable with our feelings. All this work that you did in the preparation. with the song, you know, feeling the feelings and getting in tune with the character. It really doesn't mean a lot if then you are not able to open yourself up and let somebody else see that. So that's also where that practicing comes into play with performing for other people. You get practice at opening up yourself, in your vulnerability and being able to feel your emotions deeply while somebody is watching you. Who you potentially do not know and have never met in your life. So I find that to be something that it's really a practice, you know, and I, maybe one of these affirmations then could be like, I'm ready to be vulnerable. You know, I'm ready to show people my light and show people my emotions and wear my heart on my sleeve in here in this audition. And, I'll just say this because I'm thinking of it now, like, Tefila goes a long way here, right? Obviously. You can daven for that vulnerability and daven that you have the outcome that you want, or just daven and say, Hashem, please let whatever needs to happen, whatever's, whatever's the best outcome for me to happen. And just let me be. experiencing this real authentic moment right now. How nice would that be to leave the audition feeling like that was just a really nice experience and I was really in my body and I was really in my feelings and I was able to let that shine. And even if you don't get the part, you know, like what a nice experience that would be to be able to say that. So all in all, make sure that you enjoy yourself as much as you can. View, if you can, the interaction with this director or the audition panel as an opportunity to do what you love. And instead of looking at it like you're on trial or that it's some very high pressure, life or death type of situation, cause it's not right. And audition is not a life or death situation. I know I need, don't need to tell you that, but sometimes it can feel like that because we get so nervous and our bodies feel unsafe and you are safe. You're safe. And I'm sure in most of these, frum, um, you know, contexts with these theater companies, they really want to see you succeed. Right. There's not like, Oh, get out of here. Or like next, like, there's none of that. I haven't seen any of that in the frum world. So you can rest assured that people want to see you succeed and they want to have a positive interaction with you. So, so just let it be that, you know, and let it be an opportunity to share your gift. with these people that you're just meeting and know that there's always going to be other opportunities, either ones that come up or ones that you create for yourself. So I really, really, really hope this was helpful. There was like a lot to get through but hopefully these are some nuggets, for you to take with you on your next audition. And please let me know if you had any. Thoughts or aha moments, feel free to come DM me on Instagram. I'm at nechamaleamusic, or you can find my email down in the show notes. I would love to hear from you and happy singing. Have a wonderful, wonderful week.