Last month, I spoke to a group of actors down at UC Irvine. (Have I mentioned that this most recent graduating MFA class blew me away at the April showcase they put on with Harvard/ART? Just, wow. There’s some major talent, there. So, when Richard Brestoff asked me to come chat to the current crop of students, I was happy to do so).

After a little Q&A, I watched the actors do some sides I brought with me, then gave feedback to each actor, plus advised them on how I saw their “primary type” based on the work they’d just done. (Believe me, this last thing is something I could build an entire career around doing, if I wanted to. Actors really crave knowing how “their type” comes across to casting directors.)

Okay, so one pair of actors deviated from the script during the read. Actually, two pairs of actors did this. One pair did it to great success. The other pair, I had to redirect back to what was on the page, as their deviations didn’t work.

So, the question came: “During auditions, when can we stray from what is written on the page and when should we stay married to the text?”

Great question! And here’s a set of general guidelines I’ve come up with.

In general, you want to stay 100% married to the text when you are auditioning for episodic television. Obviously, there will be times that’s not necessary (like, it’s a partially-improvised television series, or the showrunner is legendarily improv-friendly and you’re a gifted improviser), but for the most part, episodic TV sides need to be delivered — down to every beat and breath — exactly as written. This is especially true of comedic material.

Why? Well, the person who wrote the script from which your audition sides came is also a producer of the show for which you’re auditioning. It’s not like other scripted material, which is commissioned or written on spec and then completely out of the hands of the writer. And if the series has been around for more than a few episodes, you can bet that these sides fall within a formula of pacing that is pretty much locked down from episode to episode (unless some major stunt-casting takes place and a superstar celeb is going to end up delivering the lines).

Comedically, there are issues of beats and formulas of speech patterns that add to comedic timing (read Scott Sedita’s The Eight Characters of Comedy for more on that), and the addition of an “um” or “er” can throw off the whole flow of a joke. Obviously, you might not see it as a problem, but that producer sitting there watching audition tapes knows what you’ve done to “his baby” and won’t always take kindly to your decision to rewrite him! (And yes, the egos we’re dealing with here are such that that is precisely how that extra “uh” you added is sometimes perceived.)

Now, if you’re auditioning for the pilot episode of a new series, you have a little bit more latitude, simply because the rhythm of the show isn’t really “set” yet. (Of course, if it comes from a showrunner whose work has a nice, long track-record of “sounding” or “feeling” a certain way — see Sorkin, Kelley, Bochco, et. al. — you can count on this new pilot having that same vibe and should prep for your audition accordingly. But basically, TV is going to be the “stick closest to the script” of all auditions, for most actors.

For films, you have a lot more leeway to “riff,” assuming the screenwriter is not also the producer or director of the project. So, part of your pre-audition homework needs to include checking out who the principals are on this team. That way, you’re more likely to walk in prepared for the kind of room you enter.

I’ve cast films for filmmakers who love improv. Love, love, LOVE it. And whenever I’m working with those filmmakers, I make sure to include in the actors’ audition notification that we are an improv-friendly room. Does this mean you should feel obligated to ad-lib at your audition? No. But if you’re good at it and you see an opportunity for adding something brilliant as you prep your sides for your audition, that’s great! You’ve been told you’re welcome to experiment. Of course, we may ask you to come back to the page on redirect, but that doesn’t mean your ad-lib failed! It just means we want to see you do something closer to what is in the original material.

Not all CDs are great about letting you know when you’re entering an improv-friendly audition room. Okay, so in that case, I’d recommend that you be prepared to deliver the sides as written, should you show up, sign in, and ask the casting assistant or session runner whether improv or ad-lib is cool. (Remember, the casting assistant is your friend! Get your questions asked before you enter the audition room, if possible. It’ll put you at ease, once the camera is rolling and your performance is being scrutinized by decision-makers.)

If you find in your pre-audition research that the filmmaker for whom you’ll be auditioning also penned the script, and you’re finding no evidence that this will be an improv-friendly room, stick to the sides for the most part. (Again, egos can lead folks to find reasons to be offended at “an actor’s rewrite” delivered in an audition.)

Oh, and if you do go off the page, be prepared that you’ll deliver an improvised line during your audition that is so well-received that it ends up in the finished product… whether you are cast or not!

Never is that sort of thing more prevalent than in auditions for commercials. It’s so prevalent that SAG actually has a rule about it. See, these commercials are less scripted and more “storyboarded,” and there are a whole bunch of folks in suits watching audition footage thinking, “Ooh! That would be a great line! Let’s add that in,” all to make bazillions of dollars on their (or their clients’) product while the auditioning actor who improvised that brilliance gets nothing. So, SAG came up with the Ad-Lib/Creative Sessions payment requirement.

When a principal performer is required to improvise during an audition, such audition shall be deemed an ad-lib or creative session call… and the principal performer shall be paid for such services.

How much? That first hour of the audition gets you $224.75 and additional half-hour units clock in at $112.38.

But how often are actors improvising without being “required to” do so (one of the often-mentioned flaws in the language of the SAG Commercials Contract) and how often are actors watching commercials and hearing other actors saying their improvised words? And could the actors file a claim with SAG to get paid for that Ad-Lib/Creative Session? More importantly, perhaps, is this question: Do actors go to that trouble?

Since most of that auditioning-level improvising never actually makes it into a commercial (and a good amount of it could be that “end button” or “something special” that gets you a callback), how worth a fight is it?

Up to you.

But most working commercial actors will tell you that they sometimes ad-lib at auditions. The actors basically read the room to get a sense of how much “riffing” the execs are looking for and then, in character, deliver a little something different that still works within the context of the ad copy provided.

All this to say: Commercial auditions are most likely to provide opportunities for “going off the page” (and even so, it’s not all of ’em by a long shot).

Stage plays range from “totally open to improvisation” to “don’t mess with the classics.” Just like with feature film auditions, advance research will pay off. Do your homework on the producer, director, and playwright, just like you would on a film’s producer, director, and screenwriter. If they have a track record of embracing the collaborative process, your improvisation may be welcomed in the room. If they’re more by-the-books kind of folks, stick to the page to make the most of your auditioning moment.

Wanna be sure your tools *and* your mindset are in peak form? Let us get you in gear with some FREE training right now!

Woo HOO!

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000794.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.