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How are audition scripts marked up?
Answer: Getting an audition notice involves getting not only directions to the audition location, the nature of the project and what character you’ll be reading for, but also a copy of the piece of the script you’ll be reading for the casting team. These are called… (continued in David’s answer below)
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Answer: Getting an audition notice involves getting not only directions to the audition location, the nature of the project and what character you’ll be reading for, but also a copy of the piece of the script you’ll be reading for the casting team. These are called sides, and you’ll get a great deal of information on what the producers are looking for you to do, by analyzing the different markings on the sides themselves.
The markings that casting directors place on sides are like a road map for our audition. Done in thick Sharpie marker so that they are unmistakeable, the sides are clear indicators of what the casting person wants you to do for your audition, in order, with page numbers, character names, show and episode titles, scene markers and with clues as to how your character is written, their positioning within the story, even additional information about the character that is not part of your spoken audition.
A simple, one page side may have nothing more than a START/ and /END on it, letting you know, well, where to START and where to END. When you step into the audition room, and start to read with the reader, you won’t be doing anything other than what’s between those two marks. Casting directors will usually run a diagonal line through script content that has nothing to do with your scene – but you should read that material anyway, as it may contain clues about how your character is written.
Should you have multiple scenes in an audition, you’ll have markings like page numbers, total number of pages, scene markers like (SC 1) or (SCENE 3) that show you where they want you to start individual pieces of your audition. Those scene markers won’t usually coincide with the scene numbering of the script – they’re simply there so that you know how many scenes you have to work with and what order they’ll be read in.
Let’s say you have three scenes denoted on your sides. Usually, the casting director will have you run from one to the other straightaway. There’s no standing on ceremony to get prepared for each marked scene – prepare to adjust on the fly and move cleanly from each to the next.
You may prepare all of the scenes marked on the sides, only to have the casting person say to you as you walk into the room, “We’re only going to be doing Scene 1 and 2…you don’t have to worry about Scene 3.” Don’t let that throw you – the casting session may be honing in on how the auditioning actors are handling those two scenes, and, perhaps, only letting certain actors do the final scene.
Each of those three scenes will be marked with an audition scene number, and the material between them will have a diagonal or vertical line through it, letting you know to jump over that content. Sometimes, the casting director will jot down, FYI. Although you should read everything in your sides, this is a direct note from the casting director that this material is important to your preparation.
Obviously, you don’t prepare to deliver any material that’s crossed out and not part of the scenes you do see. But you may also find that not every single word in the material you will be reading are to be spoken. Your character, or other characters, may have some or all of the words in individual lines marked out, to speed up the audition or to just give the casting director and others in the room a feel for how you’d handle a much longer passage.
You can add your own marks to your sides – we highlight, add notes in the margins, maybe even jot down the line at the top of the next page where the sides might say (MORE) or (CONT’D) so we’re not turning pages in the middle of a line. I always prepare to be off-book, even for pre-reads, but I keep my sides in my hands just in case I need them – and those personal markings are there as a safety net.
Should you have any questions about the sides and how they are marked up, don’t wait until you get into the audition toom to clarify what the casting director wants. Get with your agent, and ask for more details – and let them call the casting office to find out what was meant. You don’t want something cleared up at the last minute that may drastically change your approach to your audition.
What’s your answer to this acting question? Let me know in the comments below.