Words are full of echoes. Of memories, of associations, naturally. They have been out and about on people’s lips, in their houses, in the streets, in the fields for so many centuries...
— Virginia Woolf.
I have coached a lot of auditions recently, some on Zoom and some in the room. I have needed to use quick, simple, effective tricks and tips around text to get results — and so in this Substack I will discuss a few of these tools. I hope you find them useful!
REVERSE THE FLOW
Don’t tell, ask
Be curious, not instructive
Reflect, don’t direct
Reverse the Flow is my most useful piece of advice ever. I just used this advice on a Hollywood film set with a very famous actor. Quick, quiet, clear and easily actionable, it is simply a reminder to make it about the other person. Activate your curiosity, your diagnostic quality, your desire to discover — not your instructions or your accusations or your anxieties or preoccupations about yourself.
THE HAMMER AND THE SNAKE
In a teen audition recently, I f…