Conflict is typically avoided by the majority of people. Anxiety, fear, and chaos can often be the result of conflict. However, during an acting audition, conflict is essential to delivering an impressive reading. In order to have a good audition, it is necessary for an actor to find the conflict within a story and within a character.
Perhaps one of the most common conflicts, internal conflicts are those that consist of the psyche battling between opposing desires and feelings. There are also external conflicts that a person takes on with the environment, fate, God, and the world. Relational conflicts are yet another form of personal conflict that are in present in almost every person and, therefore, character’s life. Before an audition, the actor is only provided with basic information about the character and the story. Conflict always exists in a story, whether on the surface or hidden beneath a complicated exterior. The actor has the responsibility of finding the conflict and demonstrating it’s effects in their audition reading.
Conflict is always interesting. Conflict provides an element of depth and movement to a story and character. After you have gotten a handle on the personality of the character, there are naturally going to be difficulties and obstacles that that character must face. That is the way life is. All obstacles in our lives must be manipulated or overcome until they cease being hurdles and become collaborators. Think about the movie, “Midnight Run”. In the film, Robert De Niro is a bounty hunter who has the responsibility of finding Charles Grodin’s character. Jack (De Niro) is driven to find his bounty, Mardukas (Grodin), so that he can receive the bounty money. Jack is met with a number of conflicts including his personal insecurities, rival bounty hunters, and the infamous Mardukas.
The information provided for your reading may not have all the answers in regards to the character’s desires and conflicts. To strengthen your acting audition, you may need to create a character yourself, one that has conflicting desires and needs. Doing so will add more dimension and life to the character, thereby grabbing and holding onto the attention of the auditor and improving your chances of making a good impression. Even if the conflict you create is not “correct”, it is far worse to have no conflict at all during your reading. If you work on improving your ability to add depth to your characters while reading, there is no doubt that your auditions will become more fruitful.
Keep in mind that conflict typically has more than one dimension. Most people are constantly struggling with numerous inner demons. Keep this in mind when doing your reading and you will be sure to add intrigue to the character you are portraying. Despite what many actors believe, the most important thing is creating a character not merely the lines in the script.
Although your character may be the only live person in the scene, there are doubtless other hidden forces affecting his or her life. To have a successful reading, you as an actor must know how to draw these emotions and circumstances out of the text and take the character to the next level. There is another aspect of conflict to keep in mind. A small amount of comedy should also be present within any conflict. Comedy is present even when the conflict is dark and deep-rooted. Neglecting to add comedy will make the reading unwatchable. In short, conflict and comedy are both an integral part of a successful and impressive reading.
Kirk Baltz has been a acting coach los angeles for more than 15 years. Kirk helps actors of all levels get the roles that they desire. You can read more about acting instruction at the actor’s intensive website.