Jenkins McShane Casting Workshop

https://twitter.com/eleanor__byrne/status/913497830978879488


Yesterday evening I attended a casting workshop hosted by Lucy Jenkins, from Jenkins McShane Casting - known for casting theatre work such as "The Play That Goes Wrong" (Mischief Theatre) and "Warhorse"; and screen work such as "The Bill" and "Skins". Jenkins gave the group of actors a general background on her story and what she does and after getting to know each other briefly, we got stuck into some script work in an audition set up.


We were working on scenes from Harry Burton's "Casualties" - a play that debuted in The Park Theatre in 2013. I got a good stab at the scene. Jenkins took her time giving me direction and feedback. I took on this direction and was able to apply it to my performance as best I could the second time I did the scene. An interesting pointer she established was that for theatre auditions she doesn't expect the actor to be off-script - instead she prefers if you have read the entirety of the play for preparation, and have become familiar with the context and story. A script in the hand, in her opinion, is not the devil. Of course, screen auditions differ as there is normally only a small number of sides to learn so being off-script is expected. However, in order to lessen nerves about remembering long passages for a theatre audition it is preferable to be familiar but to have the aid of the script in hand. Jenkins said she knows instantly that the actor can learn a script - the training on our CVs say as much. At the end of the day, an audition is not a test to see can we recite lines.


To top it all off, Jenkins opened a discussion for a Q&A session. Questions answered led to these few pointers of advice for the audition process:

• Positivity and Preparation are key pre-audition (she said - make the panel aware that you want the job with your mannerisms)
• Gain experience in order to get yourself in the door (fringe, student films etc)
• Gage the size of the room vocally. Decide when intimacy is appropriate
• TRUTH is key and across the board what a panel is looking for. They will be able to tell if you have the technique behind that - so truth is at the forefront of necessities
• Dialogue between director and auditionee is never bad - ultimately it is an interview to see if you would work well creatively
• Showreels should show versatility and be of good quality

All of these pointers were really helpful hearing them 'straight from the horse's mouth', as it were.