Mastering The Shakespeare Audition

Based on the latest research into brain activity on imagination and memory, this revised edition offers a start-to-finish process for performing Shakespeare in an audition setting. With a focus on how you, as an actor, can work with memory rather than against it (eg. creating alternative retrieval cues to aid memory when the language centre of the brain is under stress), you come to better understand how the body is involved in text memory and retrieval, and how you can ultimately have control over that. This second edition of Donna Soto-Morettini's invaluable book features a completely new structure, which takes the reader through the stages of audition preparation more logically, including an updated and simplified practical preparation process; updated, new research into how we can work most effectively with memory under pressure; and greater recognition of how a focus on diversity and open casting affects the roles and material that actors can take on. In moving away from a focus on how to choose the 'right' Shakespeare monologue for your audition, this second edition is underpinned by valuable advice from extended interviews with industry professionals such as casting directors and voice coaches working at key Shakespeare-focused theatre companies, such as the RSC and Shakespeare's Globe.