Back to School/Back to Stage? Audition Tips for a New Season. Part 1: Warming Up.

While I've primarily been posting about how theaters may use social media to increase their audience engagement and attract the much-coveted "under 30" crowd, every now and again, it's good to revisit my roots.

If you've never had the... experience of meeting me, nor spoken to me about the Bard, you may need to prepare yourself for the tide of Shakespearean evangelism I'm about to unleash this week.  There is a name for people like me and many of my cohort at the Rocklin Shakespeare Company: Bardolotrists.

When reading and performing Shakespeare, we become enraptured, seduced and possessed by his language.  Some of you may relate: as a witness to the lines of the Bard, do you tend to feel them wash over you like warm rays of sunshine after the rain?  Do you find yourself particularly intrigued with antiquated expressions and sharp-witted insults?  Do you speak the speech trippingly on the tongue?

If so: this week is for you.  If not: have a sit and consider trying out for a play by Mr. Shakespeare... we'll see you converted yet!

This week begins as my rehearsals usually do: with warm-ups.

• Stand up, stretch, and shake out all of your limbs.
• Tense and relax your face, squeezing tight like you've sucked a sour lemon and then stretching wide like you've hit the third G on a roller coaster.
• Well done.
• Sitting or standing up straight, place a hand at your ribs and feel them expand as you slowly breathe in.  Breathe out slowly and feel your ribs condense back into place.  Repeat as necessary until this comes naturally and you are able to support your breath.  Hum as you breathe out.  Feel that tone resonate through your body.  
• Soothing, isn't it?  These steps release any tension you've had in your body so that it may devote itself fully to the glorious task at hand: reading Shakespeare aloud.  
• If necessary, rub out any localized tension you may be carrying.  Personally I clench my jaw, so I take the heels of my hands (at the base of the palm) and rub my jaw hinge (right in front of my ear lobes) in a circular motion.  Then I pull the heels of my hands down the sides of my face to end in a far less terrified copy of Macully Culkin's Home Alone face.
• I won't walk you through the exercises for all areas that can carry tension, but mention them in the comments below (or on Facebook) and I'll tell you what you can do.

After you're loose and relaxed it's time to exercise your verbal skills.  I have a large selection of tongue twisters that I change up depending on the mood of the actors, but I'll share a few fun ones here.  Try these out loud:

I slit a sheet, a sheet I slit, upon a slitted sheet I sit.

Budda gudda Gudda budda, Gudda budda, Budda gudda (repeat five times as quickly as possible).

Topeka, topeka, topeka... (as many times in a row as you need to)

Red leather, Yellow leather (repeat)

To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark, dock

In a pestilential prison with a life-long lock

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp, shock

From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black, block.

A dull, dark, dock

A life-long lock

A short, sharp, shock

A big, black, block

To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison

And awaiting the sensation from a cheap and chippy chopper

On a big, black, block.  (rather morbid, that one)

I am a mother pheasant plucker.

I pluck mother pheasants.

I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker that ever plucked a mother pheasant.

I do hope you're having fun!  Please comment below if you would like me to cover warm-ups that may help you with a specific problem you have on the stage.

Coming up... Part 2: Most Overused Shakespeare Audition Monologues (and if you should do them anyway)