ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the problem of converting the audition space – the typical environment of the producer’s office – into the “place” as written in the script. The objects must be a source of genuine thought, so that the actor, as the character, will actually have real thoughts in real time as he is playing the scene in a producer’s office. The author call this source “The Metaphor of the Place.” One of the most glaring shortcomings of novice actors is their failure to “use the place” in their on-camera auditions, to move freely within the place, and to react viscerally to the physical reality of the character’s circumstance. The novice often feels boxed in by the presence of the camera and tends to focus their attention solely on the other character. Developing the metaphor of the place tends to loosen this up.
