Demystifying Auditions with Insights from Casting Director Sam Stevenson

May 28, 2025
Acting, Articles, Behind the Scenes, Book Extracts, Industry Advice

Casting director Sam Stevenson draws on her rich experience, from both her time as deputy head of casting at the National Theatre and her varied freelance career, to delve into the challenges and possibilities that you might face. She explores the intersecting, underlying principles of auditioning for stage and screen, whether you are meeting online, in-person or self-taping.

The reassurances throughout Auditioning: A Backstage Guide provide a little-seen glimpse into the world of casting, helping you to understand how casting directors and directors view the process and what purpose the audition serves. The excerpt below offers a peek into such insights from the auditioning room.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE AUDITION: IN THE ROOM

Even if you take nothing else from this book, know this: the casting director, director and producer want your audition to be a success. When you walk into the audition room, it is because we very much want you to be there and, even more importantly, we want you to do well.

The waiting room

Waiting areas vary in size and comfort. Many years ago, I worked on a popular series about forensic investigators. The auditions took place in a building which served as both

production offices and studio, and the waiting area was a large unwelcoming space adjacent to the room where we met the actors. The only seating options on offer were three old office chairs which were arranged in a corner alongside a water cooler and several black bin liners. Spilling out of the bin liners were the defunct and discarded latex body parts, which had been used in the crime and morgue scenes. Not ideal circumstances for calming yourself before a meeting. Though such conditions are rare, it is an illustration of how unpredictable and suboptimal your environment can be while you wait to go into your audition.

Make sure that you have everything with you that you need: water, your script or sides (even if you think that you don’t need them), and a pencil in case you want to jot down the director’s notes.

Try not to spend too much time on your phone (and put it on silent) or on social media just before you are due to go in. It is much more mentally distracting than you might think. Focus on the role and the scenes to come, and steady your breathing. You will have little time to pull yourself together once you are inside and the audition will fly by, so take advantage of these few minutes to get into the right headspace. Think of it like this, if you were waiting in the wings, about to go on stage, would you be looking at Instagram? Going into an audition is no different.

In the room

You have been rehearsing and preparing in your bedroom/ kitchen/shed and now the moment has come. You walk into the room, and it is absolutely nothing like how you expected it to be. Audition rooms come in all shapes and sizes, with acoustics to match. Like the waiting area it is an unpredictable space and could be anything from a regular meeting room in a production office to a considerably sized rehearsal room. The space might be cramped or so vast that the audition panel seem very far away. Walking from the door to reach the chair to which you are being invited to sit takes what feels like an eternity. And what did that woman say her name was? Breathe.

The set-up in the room will look something like this:

A theatre audition:

There is a table to put scripts, CVs, pens, water and so on. In my own auditions I try to avoid too much formality by not sitting behind the table and, if it is just me and the director, I’ll be to one side of it, the director on the other. It keeps the space open but gives us a surface to write on. The actor faces us so that we form a triangle. If it is a new play, the writer may also be in the room and occasionally a producer – in which case, one or two of us might be behind the table or towards the sides of the room.

A screen audition:

Sometimes you may only meet the casting director and/or their assistant, who will put you on tape for the director. If the director is there, there is usually a similar triangle formation as above, with the director and casting director sitting either side of the camera facing the actor.

Depending on the size of the role, whether or not it is a recall, and what kind of production it is, the producer and writer may also be present.

How to adjust your vocal level for the room you are in

Theatre:

It is not unusual to be seated for a few minutes while you discuss the play and the role with the director, so use this time to understand what your voice sounds like in the space. If the acoustics are not good, you may have to pay special attention to your diction and evaluate whether you will need more or less volume. Probably the biggest mistake that actors make in theatre auditions is to whisper because they fear that if they are loud, the performance will be too theatrical and lack truth. Conversely, because they want to prove that they can be heard on stage, some actors unnecessarily enhance their volume to a point where it can distort the performance. You do need to be heard but perform for the room that you are in. Focus on vocal strength and clarity and mentally direct your voice to a spot somewhere just behind the person who is sitting furthest away.

Screen:

In a sense, screen auditions are much more straightforward than those for theatre because the physical and vocal size of your performance in the audition is likely to be at a similar register as it would be on set.

Occasionally actors are given a lapel mic, or we rely on the camera’s built-in mic to pick up the sound.

Though you might have to adjust your voice to accommodate the acoustics in the room or the requirements of the script, my general advice would be to mentally aim your voice only as far as the lens. The physical size of your performance should then, as a natural consequence of that, be at about the right level too.

This is especially important for screen auditions where facial expressions shouldn’t be too pronounced. The old adage, think it and the camera will see it, still holds true and is why making textual choices is so important – the camera can’t see you thinking if you haven’t made those choices.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Auditioning: A Backstage Guide by Sam Stevenson is now available via Bloomsbury.com