"Respond In The Listening" is my 6th tool in the "6 Audition Tools Method" I use in my 4 week Audition Workshops. Many TV and Film auditions these days are on tape for the Producers and Director. It's important to remember that when you audition on tape, you are usually framed around your shoulders. The reader is reading off camera, and all the viewers can see is the actor and their responses. Fifty percent of a taped audition is watching the actor "LISTENING".

The actor must VISUALIZE the reader as the character they are talking to in the script. So, when the viewers are watching the tape back, they really believe the actor is talking to the character in the script...not the reader. The actor must LISTEN to the reader, responding to what is being said...so when the tape is watched back, the viewers see a person who is PRESENT. The viewers see the thoughts running through the actors mind, and they watch the actor responding to what is being said to them...without a word. There is action in the listening.

When the viewers of the tape see a blank face as the actor "waits" for their cue, the viewers fast forward through the tape. The viewers can literally "see" when the actor is pausing, waiting for their next line. They can "see" the actor not listening.

Remember that LISTENING and RESPONDING IN THE LISTENING go hand in hand in making the taped audition successful.