Auditioning can be the most traumatic and difficult part of an actor's job.  You are alone on-stage, evaluated by a void that swallows your words, while somewhere in that blackness lurks, unseen, a humorless creature whose judgment is akin to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the director.

The reality of the situation of course, is that there is much the actor can do to improve their work and lessen the stress of the audition process.  Four directors from around the country, who collectively have seen thousands of auditions, were asked to give their thoughts and observations on this most critical element of the theatrical process.

Participating from Los Angeles are Michael Michetti and Dan Hirsch.  Michetti has won numerous Drama-Logue Awards and Hirsch is the owner/operator of the White Fire Theater, the Limelight Theater and the NoHo Actor's Studio.  From Salt Lake City we have Dax Kiger, who is currently the Head of Theater Services for The Salt Lake City Acting Company and a former associate of McCorkle Casting in New York.  And from Chicago, we have Elizabeth Klaviter, who has extensive theatrical experience in the Windy City.

Q: What are things that actors do or don't do in auditions that you wish they would?

Michetti: Actors don't often reveal themselves in auditions.  It's a very tricky process because there is such a short amount of time it's important to let the director in on yourself so they have some sense of you.  Actors try to be somebody they think you want to cast.

Hirsch: [Actors] have to go way back to what is there calling card.  I have seen too many actors who were called in based on their picture and look nothing like it.

Klaviter: They need to realize that everything they do from the moment they enter the room is part of their interview.  It's not that there is a specific way I want them to conduct themselves, but I want to know who they are and if they are someone I can work with.

Kiger: What actors do frequently in auditions is think that we want them to fail, but the exact opposite is true.  Every actor we see we want them to do great work.  We want to cast them.  We want them to be the one.

Q: What are some of the things that limit the actors you see?

Hirsch: 90 out of 100 actors will read the part the same way as the guy who went before him.  It's the one that took some extra time and thought it out and risked a choice- even a wrong one - that will grab our attention.

Michetti: Two things.   One is the use of their voice, vocal production, diction, filling a space that's sorely lacking.  And second would be the inability to make choices supported by the text.

Kiger: Thy put too much weight on every audition.  They have to realize that they need to just go in, portray themselves the best they can and leave.  They shouldn't blow off the audition, but they shouldn't treat it like it's the end of the world.  When you put yourself under that much stress, how can you do good work?

Q: What advantages, if any, do formally trained actors have over others?

Klaviter: Formally trained actors are more aware of their process and know how to ask me to give them what they need in order to get where they need to go.  They understand the journey better.  That doesn't mean their talent is better... they understand the process.

Kiger: It's usually a matter of confidence.  When a classically trained actor comes in and does the same thing as an untrained actor, you usually have the confidence that the trained actor can do more than what they are showing.

Michetti: A formally trained actor has control of their instrument.

Q:  What advice would you give on an actor's choice of material for an audition?

Kiger: Show your best side in an audition.  Do what you can do best.  Of course, it depends on what you are auditioning for.  Don't audition for Mamet with Neil Simon.  If you get called back for a second audition, show them something that's totally different if you can do it just as well.  If [actor's] are pushing something that's not right for them, it's a bad audition.

Hirsch: Only do a monologue if it is the very best work they can present.  If their monologue was not asked for, it should be awfully good.

Michetti: I have people who come in here and do very nice,  naturalistic work that would be just fine for film, but it doesn't show me they have the strength to do stage work.  If you are auditioning for [a theatrical production], I want to see that you have the ability to work on stage.  This means you have ability to use your body and your voice.

Q: Any final words of advice?

Michetti: Very impressive attribute, when an actor shows it, is that they have a passion about their craft and their art.  If someone has selected a monologue from a really wonderful play that not everyone knows, something that clearly speaks to them in some way, and they have made an interesting choice, that's impressive to me.

Klaviter: It's really important for actors to love auditioning.  I think it becomes necessary in order to get work that the actor see auditioning as an end unto itself.

Kiger: If you believe you can become a rich and world renowned actor, don't forget that there was a time when you also believed in Santa.