Author: Ginger Howard Friedman

Publisher: Limelight Editions

Copyright: 1996

ISBN: 087910077

My advice: Read it at least once

I tell my acting students that the purpose of an audition is to get a callback, not to land the role.  The role is secured by a well organized and executed callback.  I this book, Ms. Friedman attempts to provide actors with a process to help with making that callback process as painless and as successful as possible.  However, I have to admit, her Creative Visualisation process just would not work for me.  In fact, I feel that it would get in my way of focusing on the task at hand.

In her book, she outlines several techniques for the entire callback process, which begins at the moment you answer the phone call announcing you’ve gotten the callback all the way through the moment where you leave the audition space.  She suggests that you only read the actual script only a small handful of times and spend the rest of your time using her Creative Visualization process.  Without going into too much detail, she suggests that you visualize the character and the world they inhabit in a quick overview form to have a basis for your character in the callback.  She further suggests that you don’t take too many notes, but keep the information planted firmly in your head as you continue to prepare. 

The main problem with putting this idea down in her book is that she attempts to use examples and exercises from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House to help make her point.  The only problem with this is that unless you have read the play, her brief recap of the plot line does not begin to provide the reader with enough background information to fully appreciate what she’s trying to do with her exercises.  I understand her intention, but the examples she used actually left me more confused than enlightened.  Perhaps the exercises are best kept in a workshop format rather than trying to put them down into writing.

However, after the initial couple of chapters about the audition and the callback (and wading through her examples), the book settles down a little bit and begins to provide some real helpful tips about how to prepare for various types of callbacks. 

To my mind, there is just not enough time spent on auditions and callbacks from a business standpoint for the actor.  After all, it is impossible to separate the fact that auditions and callbacks are one of the actor’s forms of marketing themselves in the marketplace.  There are a number of techniques that can (and should) be employed to help an actor land not just one specific role, but to ensure that they remain on the top of every casting director’s and director’s lists!  There are countless examples of actors using mailouts of headshots and resumes, setting up appointments to meet with casting directors, networking at parties, etc.  And now, it continues to become easier and easier to use the internet as a means of marketing one’s self in this business!

Still, Ms. Friedman makes some interesting points and this book is worth at least one read to add some of her ideas to your arsenal.  If her description of Creative Visualization appeals to you, you might want to seek out a workshop on this process to help understand it more because, unfortunately, her book just doesn’t make it very clear.

Buy it from Amazon 

Buy it from Limelight Editions 

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