I was just reading a blog that was talking about finding your ‘type’ (and by type I mean things like: Ingenue, Character Actor, Big Belter, Bad Boy, Hero). It made it sound like knowing your type was something that was really, really important. Obviously it’s important to have a general sense of the sort of roles you can play, but one of my coaches told me not to categorize myself in a ‘type’. She said that marketing myself like that would cause me to get the same types of roles when I could be doing more versatile work.
The blog I was reading was saying that you have to know what your type is before you go to college auditions. Is this something that you guys know anything about? I’m not sure if I should be going to great lengths to make sure I have the proper material for my type, or just be worrying about material that suits me as a person and a performer. Any answers would be appreciated, and just ask if you need me to clarify anything. Thanks guys!
It’s extremely important in the professional world, but not sure about in the audition process. There are a lot of types that you have to grow into, so you might not even be ready to play what will ultimately be your type when you’re 17. I think you should concentrate on finding material that you really like and relate to, and figure out your type later, once you’re in a program.
My daughter just spent 7 weeks this summer in a full-time acting intensive where they spent a lot of time on type, monologue choices and scene work. The instructors stressed the importance of knowing your type and embracing/capitalizing on it. My daughter is a 6’ freckled red-head. She had to mourn the loss of her desire to play the ingenue. She has worked hard on her comedic timing and character “type” and will likely focus her auditions in those areas. Does that mean she can never play any other type of character? Who knows…but she is feeling confident and that is half the battle.
I think confidence is the key to your audition. If you know who you are and what makes you unique, your audition will go well. Good luck!!
A college age friend of ours just did a workshop which culminated in mock auditions with a couple agency reps and someone from telsey. The most common “critiques” of audition material (which everyone could hear apparently- paper walls) had to do with type. Including brutally honest comments like “you’re too fat for that song”…ouch!
@bissou - respect for the 6’ female performers of the world - I was one of them! (a long time ago)
@bisouu, standing in solidarity with your D! I’m not 6’ (5’4", actually), but I have an older-reading face with pretty strong facial features, and I had to mourn the loss of the ingenue dream roles as well. Oh well, who needs to play Clara in The Light in the Piazza when Franca is so much more fun? Hoorah for being baby character women!
One of my kid’s teachers is the auditor for a college MT program. The first time we met for lessons (a few years ago), he chatted with us for about 3-5 minutes then said “Ok. As soon as you walked in the room I began to form an impression of you. This is what we do at college auditions because we don’t have much time. You struck me as a very clean-cut, slightly geeky, all-American looking teenager. You need to embrace that and go with it. Do not try to pull off the ‘bad kid image’ in songs and monologues because it will clash with the style you project. They are not casting a show, they are looking to see the real you.”
Ingenue lasts for a brief time anyway @CanadianMTgirl - you are getting ahead of the curve 
I think you’re getting great advice here in that the important thing for college auditions is to choose material that is generally consistent with your age, shape and type.
I also think many kids are surprised when they get out of college to see that professional typing becomes far narrower, to the point that they will virtually never compete with kids they were always up against in college-level casting. I’ve spoken to kids who (to me) look and sound very similar yet say they have never, in 4 years of professional auditioning, been considered for the same roles.
Yes. Yes. Yes. This is the most important thing in any audition.
KNOW YOUR TYPE!
The first thing college audition coach Mary Anna Dennard did with my d was to carefully assess her “castable type” to help in selecting monologues and songs.
As we say here in Texas, playing against type for college auditions is like “bringing a knife to a gunfight.”
Think of it this way…if you go into a college audition singing a song that is NOT your type, the auditors are going to be thinking, “Why the heck is s/he singing THIS song?” instead of concentrating on your performance. The process is hard enough without adding another obstacle. Know your type, and use it to your advantage.
Know your type? How exactly does a high school senior applying to colleges know their castable type already? My daughter is a rising college senior and she doesn’t even know her type. I’m not so sure I’d be willing to trust anyone to decide that for me at the tender age of 17-18. Not even a much heralded college coach.
I actually chatted with a friend about this subject just today. Her daughter graduated recently and has been working consistently in excellent jobs that actually pay the rent with some to spare. Crazy talented kid so no surprise there and she also did a lot of things right to make people want to work with her. But I asked this friend her thoughts on type with respect to her daughter and her response was revealing to me. She said that her daughter continues to be submitted and called back for roles for that she (the daughter) never in a million year would have associated with what she thought was her type. So my friend’s conclusion is that your castable type is whatever the industry eventually decides is your type and maybe the best advice is to just roll with it until you have enough street experience to trust the conclusion.
Son came late to the process, so consequently I did too. I remember feeling dismay when I realized how important the superficial is in casting. I think son is good looking, but the reality is, he is not movie-star handsome aka leading man material. So, even though he was Tony in his HS production of West Side Story, in the real world of casting he is a character type. He is fine with it, and actually wrote about it in an essay. His audition material reflected his type.
For the purpose of college auditions, I think you need to choose material from characters you can realistically play. This is not to pigeon hole anyone into a type for their career. But it does show the auditors you have a general understanding of what material is suitable for your age, size, ethnicity, etc. They need to see who you are and how you portray a character onstage. You don’t want them to be distracted by presenting material that makes no sense (ie playing someone too old or too unbelievable). I think sometimes there is also a mistaken idea that the more you stretch, the more impressive it will be to the auditors. This is not so. They want to see you truly embrace a character and portray them well. They want you to be believable as the character you are presenting. Make them feel what your character is feeling, believe what they are saying, embody the character to its fullest. That’s what they want see from you.
These are all really helpful answers! Thank you all so much!
How exactly does one find their type though? A lot of voice teachers tell me I’m ‘Disney princessy’ (even though quite honestly I do not think I would be cast like that. But again I don’t know), but some say I’m the funny character actress-y person, or the big belter. I don’t know whose opinion to trust when it comes to these things, nor do I know which one of these types to start exploiting.
@endlesswonder - As vvnstar says above, at this stage I don’t think it matters too much that you find a “pigeon hole” - just that whatever you do is BELIEVABLE. There’s still room for exploring, but perhaps not for going extremely far out on a limb - leave the grandmas, overbearing mothers, suicidal addicts, prostitutes with hearts of gold, homeless single moms, and pregnant teenagers for when you’ve got more experience and training. IMHO at the HS level there’s not a whole lot of emotional distance between “Disney Princess” and “funny character actress-y person” - both can be quirky, cute, and sing like crazy - so why not pick characters that speak to YOU?
@mom4bwayboy that is super helpful. Thank you so much!
@endlesswonder - think about your personality and who you really are. Look through some listings online of personality types like this one: http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html - these tend to match up very well to the character descriptions included in the front of scripts and from other sources, such as stageagent.com.
To use some really simple examples off the top of my head (by the way, I would not recommend these songs for college auditions):
A guy who is quiet, reflective, and idealistic - “Corner of the Sky” from Pippin.
A guy who is practical, traditional, organized, and athletic - “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan.
A guy who is people-oriented and fun-loving - “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma.
It was easier for me to think about guy-types off the top of my head.
Personality matters, but it is 90%+ physical.
It is also a really tough conversation, as a coach and director, to have with a parent involved.
You have to look at the student objectively. Weight, face, height, hair color and texture, skin tone/texture. How do they carry their weight? How do they move in space?
But what if you’re a really sexy 17 year old girl with a low smouldery voice? Isn’t it going to just freak people out if you pursue your type? What if you’re an obvious leading man, six feet tall, deep baritone etc., but not, at 16, ready to pull off the worldly and debonaire thing? Or are all kids basically juvenile types – ingenues and young romantic leads and comical kids – until they get older?