How should I prepare for the solo tryouts coming up at school?

Question: How should I prepare for the solo tryouts coming up at school!?
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get the lines and practice over and over the lines and how you should say them and reactWww@QuestionHome@Com

I'm not sure what you mean by solo tryouts - singing or acting!?

If the audition includes singing, get a song you're comfortable with, nothing where you have to strain to hit all the notes, and practice the heck out of it!. Showers are good!. PRACTICE BEING LOUD!.

For acting, get a monologue and work the heck out of it!. Here's some advice I gave someone else about monologues:

Shakespeare can be impressive!. Many of his heroines were young - Miranda, Juliet, etc!. Shakespeare can be a good choice if you can get your head around the language and make it clear what is being said - a feat many professional actors find it difficult to accomplish!. If you do go with Willy the Shakes, don't pick a monologue with too much complex or antiquated language, and pick one that will really let you show a lot of emotion!.

If you choose a monologue from a movie, DO NOT do it exactly as it was done in the movie!. Books of monologues are available, some for specific ages and genders, others for a variety of actors!. Check your library, my school's drama program is crap and we still have books of monologues!. But don't just look at one book - many books of monologues feature only monologues written by one author and they all use the same diction which can be very annoying!.

Once you choose a monologue, stick with it!. Say it at least once a day, aloud, and if you really want a great part, record yourself saying it and listen to yourself!.

Go through the monologue!. Know who the character is talking to, what happened just before the monologue began, and why they are saying the lines!. There is a reason that every line is said!. At the beginning of the Midsummer monologue that was used as an example earlier [in the other question], the character is wallowing in self-pity and moaning about getting dumped by the guy she's obsessed with for one of her best friends!. Or, alternatively, there's jealous, righteous anger behind her words: "throughout Athens I am thought as fair as she!" Then, the realization that life sucks, it isn't fair, and what other people think doesn't matter: "But what of that!? Demitrius thinks not so!.!.!.", which could be played despairingly, sulkily, or in a variety of different ways!.

Monologues require a lot of thought, and a lot of work - probably more thought and work than you'll put into most of your lines in the play!. When you're a part of a play, you have the part, you're part of an ensemble, and your audience comes in expecting to be entertained; they want to like you!. With a monologue, you're competing, you're alone, and your audience will be comparing you to every other person there, looking for your flaws!. When I get stage fright, it's always during an audition!.

So, for finding a monologue - check online, check your local bookstore or library, ask the drama teacher!.

If you aren't good at learning lines quickly, try this: Get some clear plastic page protectors, the kind you put in binders!. Print out or make a copy of the lines you need to learn, put them the page protector, and tape the end shut so there's no hole!. Press all the air out first!.

The next time you take a shower, get the wall across from you wet and stick up the lines in the page protector!. it will stick to the wall without tape and be waterproof, so you can practice saying your lines in the shower every day!

Break a leg!

~ PepperWww@QuestionHome@Com