Experienced acting teacher and casting director Merlin, who has worked with such luminaries as James Ivory, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Stephen Sondheim, provides comprehensive instruction here on how actors can improve their auditions. The author's writing style is friendly and straightforward while still being technically focused. She takes a variety of dramatic scenes and breaks them down to show how an actor can use a short section of a play to make a big impression. She includes special advice for auditioning for film, TV, and musicals. Merlin also goes through the actual auditioning event step by step, with advice on how to handle props, costumes, positioning, lights, and other potential problems. One chapter includes comments from directors on what they would like to see in an actor's audition. A gem of a book for every library that serves aspiring actors and we all do, don't we?
