To my surprise, it is not unknown for someone out there to e-mail in to me (link given at the foot of this literary gem) with an interesting question. I duly answer to the best of my ability, or I contact people whom I know to be better equipped and experienced than me to provide useful and relevant information. Then I take the credit for their efforts. Occasionally, the same question crops up more than once, which appeals to my inherent laziness because I can invoke a pre-assembled answer and use it again. Today, I address a subject that has cropped up over and over again in correspondence, so I have been obliged to think about it more than is good for me.

I refer to auditions in general and the selection and delivery of Audition Pieces.

First a confession: some twenty-odd years have passed since I was last required to undergo the ignominy of an audition, but – since only the director and I were present – I soon realised that the man was desperate and I duly got the part. I had long carried an opinion that all directors should act from time to time, so that they can recall what it feels like to be directed. The ensuing production was indeed a salutary experience.

On the other hand, I dread to think how many audition sessions I have conducted when searching for just the right cast for yet another production. At least a few score.

I recommend that the ‘Rules of the Production’ are stated firmly and clearly before anyone offers themselves for inclusion in the cast or crew – the production team. Naturally, this will appear to be authoritarian, as well it should be. It can delineate such matters as Job-descriptions, Punctuality, Line-learning, Spectators and Time-scale. It also provides an opportunity to describe the director’s vision for the production, an indication of the depth of research and interpretation that has already gone on; it can imbue the team with a feeling for the perfection that is possible as a result of hard work, they can begin to share the director’s passion for the piece. A simple enrolment form can provide a record of each attendee, showing name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, dates of unavailability and an undertaking. It also allows people to withdraw from the production if they feel they cannot tolerate a level of discipline. It takes guts to do it, but it can provide the structure for a happy production.

Which brings us to the reason we are all here: the selection of people to play all the parts. Does pre-casting ever happen? You’re darned right it does. I dare any director who knows the available pool of actors to read the play without hearing particular people delivering the lines and seeing individuals strutting their stuff. Such anticipation is kept strictly secret in order that surprises might still be sprung.

Auditioning can be simply a matter of reading the play and swapping actors among the parts as we go. Nothing wrong with that – it can be part of the development.

I notice a current tendency to circulate copies of a suitable test-piece among the candidates in advance of the audition. Conclusions can be drawn from the way each person tackles the words selected for all of them. That’s alright too, as long as the excerpt chosen is not from the play about to go into rehearsal. (Think it through.) It would be sensible, however, to choose something by the same author.

I want to know how people will react to each other and to me, how easily they will accept other people’s ideas, how flexible they will keep their minds and – most importantly – whether they will eventually be right for the part. You see, I have this attitude that there are no such things as leads and supporting parts, any more than – in real life - people who stop to gawp at a road-accident are any less important to themselves than the injured parties. I want the entire cast to be ‘stars’. I require an application of stagecraft without staginess and I don’t mind teaching as we go.

Then there are the improvisational games that we can play most usefully, within the structure of the play and maybe with a superficial interpretation of its characters.

But let’s look at those ‘audition pieces’ that we have asked people to select for themselves: speeches they may have delivered in previous productions or maybe just a speech that they have always wanted to deliver in public. The choice is revealing.

The auditionees should be trying to ‘sell’ their abilities to the director; the basic premise of any sort of selling is that one must first identify the market to which one is trying to sell, then to calculate how one can best serve its needs. Your market is the director, so if you are keen enough to nail that part, you must first understand how the director thinks and works. THEN you can prepare yourself for the audition.

Maybe I should deviate again at this point to describe some of the pre-audition approaches to which I have been subjected. The director who accedes to any of these, of any sort, is inviting a troublesome production and, let’s face it, there will be troubles enough in the natural course of events, without inviting scandal. Then again, no matter how the casting is handled, not everyone will be pleased, so one may as well proceed on a basis of talent and suitability. The only considerations should be the short-term interests of this production and the longer-term ones of the group’s development.

I wouldn’t mind a quid for every time an ardent young declaimer has requested my provision of a muse of fire or a female one has extolled the virtues of unstrained mercy. I am heartened by a Harry V who whispers to his soldiers instead of one who bellows at them. My soul leaps when someone chooses something different, something new and exciting that can stand delivery out of context without lengthy explanation.

Of all the hundreds of hopefuls who have implored me to employ them, one stands clearly above all the rest as undeniably unrefuseable. She had watched us suffer the slings and arrows of several dozen newly qualified ex-drama-students when she decided – on an impulse (we found out later) – to change her piece to “The Good Ship Lollipop” in her own style. Years later, at a diplomatic reception in The Hague, I was able to tell the story to the American ambassador, whose name was Shirley Temple-Black, but these days I take infinitely more pride in reading the website of my chosen girl and wallowing in her subsequent achievements as writer, actor and director.

I guess it’s good for my ego to spot a previously unsuspected talent and to release it from obscurity, but one must be awfully sure of several factors to do this, not the least two being (1) one’s own ability to bring a tiny rosebud into glorious blossom within the production’s timescale, and (2) the rosebud’s willingness to be cosseted to full flower. En route, there will be hours of personal tuition and a lot of understanding by other team-members, some of whom may have fancied that part for themselves.

Always, we are aiming at bringing every last facet of the production as near to theatrical perfection as is possible, not WITHIN the boundaries imposed by the available talent and facilities, but well BEYOND them. Only one standard will satisfy that lust for absolute perfection and that is absolute perfection itself. Nothing else will do, so one tries to appoint team-members who are up for the arduous journey we are about to undertake. Sometimes, this has meant leaving out divisive or lazy geniuses. Tough.

Can you now guess what I’m aiming at in advising you how to pick the audition piece that will ensure you get the part you want? When you know the way the director works and thinks... when you know the vision the director has developed for the production being cast... when you know the part you want... THEN you choose a piece with which you can set the audition session on fire. Don’t leave it to quirky chance.

Most of us have two or three speeches lodged in our memory which earned us a nice ripple from the Audience when delivered in performance. I would have great difficulty in denying myself an opportunity to deliver again Dr. Arthur Wicksteed’s last speech from ‘Habeas Corpus’ by Alan Bennett. But it would occur to me that Kate’s speech of submission from ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ would be great fun to murder in my present state, 52 years after my voice held out just long enough before breaking.

Don’t be afraid to take a simple prose piece from literature.

In the event that you find yourself completely bereft of inspiration, I would recommend that you give French’s Theatre Bookshop a ring on 0207 255 4300. If you ask politely, they may send you their lists entitled ‘Audition for Adults’ and ‘Audition for Young Actors’. In these, you will find brief details of some dozens of anthologies – collections of pieces - all compiled by teachers who are engaged in the preparation of actors perpetually. If you want to go right ahead and buy a book from French’s, have your credit-card details ready. Somehow you’ll find something that should do the trick.

There is a sermon that I’ve preached occasionally to casts while on tour, when I’ve taken a peek into the auditorium and been horrified to discover that our hosts have neglected the publicity; there are acres of empty seats and very few Audience. I’ve gone backstage, called my cast together and instructed them to play up to the people who came – to give them a great show - not down to the droves who stayed away.

The same principle applies to poor attendance at an audition session. The smart director will ignore the absentees and concentrate on those who have expressed their confidence and enthusiasm by attending. Let’s face it, they’ll be in with a far better chance of being cast than if the place was crowded. A wise precaution will be to come prepared to abandon the big-cast play and opt for something with a smaller cast.

Over the years, I’ve noticed how my style has changed almost unconsciously. I’ve never been afraid to interrupt the flow of a rehearsal in order to correct some fault or to suggest an improvement, but, in my early days, I was an incessant chatterer; I was so keen to impose my precious interpretation on every moment that I rarely got to see the products of my actors’ minds. I had yet to learn how to watch, listen and apply.

The audition session – after the ground rules and interpretation have been described - are times for watching, listening and imagining the possibilities. They are when actors have a chance to express something of themselves about which, before this session, only they knew. So, do your homework, then... let your talent FLY!!!

Jonah was a very experience director, teacher and writer who sadly passed away in February 2006. He was also the author of the highly successful "Playmaker - The Craft of Directing Plays (The Way I Seen It)".