First, an actors' job is Cold Reading. The booking is the reward for doing a great job in your cold reading.

Cold reading in and of itself is a practiced skill. The more of it you do, the better you get at it.

Some of you may need to learn script analysis, and we can cover that on another page at another time. Also, many times, that is what you take an acting class for, to learn choices with script analysis. For now, though, let's cover ways to practice cold reading.

Find a book and read it cover to cover out loud and by looking down, seeing the words, and looking up and saying the words. Act out the actual dialogue by becoming all of the characters. Remember, it's important that you are able to look down and get text and look up and say that text with all of the natural emotional content of natural speech.

Take the newspaper and take the "Dear Abby" type columns and use them to cold read on a DAILY basis. If you don't practice it, you'll never get good at it. Remember, your speech should be natural and effortless and conversational. Tape yourself if you want to test yourself.

Take scripts and practice cold reading them. With scenes from scripts, you want to read through once and make your emotional choices, then read through out loud and practice those choices, then do it again practicing a new way so you have new choices.

Remember, EVERY time you go through a script you need to sound as effortless and natural as possible. If you are yelling, it should sound natural. If you are whispering, it should sound natural. If you are talking conversationally, it should sound effortless and natural.

Practice with "classical" material such as Shakespeare and Moliere and others. The most important thing with this language is that it should sound natural...it should NOT be "pronounced" or "announced", it should be as conversation as normal conversation.

Remember, this is a practiced skill, and ALL auditions are based on cold reading, so be sure to make sure you can incorporate all of your other acting training, including your sensory work, your script analysis, your repetition, your improvisation, and any and all of your life experience in your cold reading skills.

REMEMBER, don't cripple yourself by being lazy! Practice cold reading on a daily basis...Cold read at least 5 scenes per week. Try to cold read out loud at least one book per month. And remember, you should practice this skill ALL THE TIME. It's the easiest and the hardest skill in the world to do...it's kind of like "free throws" in basketball...the easiest shot to hit, the hardest to hit under pressure. PRACTICE SO THAT THE PRESSURE DOESN'T THROW YOU!!!

All the best,

Jack

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