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A Comprehensive On-Camera Audition and Cold Reading Class I'm an actor... an artist... first and foremost. I've been living and pursuing my passion for the better part of 36 years. There is no mistake about what I do or why I do it. It's real simple... For the love of it. I love this business. I love creation. Figuratively speaking, I love carving into a big block of wood to find out what the sculpture looks like. I came up in a time when there was an abundance of people who specialized in cabinetry... Skilled woodworkers. People who could build you the finest cabinets from scratch. Workmanship that was unparalleled. People took pride in their work and craft was senior to commerce. Not that commerce was unimportant, but it was the result of great craftsmanship. People knew the difference between a cabinet that was well constructed and one made from prefabricated materials. Acting is not unlike good cabinetry; it takes a skill and a technique to consistently construct well-crafted characters for film and television. It takes a slightly different, but sometimes even more challenging set of skills, knowledge, belief, and intention to go into an audition or cold reading and leave your talent in the room. Actors hope and pray that they'll get a call from their agents, sending them out to audition for the pilot or film that could inevitably change their lives. When the call comes, tension, expectation and heart rates are elevated. A sense of "must-have" fills the air. Every meeting, cold reading, audition, callback, producer's meeting, network reading and screen test becomes a potential source of Hari Cari or Seppuku (a form of ritual disembowelment, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame). Sometimes, great actors walk into those rooms and fail to deliver the potential of their talent. Some part of them is left out of the room. Some choice is not fully committed too. Some idea that flashed across their minds like a brief and fleeting beam of light was ignored. Some "negative note," be it solicited or not, sits at the forefront of their consciousness and has become the filter through which their impulses flow. I could go on, but we all know the variables of fear, embarrassment and the expectation of failure. With the help of video and computer equipment, we document the progress and growth of an individual's ability to come into a room with enough intention and life force to cause the energy in that room to change... or not. The ability to audition or interview for a job starts long before the actual meeting itself. Few people enter a room expecting to win. Most people enter a room trying not to lose. Their attention and focus revolves around trying to avoid mistakes rather than delivering what their intentions and choices are. This class is about changing attitudes and routines that lead people to the same disastrous results. It is my intention to create substantial change in the way the actor approaches themselves and the audition process. It is my desire to create a game that will be fun to play because they are as prepared as they need to be, to play it successfully. Understanding of course, that successful is relative to process and not result. (Relative: 1. Dependent on or interconnected with something else; not absolute.) The purpose of this class is to help the actor:
Class is structured to challenge the actor on an industry level. The whole premise of the class is to prepare the actor for what will be faced while in the trenches. For further information or to contact the Studio with questions Or contact: The Richard Lawson Studios Click here to view graduate testimonials. 
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