Even if your sides are just two pages.

I’ve been there, you have a few pages, maybe just a few lines for your audition–but you have access to the full script. What should you do?

READ IT!!!!

Okay, if all caps and exclamation marks are convincing enough, here are 3 reasons why you should:

1. They’ve made it available for a reason. It’s like a little nudge for you to gain further insight into the project as a whole, making sure you’re crystal clear on the tone and genre of the project. Take them up on their offer.
2. It’s going to add texture to your audition. No matter what, you’re gonna want to know what’s going on in the scene so that you can play your character in such a way that it moves the story along. Are you there to help or hinder the protagonist? Reading the whole script will let you know what your purpose is in the whole story–remember, THERE ARE NO SMALL ROLES! If you’ve made it into the storyline, there’s a good reason for it. Maybe you even appear in more than the scenes available in the sides.
3. This is THE BEST REASON, the reason you should be hoping and praying for: You might get asked to read for another role, a BIGGER role, and it would really suck if you have no idea who this character is.
   
   Now, this has never happened to me (yet), but this happened to Wendy Braun, the lead actor in “Donny’s Bar Mitzvah, which premiered last week on Apple TV and Prime. She recently shared the story of how she booked this role, and it has everything to do with being as prepared as possible. She was originally called in for a smaller part, but she took the time to read the entire script. After 3 pages of her 4 page audition, the director stopped her and asked her to read for the lead! She had about 15 minutes to prep for a 15 page cold read!!! Now, Wendy is a pro like no other, so she had read the entire script, and could see herself in that role already while she read it. She understood how the director could see her in this role, and was able to trust her instincts to bring this character to life in less than 20 minutes.

“I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.” Oprah Winfrey

We can’t control when opportunity will come around, but we can control how ready we are for it when it does.