Cold Reading

I did a great class today. This time, cold reading was on the menu with Crystal Carson. She has developed her own exercise called Thought Support. It's a way of being able to cold read without it looking like you're reading. Sounds too good to be  true, right?

For actors, it can be a real mine field trying to make bold choices when you haven't actually seen the script beforehand. With a little bit of background information but no access to the script, Thought Support means all the actors who were in class today were able to create gripping scenes even though they hadn't a clue what their next line was until they saw it. 

My friend Alex went as far as gatecrashing an audition and using Thought Support to land him the job. 

It takes a while to get your head around the technique and there a number of technical rules that you have to learn (which I won't go into now, you'll have to speak to Crystal or take the class) but once you have them down, you can do so much with it. 

Whilst you wouldn't want to go into an audition and cold read a script you've had for a few days, in those rare instances that you don't get to see it beforehand, this is invaluable. Another day of learning amazing things.