Imagine you are meeting 10 new people in one day. Each person may hold the answer to a problem you must solve. It would be important to hear their name clearly, as well as to get a good look at their face. Now, imagine you have 40, or even 100 new people to meet in a single day – and any one of them may solve your BIG problem.
This is the very task for casting.
A slate is, at its most basic, the time in the audition when you state your name and any other information you have been asked to share during that introductory moment – that introductory performance moment.
The first rule of a slate: It is a performance.
The information you are asked to include may be the name of your piece, your audition number, your agent – whatever the instruction for the slate, the second rule of the slate is: Follow it. Following directions is part of the audition; if you can’t follow directions for your slate, can you be trusted to take direction in the rehearsal room or on set?
The most common pitfall of the slate is speaking too quickly. We say our names a gajillion times. We know our names. Our family knows our names. Our friends know our names. So when we say our names, we have a bad habit of saying our name as if the person hearing it already knows it.
First, slow down. Pretend you are introducing yourself to your friend’s great-grandmother. Don’t be afraid to take a breath in between your first and last name. Second, talk like a human. You are a lovely, engaging individual; let that loveliness shine through in your very first sentence to your new friend, the casting director.