# How to Break Down Audition Sides

> Three pages, one evening, and no idea where to start. A practical way to break down audition sides: the questions worth asking, how to mark the pages without overdoing it, a worked scene from Pygmalion, and a plan for when you have 20 minutes or two days.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-break-down-audition-sides
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Last updated: 2026-10-13

The sides arrive: three pages, a character name, and maybe a one-line description. You read them once and feel the familiar panic. There's a lot you don't know. Who is this person? What just happened? Why does she say that? And you have until tomorrow afternoon.

A full play gives you weeks and a whole script to answer those questions. Sides give you a few pages and very little time. That's why breaking them down needs its own method: fast, focused on what casting will actually watch, and light enough that you still have time to learn the words.

The short version: read the scene twice before you decide anything. Ask why these pages were chosen. Answer six questions about the scene, mark the beats and the turn on your pages, and then learn the lines inside those answers. Leave the delivery loose, so you can take a note in the room.

## Read twice before you decide anything

The first read is for story only. What happens, who wants what, and how it ends. Don't start choosing how to say anything yet. Read everything on the pages, including any lines above where your scene starts and below where it ends, since they tell you what's around it.

The second read is slower. One tip from [a casting director's advice in Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/how-to-break-down-sides-for-an-audition-65888/) is to cover the page and reveal it one line at a time, so you catch the stage directions and lines your eye skipped the first time. It's easy to skim the other character's speeches, and they often hold a lot of your information.

Resist the urge to read it ten more times out loud. As Karen Johal points out in [Casting Networks' guide to cold reads](https://www.castingnetworks.com/news/how-to-prepare-cold-read-audition-actor-advice/), rereading aloud over and over is a way of memorizing, which isn't what you need yet. You'll get to the words. First, figure out what they're for.

## Ask why casting chose these pages

Sides aren't random. Somebody picked these pages out of a whole script because they show something the role needs: a temper, a turn, a kind of humor, a moment of weakness. Before you go further, ask what that might be.

Look for the moment where something changes. News arrives, a tactic fails, someone gives in, a secret comes out. That's usually the reason the scene was chosen, and it's the moment casting will be watching. If you can find only one thing in the scene, find that. For a TV part with only a line or two, see [how to audition for a co-star role](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-audition-for-a-co-star-role).

Then read the character description again, if there is one. It's often brief and sometimes vague, but it tells you how the writers and casting think of the person. If the description says "sharp, guarded, funny," and your reading has her weepy and open, check whether you've missed something in the text.

## Six questions to answer on the page

Acting teachers have long lists of questions for a full role. Uta Hagen's nine, as [Theatrefolk lays them out](https://theatrefolk.com/blog/uta-hagens-nine-questions), are a good example. For sides, you need fewer. These six cover what casting will see:

1. **Who am I talking to, and what are they to me?** Relationship comes first. "My boss" and "my boss, who I'm secretly in love with" are different scenes.
2. **Where am I, and when?** Place and time change how loud you are, how you stand, and who might overhear. These are the scene's given circumstances; write down only what the pages actually say.
3. **What just happened?** Acting coach Matt Newton, in [Backstage's guide to cold reading](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/ways-master-dreaded-cold-read-12352/), notes that film and TV scenes usually start in the middle, so "Your first line is always a response." Decide what you're responding to.
4. **What do I want from them?** Make it something the other person can give or refuse. Michael Shurtleff, the casting director behind the book *Audition*, framed the conflict in a scene as what you're fighting for, as [Casting Frontier's summary of his guideposts](https://castingfrontier.com/blog/9-audition-tips-from-michael-shurtleff/) explains.
5. **What's in my way?** Usually the other person. Sometimes it's you: pride, fear, manners.
6. **Where does it turn?** The moment you found in the last section. Mark it.

If the pages don't answer a question, make a choice and commit to it. Casting can redirect a specific choice. They can't do much with a vague one. Johal's line is worth remembering: strong and wrong "is better than a careful nothing."

## A worked example: the slippers scene from Pygmalion

Say these are your sides, from Act 4 of Bernard Shaw's *Pygmalion* (1913, public domain in the US), and you're reading Liza. It's late. Liza, Higgins, and Pickering have just come home from the night Liza passed as a lady, and Pickering has just said good night:

> **HIGGINS:** What the devil have I done with my slippers?
>
> **LIZA:** There are your slippers. And there. Take your slippers; and may you never have a day’s luck with them!
>
> **HIGGINS:** What on earth—! What’s the matter? Get up. Anything wrong?
>
> **LIZA:** Nothing wrong—with you. I’ve won your bet for you, haven’t I? That’s enough for you. I don’t matter, I suppose.
>
> **HIGGINS:** You won my bet! You! Presumptuous insect! I won it. What did you throw those slippers at me for?
>
> **LIZA:** Because I wanted to smash your face. I’d like to kill you, you selfish brute. Why didn’t you leave me where you picked me out of—in the gutter? You thank God it’s all over, and that now you can throw me back again there, do you?

Run the six questions:

- **Who am I talking to?** The man who took me in and taught me to speak, who has just treated the whole thing as his own triumph. One strong choice: he's the one person whose opinion I want, and the one who won't give it.
- **Where and when?** His house, late at night, after the big event. Pickering is going to bed, so it's just the two of us.
- **What just happened?** Pickering has called the night a triumph for Higgins, and Higgins asks where his slippers are. You might play that as the last straw. The first line is the slippers going at his head. Higgins's "What did you throw those slippers at me for?" confirms it.
- **What do I want?** For him to admit that I did it, and that I matter. Later in the scene she asks, twice, "What's to become of me?" That's the real question underneath.
- **What's in my way?** Him, completely: he claims the win for himself and calls her a "presumptuous insect."
- **Where does it turn?** On "I don't matter, I suppose." It's Liza saying the real grievance out loud, and the scene stops being only about slippers.

Notice what the breakdown gives you. The first line is no longer an outburst out of nowhere; it's the end of a whole evening of being ignored. And the turn gives your read a shape: the hurt surfaces, then the anger comes back harder. A read with a clear shape feels like a scene. You can find the whole play in our [Pygmalion script page](https://www.offbook.com/plays/pygmalion).

## Mark your sides, lightly

A few marks on the page help. A lot of marks get in your way, especially if you're holding the pages in the room. Keep it to these:

- A line across the page where each beat changes, with one word for what you're doing in that beat ("accuse," "plead," "dare").
- A clear mark on the turn.
- Your answer to "what just happened," written above your first line, so you see it before you start.
- Anything you don't understand, circled, to look up tonight.

Don't mark how to say the lines. Jessica Hartley, of the actor training and coaching course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, gives this advice in [Spotlight's guide to audition sides](https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/the-essentials/audition-sides-and-how-to-prepare-them/): "don't learn intonation or rhythm, don't set them." If you've drilled one reading of every line, you can't take a note if casting gives you one.

## Read the instructions, and know your rights on self-tapes

Before you start learning, check the rest of what came with the sides: the shoot dates and any instructions about how to tape or what to wear. Instructions differ from office to office, and they're the easiest thing to get wrong.

For union film and TV self-tapes in the U.S., the 2023 SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical agreement set some ground rules. As [Backstage reported](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/sag-aftra-self-tape-regulations-explained-76781/), it required sides to arrive at least 48 hours before the tape is due (72 for minors), a first self-tape is capped at eight pages, and you can't be required to memorize. Those rules apply to union work, and terms can change with new contracts, so check with your agent or the union if something looks off.

Not being required to memorize doesn't mean reading off the page will compete. Casting director Marci Liroff, in [Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/holding-sides-audition-casting-director-advice-66753/), says most U.S. casting directors want you as off book as you can be, with the sides handy in case you lose your place. For more on that trade-off, see our guide to [whether to memorize sides or read the whole script](https://www.offbook.com/blog/sides-vs-script-what-to-prepare).

## Then learn it, inside the answers

Now you learn the words, and the breakdown makes that faster. Researchers Helga and Tony Noice studied how professional actors learn roles. As the [APS Observer reported](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/to-be-or-or-um-line), they found that actors rarely learn by rote. They focus on what the lines mean, and the words follow.

So learn a beat at a time, saying the lines out loud with your answer to "what do I want" in mind. Learn your first and last lines cold, so your eyes are up at the start and the finish. And run it against the other character's lines, not just your own, because most of your choices are reactions.

Offbook can help with this step. Upload your sides and pick your role, and realistic voices read the other characters while Offbook listens and plays the next cue when you finish your line. When you're close, hide your lines while everyone else's stay visible and see what's left. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere.

Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07)

## A plan for the time you have

How much breakdown you do depends on how long you have. Here's a way to scale it:

- **Twenty minutes in the hallway.** Read twice, quickly: once for story, once for the turn. Answer "who am I talking to," "what do I want," and "where does it turn." Learn your first and last lines. Our [cold-read guide](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-cold-read-for-auditions) covers the rest.
- **One evening.** Both reads, all six questions, light marks on the page, then learn it a beat at a time and run it out loud several times. Sleep on it, and run it once more in the morning.
- **Two days or more.** Everything above, plus the full script or a synopsis if you can get one, and a run with a real reader or a recording before you tape. Track what you sent and when with our [audition tracker](https://www.offbook.com/tools/audition-tracker).

## Questions actors ask

### Should I read the full script if I can get it?

Yes, once, for story, if time allows. It answers questions the sides can't. But the sides are what you'll perform, so they come first if you have to choose.

### What if the sides have lines crossed out?

Casting sometimes cuts lines to make a scene shorter. Read the crossed-out lines anyway, since they can explain what's going on, but don't perform them. If a cut leaves something that no longer makes sense, ask your agent or the casting office.

### How long should breaking down sides take?

For two or three pages, the six questions and a few marks should take less time than learning the lines. If the breakdown is eating your whole evening, you're overdoing it. Save the deeper work for a callback.

### Should I break down the other character too?

Briefly. Know what they want and what they're going through, because your reactions depend on it. You don't need their backstory.

### What if my breakdown is wrong?

If casting gives you a note, you'll be ready to take it, because you made clear choices without locking in the delivery. A specific choice that turns out to be wrong is still easier to work with than a vague one.