How to Take Direction: Making Adjustments Fast in Auditions and Rehearsal

You finish the scene. There is a pause. The casting director looks up from the sides and says, “Great. Let’s do it again, and this time, a little more playful.” Your heart sinks a bit, because you prepared this scene one way for three days, and you are not sure what “playful” means for a woman asking her husband for money.

Or it is week two of rehearsal, and the director stops you mid-scene for the third time. Same note, different words. You nod, you say “got it,” and you do something that feels different to you and apparently looks the same from the house.

The short version: a note is a request to change one thing, and the people giving it want to see whether you can. Hear it as a good sign, translate the note into something you can do (an action aimed at your partner, not a mood), ask one question only if you really need to, then commit fully to the new version without apologizing for the old one. Practice this alone, before you need it, by running the same scene with different actions.

Hear the redirect as a good sign

It is easy to hear a note as a verdict on the first take. Casting people describe it differently. In a piece on the audition redirect, casting director Bonnie Gillespie frames it as a second chance to refine the work and warns against clinging to your first choices; a request to try it differently usually means interest, not rejection.

That matches what Casting Networks tells actors: casting teams often give notes to see how you respond, even when the note does not fit the final product, and being able to take direction quickly and completely is an essential skill. In other words, the redirect itself is part of the audition. They have seen your homework. Now they want to see you work.

Once you hear it that way, the panic has less to grab onto. You are not being told you were wrong. You are being handed the most useful thirty seconds of the audition.

Know what kind of note you just got

Notes come in a few shapes, and each asks for a different response. Name it in your head before you do anything.

1. The specific adjustment. “Don’t look at him until the last line.” Do exactly that, and let everything else follow from it.
2. The vague adjective. “More playful.” “Bigger.” “Less angry.” It describes a result, so you will need to translate it into something you can play (next section).
3. The bare “one more time.” No new direction at all. A Backstage piece on the types of redirects reads this as a chance to loosen up, not a critique you need to ask about.
4. The odd one. “Do it as if you are trying not to laugh.” A note that seems wrong for the scene can be a flexibility test. Kerry Hishon, writing for Theatrefolk, recommends having students try a monologue again with direction, and gives this kind of note as an example: a serious monologue played while holding back laughter.

In rehearsal, notes also come as line notes from stage management (words you changed) and blocking notes (where you stood). Those are not up for interpretation. Fix them exactly.

Translate the adjective into an action

“More playful” is hard to play because it is a description of how the scene should look from outside. You cannot do “playful” on purpose any more than you can do “charming.” What you can do is something to the other person.

This is the core of Judith Weston’s book Directing Actors, written to teach directors to stop giving what she calls result direction (“be angrier”) and give actors playable choices instead: an action verb aimed at the scene partner, a fact, an image. You can do that translation yourself when a director does not. Ask: if the scene looked playful, what would my character be trying to do to the other person?

Here is a short exchange from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, in R. Farquharson Sharp’s translation. Nora wants Helmer to loosen the purse strings for Christmas.

HELMER. Still, you know, we can’t spend money recklessly.

NORA. Yes, Torvald, we may be a wee bit more reckless now, mayn’t we? Just a tiny wee bit! You are going to have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money.

HELMER. Yes, after the New Year; but then it will be a whole quarter before the salary is due.

NORA. Pooh! we can borrow until then.

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House, Act I

Say you played Nora as pleading, and the note is “more playful.” Three verbs that might get you there: tease him (his caution is funny to you), coax him (you are sure he will give in, so you can enjoy it), or dare him (“Pooh!” as a challenge). Each one changes the rhythm of “Just a tiny wee bit!” in a way an adjective never would, and each one is something the casting director can see.

When you cannot find the verb in time

Pick the simplest physical or relational change that serves the note. Smile on the line you were frowning on. Move toward your partner instead of away. Say the line to make them laugh. Keep the change simple, but commit to it fully.

Ask one question, or none

Clarifying questions are allowed. Etiquette guides for student actors, such as the University of Mary Washington theatre department’s actor etiquette sheet, say to write the director’s note down, say thank you, and ask for more detail if you need it, without arguing with the note itself.

The skill is asking a question that narrows the choice instead of reopening it. “Do you mean she’s enjoying this, or she’s nervous and covering it?” gets you a usable answer in five seconds. “What do you mean by playful?” puts the work back on the director and can sound like you are pushing back.

Before you ask, try saying the note back in your own words. The same Backstage piece recommends repeating the redirect so the room knows you heard it, and it buys you a breath to think. Often, hearing yourself rephrase it answers the question.

Then stop talking. Do not explain why you did it the first way. Nobody in the room needs your reasons, and the time you spend defending the first take is time you are not spending on the second.

Commit to the change, then let it go

The most common failure is the half adjustment: an actor nods, then gives a take that is ninety percent the original. From the other side of the table it reads as “can’t change” or “won’t change,” and neither books the job.

So make the second take clearly different. If the note pushes you toward one end, go a little further than feels safe. A director can pull you back if it is too much, but a change nobody can see gives them nothing to work with.

And do not apologize for it, either before (“I’ll try...”) or after (a wince at the end). An adjustment is not an admission that the first take was wrong. It is just another take.

In rehearsal, the rules shift a little

A rehearsal note is the start of a conversation that can run for weeks, not a one-shot test. Write it in your script with a pencil. Try it the way it was given, more than once, before you decide it does not work. If you disagree, the respectful move is to ask for a word after rehearsal, not to debate it in front of the cast. And never give notes to another actor; the UMW sheet rules that out too.

Why knowing your lines cold makes you easier to direct

Here is the part actors underrate. When the words are shaky, all your attention goes to remembering them, and a new note has nowhere to land. You make the change, and the line falls out. Or you hold on to the line, and the change never happens.

Research on how actors learn offers a clue. Helga and Tony Noice, who studied how actors learn roles, found that professionals rarely learn by rote; they learn through the meaning of each line, as the APS Observer reported. That suggests a practical bet: lines tied to what the character wants are less likely to fall out when a note changes the want.

So learn your lines without locking in one reading. Run them flat, run them fast, run them with different intentions, so the words are secure no matter which way the director turns you.

Practice adjustments before anyone gives you one

Taking direction is a skill, and you can drill it alone. Pick a scene you know well, ideally one with a partner’s cues, and give yourself notes.

1. Write five action verbs on cards: tease, warn, comfort, accuse, flatter. Shuffle them.
2. Run the scene once with the top card as your action for every line. Do not change the words.
3. Draw a new card and run it again. Then try the opposite of that card.
4. Give yourself a physical note: sit for the whole scene, or never look at your partner.
5. Give yourself a tempo note: pick up every cue fast, then let one long pause land where it hurts most.
6. Record a couple of takes on your phone and watch them back. If two takes look the same, the adjustment did not read.

Ten minutes of this before an audition is good warm-up. Our free run lines online tool has classic scenes to try it on, and the monologue library has public-domain speeches to practice on if you do not have sides yet.

For a full scene, Offbook can be your partner for this drill. Realistic voices read every other character, it plays the next cue when you finish your line, and scene looping starts the scene again as soon as it ends, so each new card gets a fresh run. You can also change the playback speed of the other lines to practice a tempo note.

Questions actors ask

Is a redirect in an audition a bad sign?

Usually not. Casting teams often give a note because they are interested and want to see whether you can change. They also sometimes give one that does not fit the final project, just to test flexibility. Treat it as an opportunity, not a correction.

What if I don’t understand the note?

Say it back in your own words, then ask one narrow question if you still need to, ideally one that offers two choices. Avoid asking them to explain the whole note again. If there is no time, make a clear, simple change and commit to it.

What if I disagree with a director’s note in rehearsal?

Try it first, fully and more than once. Some notes only make sense once you have played them. If you still disagree, ask the director for a moment after rehearsal rather than arguing in front of the cast.

How do I take direction on a self-tape?

If casting asks for a second take with a note, make the difference easy to see on camera, because a change that only you can feel will not come through on the tape. If you want to send a second take with a different choice, check the casting instructions first; follow them over any general advice.