
Breaking It Down
Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.69
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Trei Taylor
About this listen
Working in an environment that often stereotypes or attempts to “universalize” experiences, it’s more important than ever that actors consider how culture, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability are inseparable and important parts of their identity that should not be minimized and can instead enhance their work. In Breaking It Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority, Nicole Hodges Persley and Monica White Ndounou share real-world audition strategies that center the experiences of actors of color. They combine practical advice, cultural studies, Black feminist perspectives, and lived experiences to offer intersectional approaches to auditioning.
The 10 steps outlined in this book aid actors across racial lines seeking to develop the necessary skills to break down a character and script while affirming their full selves into the audition to book the role. Building on the momentum of the #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and Time’s Up movements, Breaking It Down emboldens actors of the global majority to embrace every aspect of their identities rather than leaving themselves behind in an effort to gain entry and access to the entertainment industry.
©2021 Nicole Hodges Persley and Monica White Ndounou (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Actor's Life
- A Survival Guide
- By: Jenna Fischer
- Narrated by: Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenna Fischer's Hollywood journey began at the age of 22 when she moved to Los Angeles from her hometown of St. Louis. She was determined, confident, and ready to work hard. So, what could go wrong? Uh, basically everything. The path to being a professional actor was so much more vast and competitive than she’d imagined. It would be eight long years before she landed her iconic role on The Office, nearly a decade of frustration, rejection, and doubt. If only she’d had a handbook for the aspiring actor. Or, better yet, someone to show her the way. Jenna wants to be that person for you.
-
-
OMG THE INTRO! lol
- By Katelyn on 12-22-17
By: Jenna Fischer
-
Sanford Meisner on Acting
- By: Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell, Sydney Pollack - introduction
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Arthur Morey, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This audiobook follows one of his acting classes for 15 months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential listening for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout this audiobooks, Meisner is a delight - always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges.
-
-
Surprisingly outstanding as an audiobook
- By HMadera on 12-28-19
By: Sanford Meisner, and others
-
Directing Actors
- By: Judith Weston
- Narrated by: Judith Weston
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this essential guide to acting, internationally renowned directing coach Judith Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, and what directors do wrong. She also goes over script analysis and preparation and how actors work, and she shares important and helpful insights into the director/actor relationship.
-
-
Directing Humans
- By Jacob Moore on 10-15-19
By: Judith Weston
-
A Practical Handbook for the Actor
- By: Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, and others
- Narrated by: Rose Byrne, Chris Bauer, Alison Wright, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools.
-
-
Excellent book. Concise, useful, practical.
- By Gonama on 02-16-25
By: Melissa Bruder, and others
-
Bundle Leaders Guidebook
- To Define What Are Good Leadership Skills & Reveal the Charisma Myth. Techniques of Powerful Leaders, and How They Use Influence, Persuasion, Public Speaking for Success
- By: Brent T. Donvan, Caryl R. Breton
- Narrated by: Tom Brooks, Jay Deanne
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are a lot of right leadership strategies and techniques our leaders have been using throughout history. In Bundle Leaders Guidebook, you will uncover the secrets to exceptional leadership. The books are designed to get you thinking about your own leadership style, and what you need to do to enhance your leadership.
-
-
Stupider for having listened to this
- By rich from dc on 01-18-22
By: Brent T. Donvan, and others
-
TED Talks
- The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
- By: Chris Anderson
- Narrated by: Chris Anderson, Tom Rielly, Kelly Stoetzel
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has shown how carefully crafted short talks can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, spreading knowledge, and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's worldview. Done right, a talk is more powerful than anything in written form.
-
-
One of the VERY Best!
- By C. Freeman on 05-08-16
By: Chris Anderson
-
The Actor's Life
- A Survival Guide
- By: Jenna Fischer
- Narrated by: Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jenna Fischer's Hollywood journey began at the age of 22 when she moved to Los Angeles from her hometown of St. Louis. She was determined, confident, and ready to work hard. So, what could go wrong? Uh, basically everything. The path to being a professional actor was so much more vast and competitive than she’d imagined. It would be eight long years before she landed her iconic role on The Office, nearly a decade of frustration, rejection, and doubt. If only she’d had a handbook for the aspiring actor. Or, better yet, someone to show her the way. Jenna wants to be that person for you.
-
-
OMG THE INTRO! lol
- By Katelyn on 12-22-17
By: Jenna Fischer
-
Sanford Meisner on Acting
- By: Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell, Sydney Pollack - introduction
- Narrated by: Jason Culp, Arthur Morey, Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This audiobook follows one of his acting classes for 15 months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential listening for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout this audiobooks, Meisner is a delight - always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges.
-
-
Surprisingly outstanding as an audiobook
- By HMadera on 12-28-19
By: Sanford Meisner, and others
-
Directing Actors
- By: Judith Weston
- Narrated by: Judith Weston
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this essential guide to acting, internationally renowned directing coach Judith Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, and what directors do wrong. She also goes over script analysis and preparation and how actors work, and she shares important and helpful insights into the director/actor relationship.
-
-
Directing Humans
- By Jacob Moore on 10-15-19
By: Judith Weston
-
A Practical Handbook for the Actor
- By: Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, and others
- Narrated by: Rose Byrne, Chris Bauer, Alison Wright, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools.
-
-
Excellent book. Concise, useful, practical.
- By Gonama on 02-16-25
By: Melissa Bruder, and others
-
Bundle Leaders Guidebook
- To Define What Are Good Leadership Skills & Reveal the Charisma Myth. Techniques of Powerful Leaders, and How They Use Influence, Persuasion, Public Speaking for Success
- By: Brent T. Donvan, Caryl R. Breton
- Narrated by: Tom Brooks, Jay Deanne
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are a lot of right leadership strategies and techniques our leaders have been using throughout history. In Bundle Leaders Guidebook, you will uncover the secrets to exceptional leadership. The books are designed to get you thinking about your own leadership style, and what you need to do to enhance your leadership.
-
-
Stupider for having listened to this
- By rich from dc on 01-18-22
By: Brent T. Donvan, and others
-
TED Talks
- The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking
- By: Chris Anderson
- Narrated by: Chris Anderson, Tom Rielly, Kelly Stoetzel
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since taking over TED in the early 2000s, Chris Anderson has shown how carefully crafted short talks can be the key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, spreading knowledge, and promoting a shared dream. Done right, a talk can electrify a room and transform an audience's worldview. Done right, a talk is more powerful than anything in written form.
-
-
One of the VERY Best!
- By C. Freeman on 05-08-16
By: Chris Anderson
-
To Be or Wanna Be
- The Top Ten Differences Between a Successful Actor and a Starving Artist
- By: Sean Pratt
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 3 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Created as a primer for the beginning actor, To Be or Wanna Be takes you on a journey that reveals the path to becoming a successful actor, as well as how to avoid the pitfalls of the starving artist. Beginning with the simple, yet important distinctions of how to take control of your career, and through personal anecdotes of how he discovered them, Sean Pratt guides you toward the more complex and powerful concepts that will make all the difference in your future success as an actor.
-
-
A Must-Listen For Any Performer/Actor/Singer
- By Pearl Hewitt on 02-22-13
By: Sean Pratt
-
The Wrong Kind of Women
- Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood
- By: Naomi McDougall Jones
- Narrated by: Naomi McDougall Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Generation after generation, women have faced the devastating reality that Hollywood is a system built to keep them out. The films created by that system influence everything from our worldviews to our brain chemistry. When women's voices are excluded from the medium, the impact on society is immense. Actor, screenwriter, and award-winning independent filmmaker Naomi McDougall Jones takes us inside the cutthroat, scandal-laden film industry, where only five percent of top studio films are directed by women and less than 20 percent of leading characters in mainstream films are female.
-
-
Drowning in Numbers
- By Allyson O'Rourke on 02-12-24
-
Playing Big
- Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message
- By: Tara Mohr
- Narrated by: Tara Mohr
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking women's leadership expert and popular conference speaker gives women the practical skills to voice and implement the changes they want to see - in themselves and in the world.
-
-
Life-altering in all the good ways
- By Natasha on 06-16-15
By: Tara Mohr
-
The Secrets to Outlining Your Novel
- How to Clearly Organize Your Story Ideas into an Epic Book You Can Write and Publish
- By: John S. Warner
- Narrated by: Angus Freathy
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How many times have you gone through something and said “I could write a book about this!”? Now is the time to stop doubting and start planning! Just as every great meal starts with a recipe, every epic novel starts with an epic outline. But is an outline really necessary? Can’t you just wing it? Isn’t all that time on an outline better spent on actually writing? And doesn’t an outline just pour water on that spark of creativity? That’s what you may have heard…until now! Writing is like The Hare and the Tortoise. Slow and steady will always beat quick and careless.
-
-
Love this!!
- By Korbin Marquez on 06-12-23
By: John S. Warner
-
The Art of Public Speaking
- A Step by Step Guide to Improving Effective Communication Skills, Social Skills, Small Talk, and Develop Charisma
- By: Antony McLoan
- Narrated by: Tim Alexander
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Public speaking is the art of using spoken words to convey information or a message to an audience. Public speaking is part of public relations and business communication, attaching one's ideas or thoughts for others to understand. It can be anything from a meeting presentation to a press conference speech. This audiobook is a great guide that will help you to overcome your fear of public speaking and open up to the world. The audiobook will help you how to speak better in public and in front of groups, how to apply the principles of persuasion, how to deal with criticism and audience.
-
-
Just wow!
- By Judy Enright on 11-04-21
By: Antony McLoan
-
Independent Filmmaking
- The Ultimate Guide
- By: Ricky Burchell
- Narrated by: Trevor O'hare
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So, you want to make a movie and you’ve never done it before. Well the Independent Filmmaking: The Ultimate Guide is a book that can get you started on the right path and learn what to expect going on the journey of independent filmmaking. You will learn the basics of script writing, pre-production, finding cast and crew, production, camera, lighting, sound, editing, and distribution, just to name a few. Learn from me, a filmmaker who has learned and found success in making independent films while seeing and going through all the pitfalls.
-
-
Informative
- By Annette Currelley on 07-14-24
By: Ricky Burchell
-
Just Write!
- A Calming, Realistic, and Optimistic Approach to Writing Your First Book
- By: Lauren Bingham
- Narrated by: Lynnda Nelson
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you simply want to jot down family folklore to share with future generations or wish to try your hand at writing a best-selling novel, Just Write! provides gentle yet realistic guidance for those who want to write their first book. With her humorous—yet realistic—explanations of the writing process, Lauren Bingham is here to help you make your first book become a reality. You’ll receive the encouragement you’ve been craving, as well as the empathy a new writer needs.
-
-
Amazing Listen
- By Giana on 07-19-22
By: Lauren Bingham
-
Unleash the Power of Storytelling
- Win Hearts, Change Minds, Get Results
- By: Rob Biesenbach
- Narrated by: Rob Biesenbach
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unleash the Power of Storytelling offers a practical roadmap to crafting and delivering more powerful, persuasive stories that you can use to get more of what you want out of your career and your life. Study after study confirms that stories have unparalleled power to break down walls, build trust, and influence people to act. More than facts and data alone, stories are fundamental to capturing and expressing our ideas, wishes, and beliefs and getting the results we want.
-
-
not much juice
- By Rami A. on 08-14-18
By: Rob Biesenbach
-
Steal the Show
- From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life
- By: Michael Port
- Narrated by: Michael Port
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day there are moments when you must persuade, inform, and motivate others effectively. Each of those moments requires you, in some way, to play a role, to heighten the impact of your words, and to manage your emotions and nerves. Every interaction is a performance, whether you're speaking up in a meeting, pitching a client, or walking into a job interview.
-
-
More self-absorbed than authentic
- By Oliver Nielsen on 12-09-15
By: Michael Port
-
Get to the Point!
- Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter
- By: Joel Schwartzberg
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 1 hr and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Joel's Schwartzberg's 10-plus years as a strategic communications trainer, the biggest obstacle he's come across - one that connects directly to nervousness, stammering, rambling, and epic fail - is that most speakers and writers don't have a point. They typically have just a title, a theme, a topic, an idea, an assertion, a catchphrase, or even something much less. This book shows you how to identify your point, leverage it, stick to it, and sell it and how to train others to identify and successfully make their own points.
-
-
Made me a better communicator.
- By Mr. Davis on 08-15-20
-
Be a Leader
- How to Communicate Effectively and Master the Art of Public Speaking (Master Your Communication and Social Skills)
- By: Ian Tuhovsky
- Narrated by: Randy Streu
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you want to become the most influential person in the room that people agree with and follow, then this will be the most important book you’ll ever hear.
-
-
A helpful course
- By Hazel I. Lawson on 02-27-23
By: Ian Tuhovsky
-
Bet on Black
- The Good News About Being Black in America Today
- By: Eboni K. Williams
- Narrated by: Eboni K. Williams
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When The Real Housewives of New York City hired its first black cast member after more than 13 years on the air, attorney, speaker, and journalist Eboni K. Williams knew that the public would consider her a diversity hire. But instead of accepting the label, Williams re-envisioned her role as a “Diversity Higher,” an opportunity to prove the significance of Black excellence in the workspace and in society at-large. In this book, she shares all the benefits and advantages that have helped her and many others historically reach great heights in their careers and beyond.
-
-
Insightful and Inspiring
- By Pamela on 11-24-24