We’ve explained what an actual cold reading was, now take a short look at this short video on cold reading technique by Robert Carne, writer of the Home Acting Course.
If you have any questions regarding cold reading technique, let us know in the comment section below.
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Ok, but, what is important to me – as not native speaker – is if I'm entering the room and I'm reciving my lines, or I'm reciving them when I'm entering an office and I have at least five minutes for reading it in case of having ANY idea of who my character is?
I was on pre-enroling consultations in my local film university and they gave me an opened book and said: ''perform it. don't read it, perform it.'' I was shocked, because I asked if at least they can tell me who my character is if I don't have possibility of doing some quick read in case of figuring it out. They replied: ''We thought you want to become an actor. Actor suppose to read something he never have seen in his life, and do it like he wrote it himself. He suppose to make people think, that knows the lines perfectly.'' That's what I call horror! I hope it looks little bit different in real auditions…
It's usually not like that when you go on auditions. Normally you have a "character breakdown" beforehand so you'd be better prepared for the audition. In your case, it sounds like they were trying to get you comfortable with learning how to improv.
Here is more info on improvisation: wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvisation