How to break down audition sides without overthinking them

First read: collect facts before choices

Write down only what the pages prove: who is present, where the scene happens, what has just occurred and what changes before the end. Keep assumptions in a separate column so an attractive invention does not quietly become a fact.

Short sides often withhold the wider story. Your task is not to reconstruct the missing screenplay. It is to make the available event specific.

Seven questions for every set of sides

Answer each question in one sentence. If an answer needs a paragraph, it is probably too abstract to play.

• What has just happened?
• What do I need from the other person now?
• Why must it happen in this scene?
• What is stopping me?
• What am I doing to change them?
• Where does new information alter my approach?
• What is different by the final line?

Mark turns and cues, not every emotion

Circle the cue that changes your thought and draw a line where the tactic shifts. Avoid labelling each sentence with an emotion. Emotion is an outcome; the more useful rehearsal instruction is what you are trying to do to the other person.

Use the script extractor when you need a clean view of the complete scene or only your character's dialogue, but keep the original pages beside you for context.

Test the breakdown in three runs

Import the PDF into Action, confirm the scene and role split, then run the sides once for sense. Use the second run to pursue the clearest action. On the third, change only the tactic at the main turn.

If the alternative collapses the scene, return to the text rather than forcing contrast. A useful breakdown creates options that remain supported by the words.