Turn Callbacks into Bookings
Learn the 3-Step Emotional Type Audition Technique and bring more of your own emotional truth to the roles you play.
Live, virtual Zoom class · 3 hours ·
Second Saturday of each month ·
10 a.m. Mountain Time · $199
Next class is tomorrow
You got the callback. Now what?
Do you nail the callback but still wonder why you didn’t book the role? Feel rushed when an audition comes in at the last minute? Find yourself trying to remember lines instead of listening and responding?
You don’t need to show up trying to guess what the casting team wants. You need a way to prepare that helps you make clear, personal choices and stay present in the scene.
In this three-hour class, I’ll teach you a practical approach to understanding what drives a character and how to use that understanding in your audition.
What’s an Emotional Type?
An Emotional Type is more than a physical type or a broad character label. It’s a way to understand the emotional strategies you use to get what you need, handle conflict, and protect what matters to you.
Each of us has four major Emotional Types. When you learn to recognize them, you can find a deeper point of connection with characters, including roles that may not look like you.
That connection can help you make choices that feel specific, truthful, and your own.
The 3-Step Audition Technique
Step 1: Identify one of your four Emotional Types
Move beyond a vague archetype and explore what drives the character: what they want, what they fear, and how they get what they need.
For example, “a fierce mogul” is a starting point. A more specific Emotional Type might be:
The goddess with an edge uses silence to intimidate the opposition. She investigates to find their weaknesses. Unapologetic about her beauty, she uses it to distract you from her dangerous physical prowess.
Specificity gives you something playable.
Step 2: Learn what can weaken an audition, and how to prepare
When you’re working hard to remember the lines, it can be difficult to listen and respond in the moment. The camera is interested in the psychology underneath the words: what you want, what you’re hiding, and what you’re doing to your scene partner.
You’ll learn my 9-times-fast memorization technique to help you move beyond rote rehearsal, so the lines don’t have to take over your attention.
Step 3: Work the scene from your Emotional Type
Use your Emotional Type to find the character’s objective, actions, and emotional conflict. The work becomes personal because it connects to your own understanding of how people get what they need.
You’re not trying to paste an idea onto the text. You’re finding a point of view that gives you a way into the scene.
What you’ll learn
Identify one of your four major Emotional Types.
Use emotional connection to prepare a scene.
Explore the protagonist’s conflict, choices, and change.
Practice a memorization approach that helps you stay present.
Make more specific choices about what you want and how you pursue it.
What to bring
Bring a side or a video of a favorite scene from a film or show made in the last five years.
Choose three scenes:
One can feature a lead character who looks like you physically.
The other two should feature protagonists you identify with emotionally, even if they don’t share your physical type.
For each scene, be ready to identify:
The protagonist.
The emotional conflict.
How the protagonist changes by the end of the scene.
How the protagonist gets what they need.
Meet the Instructor, April Yvette Thompson
I’m a Tony-winning producer, writer, and actor working across film, television, and theater. My credits include Bull, Blue Bloods, The Exonerated, Clybourne Park, and Jitney. I’ve also produced Sundance features, including Blue Caprice and Mother of George.
I created the Emotional Type Audition Technique to help actors connect their own emotional understanding to the roles they want to play.
Class details
Format: Live virtual class on Zoom
Length: 3 hours
When: Second Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. Mountain Time
Price: $199
The introductory class is a prerequisite for the full 12-week Emotional Type Technique MasterMind Group.
Frequently asked questions
Is the class in person or virtual?
It’s a live Zoom class. You can join from anywhere.
How do I get started?
Reserve your place in the next monthly introductory class using the button above.
What makes this different from a traditional acting class?
The technique focuses on your emotional strategies and the business of preparing for roles beyond your physical type. It’s a way to find playable choices rooted in your own understanding of the human condition.
Does the class guarantee bookings?
No class can guarantee a booking. This class gives you a repeatable way to prepare, make specific choices, and bring more of yourself to the audition.
How can I contact you?
Email April@thedreamunlocked.com.
You have more to bring to the room than a perfect reading
Your appearance may change. Your Emotional Type is a deeper part of how you understand people, conflict, and the choices they make.
Learn to use that understanding in your work, and explore roles beyond the ones you’ve been told to expect.
I kept the monthly schedule and price from the page and left the exact next class date open for you to confirm before publishing.
Stop Guessing
Start Booking
Discover how to turn callbacks into bookings with the
3 Step Emotional Type
Audition Technique
The Emotional Type Audition Technique - a 3 Step process
A one day Zoom class with Tony-winning producer & actor, April Yvette Thompson on the Emotional Type Audition Technique
a 3 hour virtual class the 2nd Sat of each month @ 10am (MT) for only $199
The one day class is a pre-requisite for the Full 12 Week Emotional Type Technique MasterMind Group
You’ll learn:
-Learn what kills Auditions and How to Fix It
Identify 1 of your 4 Emotional
Learn Emotional Type Audition Prep-Access your deepest emotions easily and quickly to create the kind of auditions that make CDs your biggest fan
- Reposition yourself in the industry as a one-take actor who delivers complex & compelling performances quickly & effortlessly
Now, let’s walk through how we’ll get there during our 3 hours together.
Check out step 1 below
What’s an Emotional Type you say?
Let’s get into it.
You may be a fierce, corporate mogul type, who slays in the boardroom.
But that’s a vague archetype.
It doesn’t tell us what triggers that behavior, what makes you tick and how you get what you want.
Specifically, under what given circumstances do you employ the fierce mogul type?
How do you get what you want from others?
What is your deepest fear that you’re working overtime to conceal?
A more specific Emotional Type would be:
The goddess with an edge uses silence to intimidate the oppostion. And subtle investigative reporting to find their weaknesses. Unapologetic about her beauty, she uses it to distract you from her dangerous physical prowess that starts and finishes wars.
Great!
Step 1
Identify 1 of 4 of your
Emotional Types
Step 2
Learn what
KILLS auditions
& fix it
WHAT KILLS AUDITIONS QUICK FAST AND IN A HURRY:
When the camera watches you trying to remember lines
On Camera acting cannot hold you belaboring the text. When you do that, you’re not listening and responding moment to moment. Your performance feels contrived
The camera is interested in what you’re hiding. The psychology behind your actions. Dialogue is the tool we use to cover up what we’re really thinking
The camera is only interested in your psychological process, not the text which is a means to an end.
The text is the mailbox you send to your scene partner to hide your true intentions and feelings
So, we must tap into your psychology for on camera acting. In order to do this, we must remove the need to remember lines
You’ll learn the 9-times-fast memorization technique.
When you memorize by rote with without attaching meaning to the words, this frees you up to listen and respond truthfully in the moment .
So, instead of the camera watching your acting homework. The homework becomes invisible. Instead of a bunch of rehearsed responses that prevent you being present in the scene.
What folks are saying about working with April on the Emotional Type Technique
‘The Boys’ star, Susan Heyward has been a series regular on nearly every show she’s worked on. April teaches the Emotional Type Audition Technique approach to build careers like Susan’s .
Step 3
Work the scene
from the POV of your
Emotional Type
Remember The goddess with an edge Emotional Type from Step 1?
She uses silence to intimidate the opposition. And subtle investigative reporting to find their weaknesses. Unapologetic about her beauty, she uses it to distract you from her dangerous physical prowess that starts and finishes wars
The Emotional Type
gives you an objective in the scene,
precise actions,
it establishes what triggers the conflict within you.
Because you understand this Emotional Type because it comes from you. Not the text, not the breakdown, but you.
What is an
Emotional Type &
Why does it Matter?
Tony-winning producer, actor, writer & thedreamunlocked founder, April Yvette Thompson talks about the Emotional Type Technique in this FREE CLASS
Each person has 4 major Emotional Types. In order to survive, you have 4 major emotional lessons that you must master in this life time.
In order to thrive, you’ve subconsciously created strategies to overcome each conflict in your life.
Those emotional strategies are what helped you come through the fire wiser and stronger.
The Emotional Strategies you’ve devised give you a clear understanding of how you process emotions, solve problems and turn them into truthful behavior.
As a result, you intuitively enter characters from a very specific shared emotional truth.
This takes the focus away from pleasing the CD to creating a truthful, unselfconscious, performance that is immediate, specific and organic.
You won’t need to belabor the characters’ actions line by line. You won’t need to be tripped up by CD adjustments.
Because you’ll understand the character’s deepest desires and the psychological strategies they employ to get what they want.
The Emotional Type Audition Technique is a completely intuitive approach to acting that builds on the unique problem- solving emotional strategies that you’ve mastered.
This makes you uniquely qualified to play certain roles whether they land in your physical type or not.
Because those roles land within a much bigger playing field: your psychological and emotional experience of the human condition.
It opens up an entire world of opportunities for you that have never been considered.
How you look will change, but your Emotional Type is with you throughout your lifetime.
Your Emotional Type is a deep, soulful way of portraying a heroine’s journey that is unique to you and you alone.
Learning your 4 major Emotional Types is how you unlock roles you were born to play
Hilary’s Emotional Type Strategy
“When I called April, it was after I had been particularly frustrated. My scenes were cut from a career making, high profile film.
April said, “Well, why don't you write something for yourself?” I did April's [DreamingOutLoud Emotional Type Technique] and I realized that an idea that I had was the perfect vehicle for me to not only play one of my chords, but also something I was really passionate about.
So she put me on a writing schedule.
Through this process, what I'm starting to learn is that outer experience is an expression of inner reality.
As my inner reality shifted, my experience in the business began to shift.
As I understood that I'm not an actor who has to wait around for someone to choose her, waiting around for the phone to ring, doing her best at auditions and giving away all her power.
April is the person who was able to make me realize what I have to bring to the table and how I can put that forward. So I am driving the direction of my career and not getting buffeted about by whatever trend comes up or whatever job happens to become available or whatever people think black girls are in right now.
Because I'm not here for a trend, I'm here for the long haul.
So, BadAsses:
April --This is your leader,
go find her,
be bold,
be brave
stand up
for yourself & stand up
for your dreams.” Hilary Ward, Actor/Writer/Producer (The Fosters, Sharp Objects, NCIS)
Do you constantly compare yourself to other actors deciding that someone else is going to get the job before you even show up at the audition?
Do you get the audition, nail the callback but never book the job?
Do you have to constantly berate your agents to get you seen for more roles?
Do you panic when you get a last minute audition because you have no time to prep?
Does the camera make you nervous, so you forget your lines?
Do you get in your own way when it comes to having a successful, lucrative acting career?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this class is for you... -
Is the
EmotionalType
Technique
right for you?
Why you need
the Emotional Type
Audition Technique
Daily quotes have been replaced by per episode salary minimums
Residuals are Disappearing
But you still have power as an actor.
THEN
When I first started acting, the more you worked, the higher your daily quote became. It allowed actor’s careers to grow in relationship to their growth and experience.
NOW
Then SAG agreed to salary minimums. On primetime TV, this increased what the star of the show made per episode to as much as 6 figures, while supporting cast, recurrings and guest stars were stuck with outlandish 5 figure salaries per episode.
So, it’s quite common for the star of the show to make $350K per episode, while supporting principals make $25-40K and while recurring or guest stars make a flat $8500. This is for one episode.
That’s a far cry from what a seasoned actor made per episode once their quote was no longer honored. You could go from make $2200 per day for one episode to a flat $8500 for 8 days of work. That’s a 50% loss in income and residuals
You would continue to make that in residuals over the next 5 years. That's a living, but barely.
Now, on streaming platforms, the SAG minimum is so low, series regular actors on Emmy winning shows like OITNBO were waiting tables.
And here’s the kicker: most streaming plans are set up to eliminate actors getting residuals at all.
I have clients who have been on Prime, HBO, Netflix, FX and have never seen a residual check.
Imagine a world without residuals.
Just auditioning is not enough.
You will need a strategy in order to make a living as an actor.
You’ll now need to work all the time.
The Emotional Type Audition Technique is the way the way through.
It’s the way you make yourself more marketable as an actor.
When you position yourself to play characters who don’t necessarily look like your age, race or gender; you create more opportunities to audition.
When there are no physical limitations to your craft, your career becomes more expansive.
More complex, varied career-making roles are at your fingertips.
SHOP
Join the next ONE DAY $199 EMOTIONAL TYPE TECHNIQUE to learn how to:
-Identify one of your Four Major Emotional Types to understand which roles are right for you
-Get new reps determined to get you lots of auditions
-Audition with confidence & Book more consistently
-Turn CallBacks into Bookings using your emotional type-Tap into your emotions easily for auditions and on set
-UnLock Roles you were Born to Play
WHEN
2nd Saturday of the month
9am PST
10am MT
11am CST
12pm EST
HOW IT WORKS
You’ll be asked to bring either a side or video of your favorite scene from a movie or film from the last 5 years.
Only one of the 3 scenes can have a lead character who physically looks like you (age, race, gender). The other 2 scenes will be scenes you identify with the protagonist emotionally even though they are nothing like your physical type
You’ll be asked to identify the following from each scene:
1.The protagonist
2.The emotional conflict
3.How the protagonist is changed by the end of the scene
4.How the protagonist gets what they need
WHAT YOU’LL GET
You don’t need just any agent or manager. You need to a rep who gets you lots of auditions for roles in the center of your Emotionar of your Emotional Type
Join the next Emotional Type Technique class and learn how to:
• Learn how to nail the call back over and over again
How to get your agent excited about submitting you more
• Double your auditions so you book more consistently
• Turn CallBacks into Bookings
• Learn one of your 4 major Emotional Types to understand which roles are right for you
•Tap into your emotions easily for auditions and on set
•UnLock Roles you were Born to Play
Meet the Instructor
April Yvette Thompson
is a Tony-winning producer/writer/actor working across media. Film/TV credits include BULL, Blue Caprice, Gotham, Blue Bloods, Babylon Fields, The Exonerated (w/Susan Sarandon & Delroy Lindo), Accidental Husband, Backwards, Law & Order & Third Watch, etc.
Broadway/Off Broadway credits include Clybourne Park, (Pulitzer & Tony); Vassar Voices (w/Meryl Streep), Good Bread Alley, Liberty CityThe Exonerated (w/Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss), Medea, King Lear, Macbeth, Antigone & Light Raise the Roof.
As SimonSays Entertainment Director of Development, April produced Sundance features: Blue Caprice (w/Isaiah Washington), Mother of George (w/Danai Gurira), Gun Hill Road (w/Esai Morales). April was on the Tony-winning producing teams for 2017 Tony for Best Revival for August Wilson's Jitney directed by Ruben Santiago Hudson and 2012 Tony for Best Revival, Porgy & Bess starring Audra MacDonald (Tony).
April wrote, produced & starred in her Miami Trilogy of plays: Good Bread Alley and Liberty City (Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Lortel noms & Jeff Award) at New York Theatre Workshop.
Education: Vassar College & Rutgers University.
AprilYvetteThompson.com
Frequently Asked Questions
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All classes are virtual Zoom classes. You can dial in or log on visually from anywhere in the world
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The easiest way to start is to join one of the Introductory 3 hour classes held each month for $199
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Most acting classes teach you how to audition using acting techniques instead of business strategies that address our industry as it exists right now.
The Emotional Type Technique is a business strategy that helps you find more roles not limited to just your physical type which is ephermeral.
Your Emotional Type encompasses the full range of the human condition. It is a type that remains the same throught the life of your careerApril is the kind of teacher who wants you to your transform your world view; from an unimportant cog in the wheel of this business being buffeted about by every new fad to the CEO of your career. April helps you make a living as a working actor and storyteller guiding and shaping a career that illuminates your understanding of the human condition. You know, the stuff no one teaches you in acting school.
We don’t want to just take your money. We want to give you the tools to change your life and build the career of YOUR DREAMS, not what others people accept as good enough.
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You can reach us anytime via our contact page or email. We aim to respond quickly—usually within one business day.
April@thedreamunlocked.com
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There are introductory recorded classes starting at $15.
There is a one day live class starting at $199 that comes with bonus recorded webinars.
The there is the 12 Session Private Coaching that starts with nine monthly payments of $355 -
Fun. Like that one aunt that is brilliantly unfettered in her opinions and interests. Well travelled and free of heart, April is the teacher who wants you to take your transform your world view. From an unimportant cog in the wheel of this business being buffeted about by every new fad to the CEO of your career. Making a living as a working actor and storyteller guiding and shaping a career that illuminates your understanding of the human condition. You know, the stuff no one teaches you in school. We don’t want to just take your money. We want to give you the tools to change your life.
Prolific Acting Careers are not building careers from “dumb luck” or an accident, they are shaped by a thoughtful strategy of focusing on finding work beyond your physical type and into your emotional type
Actors who work all the time, consistently deliver complex performances because they are using the full range of their Unique Emotional type.
Careers like
Jeffrey Wright’s,
Sophie Okenedo’s
Chadwick Boseman’s
Judi Dench’s
Maggie Smith’s
Anthony Hopkins’
don’t happen randomly.
They happen because these artists have made very specific choices about the work they do. They choose roles that sit in the middle of their Emotional Types.
Careers where actors continue to move between character and leading men/women roles even as they age; are pretty much unheard of.
Except for those actors whose Emotional Type is the story of their careers
That’s why they can’t stop working.
The way you look will change each year.
But your Emotional Type is a constant that will help you create a sustainable, lucrative and fulfilling career that no AI can duplicate.
