The reader.

‘If only the reader would play the scene with me I’d do better auditions!’

A reader is there to facilitate the audition. They aren’t there to play the scene with you.

Scene partners are your fellow actors in plays or on set. And they’re the actors you practice with in class.

The best readers will make sense of what they say, say it lightly and fairly quickly. 

They lift up the scene for you to take and do with what you will. They give it to you. 

But they aren’t and shouldn’t be scene partners.

This needs to be learned, so one more false expectation is given up and one more piece of disappointment goes away. 

Leaving a bit more room for your acting.