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One line echoes in the room as actor after actor repeats it, trying to find the perfect comedic timing.

"Comedy is dead in Russia! Lenin killed it and Stalin buried it!"

To put on a successful play, a director must make everything from lighting to the cast to costumes come together. Still, as actors and actresses have learned, simply auditioning for a role can require just as much preparation.

Laurel's Rich Koster, who has been acting in community theaters for 22 years, read that same line with a booming Russian accent while auditioning for Prince George's Little Theatre's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor."

Koster said thorough research and preparation can give an actor a leg up heading into an audition. PGLT plans on staging Neil Simon's comedy in December at the Bowie Playhouse.

"It's the physical and mental preparation that you work with from text," he said. "Read the books, read what you can about the scripts and play. Find out when, why and how."

Norma Ozur, who is currently directing "Crossing Delancy" at the Greenbelt Arts Center, said a well-prepared actor is one of the first things she looks for at an audition.

"I just make sure those who are auditioning have read the play and have read whatever it is that the director has put out," she said. "Usually you can tell. They fumble around if they haven't read it. I have always supplied a description of the characters."

Peyton Johns of Laurel said he reads a script two or three times before each audition: once to get the general feel for the play and again to identify with the characters.

"From there you kind of narrow it down as to who you can play and who you can't play," he said. "When you're younger, you can play pretty much anyone. In community theater, you have to fit the part. I have to go into an audition saying, ‘OK, he's in his mid-20s. I can kind of make myself look like that.'"

Johns, 20, has been acting since he was 5. He said he goes into auditions expecting to play any number of roles, instead of setting his sights on just one.

"You have to get in the mindset of how every character is supposed to be," he said. "You kind of have to change as an actor; you have to see some of yourself in the part."

Koster agreed, saying one of the essential parts of the audition process is to expand your horizons as an actor, and don't hold back.

"Just get out and do as much as you possibly can," he said. "I've always been told by acting instructors to make a bold and stupid choice because the director will remember you. It may not be the reason you want them to remember you but you'll get work at some point."

Ozur, who has directed plays with PGLT, Laurel Mill Playhouse, Silver Spring Stage and Sandy Spring Theatre Group, said that until an audition is complete, she never really knows for sure who will be playing what role.

Often times, she said, actors end up in unexpected roles.

"Sometimes someone walks in and they don't know the play, but they're so perfect for a certain part," she said. "You're sort of hoping that they will match up."

Ozur also said she will always give actors a chance to audition for the part they think they are best cut out for instead of just placing them where she thinks they are the best fit.

"If they want to try out for another role, that's only fair," she said.

Ozur said she will rarely precast roles because she has often been surprised by actors auditioning for roles she expected someone else to get.

She said that's exactly what occurred when she directed on a production of "Flowers for Algernon".

"I got a call from someone living in Virginia who said, ‘I want to know if you've precast the role of Charlie Gordon'," she said. "I said no, but it's the lead and it's a very complex role. This young man walked in — I never met him, and I didn't know who he was. He was absolutely fabulous. You just never know."

Mike Fox, from Bowie, also recently auditioned for "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" and said nerves always come into play at an audition.

"Usually what happens is I'll come into the room and by the time we start the audition process I start to talk to some of the actors in between scenes," he said. "I start to get a little more comfortable and I start to know people a little bit better."

Koster also said he gets over his nerves quickly, but that the first few minutes of an audition can be harsh.

"What I feel coming in is essentially absolute nervousness," he said. "Then after about two lines it's just playing with the other guys on stage. It's a lot of fun."

Ozur said that it is not a deal breaker when actors are nervous, because if they are good for a part, she will be able to help them get over it.

"If they're perfect for what you're looking for you can really work with them," she said. "A seasoned director can coax a good performance out of an unseasoned actor. You learn by doing."

Despite all that can go into an audition, Fox said there is no better feeling than landing the role you want.

"One time, there was a role that I really wanted in a show, and I didn't have a chance to read for him before the audition," Fox said. "They asked if anyone wants to read for the role of Dirk, so I read for the role of Dirk. The next day they called me and said, ‘Do you want the roll of Dirk?' It was like ‘Wow, they're calling me offering me the role I wanted', and it was the first big roll I'd ever had."