CASTING
Preparation
Learn Your Talent Pool
The casting call is an
imperfect way to cast a play. You can glean only so much from listening to an
audition. Some actors cannot audition well; others perform well only at
auditions. Matters such as professionalism, depth, range, versatility and
compatibility with you can only be hinted at during a call. Get around the
community of talent available to you. Patronize the theater in your town. Note
the actors you admire. Invite them to audition for you. Familiarize yourself
with the casting protocols of your community; they vary from place to place.
How do you best reach the talent: through their agents, unions, or personal
contact? How do you let people know you are looking for talent?
By far, the most effective
way to cast is to invite the actors you want to play the roles you need.
Only when you have the most thorough knowledge of the talent base available to
you, can you do this wisely.
Working with a Casting
Professional
Casting agents do not actually
cast, they filter. They supposedly have the knowledge and structure to create
breakdowns, contact talent reps, and schedule a general call. They weed
through the pix and resumés agents have submitted, choose likely candidates,
and schedule audition appointments. They often conduct and record the
auditions, which you may or may not attend. After you and your producer review
the recordings, they schedule any call-backs you require, and make necessary
contractual arrangements with agents for the actors you’ve cast.
You as producer and/or
director may be your own casting director; or you may have one or more casting
persons on staff, or may out-source a casting pro for this production. You may
think it best to engage a casting agent when recruiting star talent from
outside the local area. Different protocols obtain in different communities.
Whatever they may be where you live, nothing beats having your own
well-researched talent rolodex. Even if you hold an "open" call (a
casting call open to all comers), your rolodex provides back-up. I have
usually tried to cast a mix of my reliables and actors who are new to me. In
this way I continue to build my personal talent pool, while relying on
stalwarts whom I know can cut the mustard.
Do everything you can to
reduce stress for the auditioning talent. Actors cannot do their best when
overly anxious and tryouts wrack their nerves more than anything else in the
business. You and everyone under your supervision whom you involve in the
process should exhibit respect for the performers and the highest level of
efficiency, courtesy and professionalism. Be prepared for stress yourself.
Auditions tax you and your staff as well as the talent. In my career, I've had
to deflect importunate actors who have tried to wheedle into auditions, call
the cops to get a deranged auditionee out of my office, and tell more than a
few that I, not they, are in charge.
Casting on the Fly
You will find times when
formal auditions are impractical, when you have to cast from your rolodex
and/or recommendations, when you must invite actors to play roles without
auditioning them. I've auditioned actors in their homes, in hospital rooms,
and backstage. You may even have held formal calls only to find that you have
to hunt for talent because of last minute cancellations. It is therefore
important for you always to leave time for contingencies between casting and
production. You shouldn't cast too far ahead of production. Indeed, it's best
to cast as close to production as safely possible. The more time between the
audition and the production, the more things can go awry. Yet, a contingency
leeway is always advised.
Star Talent
Rarely is it a good idea to
hire actors with status higher than your own. They will know it and throw
their weight around, if you're not careful. Still, talent with "marquee
value" can lend your efforts instant prestige and credibility. Stars do
not necessarily add to the quality of your production. Stars become stars for
many reasons other than talent. Therefore, if you employ name talent, do so
judiciously.
Be advised that the actors you
see most often as guest stars on television have little marquee value, though
employing them may gain you some credibility in industry circles. The public
may recognize their faces, but will not know their names. There are two types
of marquee names that do you good — the TV actors who star as regulars on
popular TV shows and A List movie stars. As a rule of thumb, the more a star
is perceived to be aloof and unattainable, the more good the name will do you.
How do you recruit such
people? They all have agents and many have managers. You have many resources
available to you for finding out who represents whom. Samuel French's
Theatrical Bookstores (Hollywood, New York, London, and on-line) have
several publications listing agents in their catalogue. The Hollywood
Reporter has an annual issue listing celebrities and their reps. But
the best way to reach star talent is by personal contact.
Talent Agents
Good luck finding talent
agents who will cooperate with you. As a rule, reps only care about money. If
you do not pay enough to make it worth their time, they’ll blow you off. The
actor may be receptive to you while his agent is not. If you’re lucky, some
agents may play ball if they represent voice actors who have expressed
interest in this kind of work; keeping clients happy in this way keeps clients
from seeking representation elsewhere. If you must go through agents, make
sure you go to the right ones. Many professional actors have separate agents
for voice work and for all other work. Some have different agents on each
coast and sometimes in the middle, too. Some have personal managers (often a
lawyer or publicist) as well as licensed agents. If you don’t have to deal
with agents, don’t do it. Personal contact with the desired actors always
works best.
Audition Materials
Breakdowns and Casting
Notices
The breakdown for a production
contains the following information:
-
a list of the roles
available with thumbnail descriptions
-
the times, dates, places
of auditions
-
how and when to make
audition appointments (usually the number to call and the dates and hours
audition appointments will be taken)
-
name of production and
author
-
names of producer or
production company, casting director, director
-
union auspices (AFTRA or
non-union)
-
pay scale (if there's no
pay, you should mention it)
-
restrictions, if any (I
have always restricted casting to members of AFTRA, SAG, and Equity, and
have had P.A.s check union cards at the door)
Breakdowns are particularly
useful when casting through talent agents. The agents consult your breakdown
and send you pictures and resumes of clients they think will fit the roles.
You look these over to pick the actors who interest you and schedule their
audition appointments with the agent. Breakdowns also form the basis of
casting press releases, or may be sent to local pro media instead of or along
with press releases.
A scaled-down version serves
as a casting notice. Restricted to one 8˝" x 11" page, these fliers
go to places where actors hang out — playhouses, recording studios, pubs,
AFTRA offices, etc. — where they can be posted on bulletin boards.
Fold them into self-mailers for the actors on your talent rolodex.
Word-of-mouth travels fast in the theater community. So getting notices
directly to actors will net you the best results, for the performers who see
them will inform others.
Sides
Sides (always referred to in
the plural) are abbreviated scripts you prepare specially for casting
purposes. They include only the pages you want hopefuls to audition from. I
like to have two sets, one that actors can read prior to the reading and one
they must sight-read without preparation. For general calls (see below),
choose sections of about two minutes in length. Sides for call-backs should be
long enough to demonstrate the actors' ability to develop a scene. Sides of
dialogue between two characters work better than sides of soliloquies or long
speeches.
Actors may or may not choose
to audition for specific characters. Therefore, sides for general auditions
should be chosen to demonstrate actors' general abilities.
Calendars, Sign-in Sheets
You'll need a calendar to log
in audition appointments and sign-in sheets for the audition dates. When
making a calendar, allow yourself five-minute breaks every 20 minutes or so.
Tryouts are grueling for auditioners as well as auditionees.
Pictures
and Resumes
Professional actors provide
8" x 10" head-shots stapled to resumes for submissions and
auditioning purposes. In some communities, non professionals may also. I find
them handy. The pictures help my memory. I make casting notes in the blank
spaces of the resumes. They fit compactly in the talent drawer of the file
cabinet.
When announcing auditions, I
instruct interested actors and their agents to submit pictures and resumes. I
review the submissions pretty much the way any prospective employer analyzes
resumes to determine the extent of the applicant's relevant experience:
-
Number of credits
shows breadth of experience;
-
Titles of the works tell
you if the actor has performed in anything resembling the play(s) you
are casting for;
-
Names of the characters
played reveal how prominent the actor's roles have been and if they've
been similar to the parts you have open;
-
Names of the producers,
directors and theaters that actor has worked for will tell you how
professional the applicant's experience is;
-
Actors list special
skills, such as accents, that you may be looking for;
-
Union affiliation
indicates a degree of professional standing.
Demos
Actors may have voice demos on
cassette or CD containing brief excerpts from their radio spots,
narrations and air checks. You can use them to gauge voice quality and maybe
proficiency with accents or funny voices, but very little about acting chops.
For that you need to call talent in to audition.
Auditions
Handle formal auditions in two
steps: generals and call-backs. I recommend that you hold both in a sound
studio where they can be recorded. You should also have a waiting area where
talent can sign in and look over the sides before they audition. The waiting
area should have ample seating, sign-in sheets, and copies of the sides and
breakdowns. In the inner chamber where the players actually audition, no
extraneous personnel should be present. You will need a P.A. (production
assistant) to usher actors in and out and read against them, an engineer and
whoever's in charge (casting director and/or producer and director). The
larger the group observing the talent as they audition, the more stressed the
hopeful becomes.
As mentioned above, you should
record tryouts on professional equipment, preferably in the studio you will
use to record the play. The actors slate their own takes — that is,
before they begin reading, they should announce their name. If you are
recording on conventional audio tape, an electronic slate tone should precede
each reading; if recording on DAT, an electronic ID should precede them; if on
a hard drive, the start time should be noted. Thus you can easily locate the
track you want at a later time. In addition, the P.A. should note in order
who's auditioning for what role in what play.
Generals
The general or
"cattle" call allows you to single out suitable candidates and
eliminate unsuitable ones. When actors call to schedule appointments, they are
asked to prepare a two-minute speech, complimentary in period and style to the
play you are producing — if your play is a contemporary comedy, ask them to
prepare a speech from a contemporary comedy of their choice; if it's a period
drama, ask them to prepare a speech from one. Let them know that they do not
have to memorize their prepared speech; unless you so inform them, some will
go to the trouble of memorizing something. Tell actors that they will also
read from your script and that they should show up a little early to look over
the sides.
(Some directors, particularly
in the non-union arenas, choose to hold a general call in which hopefuls may
show up any time between given hours on one or several audition days. This
method saves you prep time at the expense of the talent. Actors have to sit
around until you get around to seeing them. You waste their time and humiliate
them in one stroke. I don't recommend it.)
Audition appointments
Schedule appointments to leave
enough time for actors to read from the material they bring and from your
sides. Allow time to usher them in and out. You can see one actor every ten
minutes. The more you see, the more choices you have. Therefore, you want to
keep chit-chat to a minimum. This may be difficult. Some actors feel that
schmoozing during a casting appointment is good strategy. It isn't, and you
should politely but firmly discourage it.
On the other hand, I think it
important to give each auditionee the full time allotted. You often can tell a
bad actor within seconds of his/her first utterance. Nonetheless, tryouts are
stressful enough for actors without cutting someone short and thereby adding
humiliation to the mix. I don't mind stopping someone who goes over the
allotted time or who wants to schmooze or who otherwise acts unprofessionally.
But unless they overstep the bounds, my assistants and I maintain a polite,
good-humored distance, which minimizes actor stress without encouraging
inappropriate familiarity.
Restrictions
Operating under an AFTRA
agreement, I allow only union members to audition. My P.A.s check their
membership cards at the door. When not working under union auspices, you
should impose some sort of restrictions about who you will welcome at your
tryouts. That's because anybody can wake up in the morning, decide to be an
actor today, and book an appointment. Without a weeding process of some type,
you will see 20 psychos, losers, and boobs for every decent performer.
What to Listen for
From the speeches the
auditionees bring in, you can get a fairly good idea how well they do when
given a chance to prepare. From the sides you provide, you can learn how they
deal with fresh material and the play at hand. After years of experience, I
have become able to assess, from the varying quality of the prepared reading
and the reading of my sides, how much direction the actor will need from me.
In the four or five minutes
you give talent during generals, answer these questions for yourself:
Does the talent read with
understanding, technique, personality, and an appreciation of style?
Does the talent sound
convincing, believable, real?
Does the talent display
microphone experience?
Is the talent's voice easy
on the ears? or does the talent possess grating qualities such as descending
or monotonous cadences, speech impediments, stridency, mike fright,
mannerisms, adenoids?
Does the talent seem
appropriate for one or more of the roles for which you are casting?
Does the talent behave in a
professional and cooperative manner?
It is usual to designate your
P.A. to "read against" the auditionees — that is, to read the
other role or roles in the sides, to "feed the cues" to the
auditionee. I will often read against the actor myself. Doing so tells me how
much or how little the actor gives to fellow actors in performance. When an
actor gives to you, you can feel it.
Call-backs
After the generals, assess the
relative merits of the auditionees. You can probably eliminate at once the
actors who are no good. Of the remainder, you have to determine who seem to be
1) the best and 2) most suitable for the roles you have to fill. After
eliminating those who do not seem appropriate for the roles, call back the
rest.
Call-backs are looser and
longer than generals. You may take an hour or more with each actor. You
may even schedule all the people you wish to see for the same date and time.
You'll make new, longer sides. You will read actors together and may have
actors read scenes together in various combinations. Whatever you need to do
to make your choices.
I make call-back sides that
allow me to hear two or more actors at once. Say Character A has scenes with
Character B. Ideally, you want each actor you're considering for Character A
to read with every Character B person. I may be considering an actor for more
than one role and will have that person read for each in various combinations
with the other talent whom I've called back.
Once or twice while they read
from your sides, you will interrupt the actors and ask for an adjustment.
"Could you try that again, angrier?" "Try to make her more
ingratiating. Start again from where you left off and go on." Et
cetera. In this way you can get an idea of how well the talent takes
direction.
What to Listen for
You will further test the
qualities you were assessing during the generals. In addition, you want to
learn:
Which actors are most
effective playing which characters?
How well does the actor
develop during the course of the scene? Does the actor play all on one
level? Understand the character's intent?
Does the actor make
hackneyed choices or fresh, imaginative ones?
How do the voices balance?
Voices must complement and be easily distinguished from each other,
otherwise the listener won't be able to tell who's who.
How well do the actors
respond to direction?
Review
Presumably you will have
made notes during auditions to review along with the recordings you have made.
Final casting decisions, though based on the criteria mentioned above, are
totally subjective. Trust your own taste, training, and experience. However,
in weighing these criteria, give most weight to three factors: believability,
balance and personality. And of those three, a strong, memorable vocal
personality consonant with the character's trumps everything else.
Sometimes the decisions aren't
yours alone to make. Sometimes the writer, director, and producer all have
input. While the director's opinion should carry the most weight, ultimately,
the producer has final say. In my own experience, I have most frequently had
to make casting decisions alone. Occasions on which I have had consultation
with a colleague or shared casting responsibility have always proven good
experiences.
I rarely call an actor back
more than once. It's not necessary in most circumstances. Besides, at the
pittance I pay, I do not wish to impose overmuch on the talent.
Follow-up
After most auditions, only the
actors cast are notified. However, I recommend my method as a courtesy to all
talent who have taken the time to tryout.
Notify the actors you have
cast by telephone.
Notify the others by mail,
and be sure to thank them for showing up.
Actors whom you did not
cast, but who impressed you favorably, ought to receive a personal note
encouraging them to return at your next open call.
Actors gripe that they never
get any feedback after an audition. Except as noted above, do NOT give
feedback to actors you haven't cast. In spite of their complaints, they will
not appreciate your telling them honestly why you did not hire them.
Your honest appraisals, however constructive in tone, will only hurt feelings
and give you a bad reputation around the acting community.
