Auditions

The Complete Guide

Richard Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317744948
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Auditions are an integral part of every performer's life. From getting into drama school through to a successful career in an overcrowded industry, Auditions: The Complete Guide offers crucial advice, resources and tried and tested techniques to maximise success before, during and after each audition.

Written by an established casting director and former actor, with over 35 years of experience on a wide range of productions, this book offers a wealth of personal and professional insights, covering:

• drama and theatre schools

• showcases

• amateur and professional auditions

• contemporary, classical, physical and musical theatre

• television and commercial castings, movie screen tests and self taping

• voice-overs and radio drama

• networking

• recalls and workshops

• handling job offers, and rejection

From training to triumph, nerves to networking and camera to casting couch, Auditions: The Complete Guide is an entertaining, accessible and indispensable read for every performer.

Richard Evans CDG has cast a wide variety of productions in all media since 1989 and, prior to this, worked as an actor for 10 years. He has devised and presented audition and career development workshops at many top drama and theatre schools worldwide, and at the Actors Centre, London and has written Auditions: A Practical Guide (Routledge, 2009) and 'A Casting Director's Perspective' for The Actors' Yearbook, 2005. He is a member of The Casting Directors' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland.

www.auditionsthecompleteguide.com

PART 1

Before

CHAPTER 1

How a Production is Cast

Before we start talking about auditions in earnest, it would be useful to think about the process of casting any production. First, a production company will either be approached by moneyed people, or decide to produce a play, film, television series, commercial etc. This can happen at short notice (a matter of a few weeks) or way ahead (sometimes several years) before the actual production is to be mounted. The producers will then appoint a creative team to devise and oversee the production, which (depending on the nature and requirements of the piece concerned) can include directors, set, costume, lighting and sound designers, cinematographers, a choreographer, a musical supervisor and/or director, their assistants and possibly a casting director, who are each employed for their specialist areas of skill and knowledge. The production will be budgeted, dates firmed up (though these can be put back or even brought forward) and casting requirements confirmed. This phase is known as pre-production.

A casting brief will then be issued and circulated by whoever is responsible – usually a casting director or production assistant – either to selected agents, or more widely via one or more of the casting information services. Availability checks may also be made for suitable artists already known to the creatives and casting personnel. An availability check is made by phone; as the name implies, this is a call to check whether an artist will be available for certain dates. That is all it is at this stage, so if you receive such a call it does not mean you have got a job, or even necessarily an audition, so don’t get excited (most agents won’t consider it worth mentioning to their clients). If a casting director has a list of artists in mind who they want to bring in for each part, they may not bother advertising the project if most of the artists turn out to be available and interested. The person in charge of casting will schedule the necessary auditions and the short-listed artists will be invited to attend; they may be told what to prepare and sent script pages (known as ‘sides’) to learn prior to their meeting, or else they may be warned that there will be pages for them to look at on the day (this is known as ‘script on arrival’ or SOA). The number of actors seen at audition can vary from a great many or just a handful for each character. I always aim for the latter approach – quality rather than quantity – bringing in a few selected artists who fit the brief and can deliver what is required, rather than vast numbers, many of whom will not be suitable for the part or even good actors – this practice is known derogatorily as a ‘cattle call’ and can waste everybody’s time.

If necessary, there will be one or more rounds of recalls (callbacks), after which the director and fellow creatives will go through the lists and put their choices in order of preference (there may be several choices for each character, the order of which can sometimes change as time goes on). Contrary to popular belief, the final choice rests with the creative team and not just the casting director (although it is common for the caster to be consulted and to offer informed opinions, especially when the creatives are undecided or not unanimous in their decision). Then artists may be pencilled in to keep them available for the dates – pencilling will be discussed in more detail in the chapter on commercial castings – and offers made to the first choices. If the first choice declines, the second choice will be offered, and so on if needs be. If there is no second choice, or if all the choices say no, further auditions will have to be held (known as ‘going again’), which can also happen if the casting requirements change during the process. Once all the offers have been accepted and deals negotiated, contracts are issued and signed and then the fun really begins. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?!

CHAPTER 2

Where to find Auditions

So, how do you find out about what’s casting and where suitable auditions are happening? You might have an agent who will submit you for suitable roles in return for a percentage of your earnings if you are successful in getting the job. If so, that’s great – keep in touch with them (though not overly regularly, as this will be seen as irritating) and ideally cultivate a good working relationship with them. Whether or not you have an agent – and, while they are very useful people, they are far from the be all and end all of a performer’s career- it always pays to do your own legwork too; after all, nobody can work as hard for you as you can for yourself. My personal rule is always to do at least one thing every day for my career. That might be to call or write to a person or company that might need my services (especially if I have heard a rumour of a specific project coming up); perhaps I will do some research on the internet, read a trade magazine or phone a colleague to see what’s going on. Whatever it is (and it needn’t take long at all), I like to feel at the end of each day that I’ve done something to increase my chances of getting my next job and make myself better at what I do. Whenever I hear about a job lead which is especially suited to my skills and areas of knowledge, I feel a real sense of purpose and am motivated to leap into action, applying for the job as soon as possible (having first done any necessary research) in the hope of getting a meeting and offer of employment.

It is important to keep your ear to the ground as auditions can come from a variety of sources, some not so obvious, and sometimes when you least expect them. These days the majority of casting information is dealt with through Spotlight Link, an excellent and effective online service provided for current subscribers of the Spotlight casting directories (www.spotlight.com/join). In my opinion this is the most important service you can subscribe to, so ensure that you are a member and your subscription is always up to date. Casting personnel and other employers circulate character breakdowns via the service and receive suggestions for each role from agents, who respond electronically by sending in their clients’ Spotlight CVs. The breakdown sender can choose to send the information to all the agents on the list, just to agents specialising in certain categories (those representing children or presenters, for instance), or they can hand-pick the agents they wish to receive it. Employers can also elect to send their breakdowns to the Spotlight Link Board, which enables every agent and all the performing subscribers – represented or not – to keep their ear to the ground. By logging into your account using your PIN, you can gain access to casting information that the casting personnel concerned wish to make public, which you can browse in three viewing categories: all paid jobs (Equity minimum or over), all ‘opportunities’ (jobs paid below Equity minimum down to unpaid), or filtered (to reflect your gender, age, type and job preferences). Keeping an eye on the board regularly not only gives you a better idea of the kind of projects that are currently being cast, as and when they happen; it also enables you to suggest yourself for suitable roles if you’re unrepresented (if you have Spotlight under your name instead of an agent). If you have an agent, they should be putting you up for the jobs on the Link Board (and those that are not on there too), but there are three possible ways that you can use the board. You can choose to just read the posts without being able to apply for jobs (since your agent should be doing this on your behalf). However, you also have the ability to ‘nudge’ your agent to put you up for a specific role (which is done by sending them an automated email), or you can have full access, enabling you to suggest yourself for jobs in addition to, or instead of, your agent. This latter option is usually for performers whose agent only looks after them for specific types of work, and the decision about which of these options you should have is down to your agent rather than you, so it’s worth discussing with them. Even if your agent prefers you to be a ‘read-only’ member, you could always send a personal email expressing your interest in a suitable job advertised on the board (as long as the casting person has not chosen to remain anonymous). As I said earlier, be careful about pestering your agent, asking if you’ve been suggested for the projects you see, since this can be viewed as telling them how to do their job and will not go down well, especially when it happens on a regular basis. We’ll go into greater detail about different ways to maximise your impact when suggesting yourself for jobs via Spotlight Link on page 56.

There are regular casting publications that are widely available. The Stage is the oldest and most well-known, published every Thursday in newspaper form and containing industry news and articles as well as a section advertising auditions and other jobs. It is available from newsagents, by postal subscription, online via The Stage’s Apple and Android app and to read at some public libraries. The Stage’s website (www.thestage.co.uk) also contains news and has a recruitment section, again containing auditions and jobs that employers choose to advertise. There is now an innovative addition to the website, known as Stage Castings. Subscribers to this service can create an online profile and search suitable breakdowns that casting personnel have placed on the site. There are several ways in which artists can respo...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Before
• 2 During
• 3 After
• Index