Speaker 1: Next Wednesday, 11.40 if they can come in for that. Yeah, and to prepare the sites that I sent you on the email. My name is Andrew Linford and I'm the casting associate for Centre Theatre Group. A casting associate is part of the casting department, which is responsible for bringing talent into Centre Theatre Group to participate in our shows. A typical day for a casting associate, generally what we're doing is two things. One is actively running castings, dealing with agents, managers, putting breakdowns out on social media so actors and managers can submit for our shows. The other aspect of the kind of day-to-day is the administrative side, it's the paperwork side because we run the contracts from here. We build contact sheets, we work alongside general management to close deals with actors and their managers and agents. I always consider the casting job is a research job. To be good at it, you probably have to have come through the industry in some other way. Some of the best casting directors I know came through technical theatre. The best way really to qualify is to know theatre, know television, know film, know who's out there and really have a passion for actors and what they do. So my first really big job in casting came along totally by surprise. I'd been directing quite a lot of shows and working with an established casting director in London. And she called me up one day and she said, I know you're not busy and I'm desperate, could you come in and run some sessions for me? And I said yes, no problem. What she didn't tell me was it was for a big West End production of Grease. So I turned up at the venue where the auditions were being held and kind of walked in and said, hello, I'm the representative from the casting office. And the runners and assistants went, great, can you sort everybody out and make sure everybody knows what they're doing and where they're going? I had a real thrill of a day doing it. It was really great. And after that, she kept coming back for more. And I began working on other West End shows, regional shows and also some television as well. The best thing about being a casting associate or working in casting generally is the moment in the day when you're running a session, when an actor comes in who, in all honesty, when they walk in the door, you might kind of go, not quite what we thought on paper. Doesn't look quite like their headshot. Maybe this isn't going to be what we thought. And they turn it around. They've prepared well. They deliver on the script. They don't give away all their goodies in the first two seconds. They kind of entice you in, in the way that they read. They make choices that you haven't seen that day. And I love that. That moment when an actor takes you by surprise. I think the best advice I could give to anybody who wants to work in casting is no actors. The important thing is to just be aware of what's happening in the industry. Be aware of who's around, who's doing stuff, and by that I mean directors as well, producers. And see stuff. Go to the theatre. And be inspired and be excited by what you see. And if you are, then I think maybe casting is a good job for you.