Speaker 1: I've been an actor for over 35 years. I recently got an opportunity to direct a theatrical production of A Christmas Carol, so I thought it would be fun to document the process of directing a show. So let's get started after the bummer. I'm Doug Fall, your augmented actor, helping you augment your acting career with tips, tactics, and tech. Casting was incredibly difficult for this show. There's a lot of double casting in the show. There's a lot of tracks that have been tried with different combinations of characters over the years. And the artistic team who's done this show before, they have a set way that they think the show works best as. So we tried to cast according to that actor track that they had already established. But it made it very difficult. There were some actors that were good in one of those characters of a track, but not so great in another area of a track. And ages varied considerably. And then you have to consider actors' availability, their conflicts, and whether or not they actually accept the role. So the casting process is very, very complicated, and that's something that you really have to understand. I want you to know as actors that so much of the casting process isn't about the performance you gave. It's about whether or not you're a good fit with other actors, whether or not you look like a family when we're casting a family, or a husband and wife when we're casting a husband and wife, whether your age is the right age range. You know, we might have a teenage girl that reads really well as like a 20-year-old, and then we might have a 40-year-old man that reads really well as a 20-year-old, but we're never going to cast them together as a couple because the age range is too different. So we're looking for those kind of combinations of age, of type, of look. So really just remember that, you know, if you feel good about your audition, then that's the best thing that you can do. That's the best thing you can leave an audition with is feeling good about how you performed. And then the rest isn't about you. It's not up to you. It's just combinations. It's history. If you've worked with somebody before, if you had a unique look, somebody's like, oh yeah, the girl with the piercing, or oh, the girl with the purple hair, or the guy that did that monologue that was really funny, or things like that. So if you stand out at either the initial audition or the callback, give them something to remember you by, give a solid performance, and then you make our decisions a lot harder. The time it takes to cast a show has no reflection on your ability as an actor. When casting happens, there's some actors that are just great for one particular role, or they say they'll only accept one particular role, and then others who are great for a variety of roles, and you really want to use them in every single role. I had a few actors show up to this audition that were just excellent in every role that they read for, but then I got to pick which role are they going to be best as. And sometimes it's not the best role for them as an actor, but it's the best role for me, too. And usually the show is cast right after callbacks. The director, the music director, the artistic director, and anybody else involved in casting sits around a table, and they just go over and they throw out names and combinations. They sometimes start with the small characters. Who can sing in the quartet, alto, tenor, bass, soprano? They might be right for a lead role, but we need them in the quartet, because we only have so many voices. Sometimes you'll start with a smaller character, or the kid roles in the show, and then you'll cast the adults based off of who was cast as the kid. Casting the show after the fact is really a challenging process. There's a lot of puzzle pieces that need to go together. A lot of whether one actor gets a role depends on whether another actor is cast in the opposite role, and whether they accept that role. So sometimes the casting process takes a couple weeks or a month, even. We have to send out calls to the initial group of actors. Their acceptance of a role will trigger whether another actor gets cast in a different role. So once you've finished with the audition and the callback, just let it go, and just hold your horses. They'll get back to you. As actors, you want to play all sorts of roles. So if you are a newer actor and you want to get acting experience, definitely look for the smaller community theaters, the semi-professional theaters, the church theaters, the school theaters. Anytime those shows are casting, show up. Show up. Do your best job. Your chances of getting cast are so high because these theaters don't often draw a large number of people. So there's not a lot of competition. Even if you're a really good actor and you don't quite fit a role, go to the audition anyway because sometimes you will convince the director to change the role completely. I really wanted to cast every single person that came through the door. Some actors, they really just wanted to be in a show. They really wanted to do this particular show, or they were just struggling with auditions and they just really wanted to do a show. And this was a perfect opportunity for me to give most of them a chance to do a show. And those are the actors that are going to work really hard for you. They're going to be eager to show up and be there and give their 100%. So I'm much more likely to cast somebody with less chops in a role that they're eager to do than somebody that's jaded and thinks that they know everything about acting and they come in with a chip on their shoulder. Even if those actors are really good, I'm more likely to go with the newbie, especially in a theater of this size. Also note with casting, you may not be the first choice. You may not be the second choice. Sometimes we will hold off casting somebody because we're not quite sure we want to use them in a role or there might be better options. So we'll go out and seek other people after the fact. We'll make some calls to other actors. And sometimes it just boils down to no one's available or no one's interested in doing the show. So then we offer it to you anyway. So even if you're not quite right or you're not quite the director's vision for a show, you might still get cast in the show. So it's always worth your time to show up to an audition and do the best you can. And if you work for a theater company, sometimes you don't even need to audition. There were a lot of roles that we couldn't cast from the people who showed up. You know, we might need a young boy who's of a certain age range and we didn't have anybody show up for the audition. So the casting director, the director, they throw out names. We ask people to submit tapes and we'll watch the tapes there together. They might just throw out a name of somebody who I don't know who's maybe done the show before or is just a great type and I'll take their word on it. So when a theater calls you and they offer you a role, it means that your work has preceded you and that you are on the to hire list for that theater. So take it as a compliment even if you turn down the role.