How to Cast a Production for Community Theater

Video Transcript

"On behalf of expertvillage.com, my name is Stan and I'm here to tell you about community theater and casting a production. First step in casting a show is putting out a casting call; try to get people to come to the auditions. We do that in all sorts of ways. We get as much as publicity as we can in a local press. That helps a lot. We also have a database of volunteers, members, and people who've shown interest in the theater. We email to all of them alerting them to the fact that we're going to be having auditions. We also work through the local high schools and drama clubs. There's a film school over in the neighboring town and we put the word out over there among all the film actors that we're looking for stage actors. Film actors like to get stage experience. It's something very different and it's something that really rounds out their resumes, so a lot of film actors will respond to a casting call if you have any film operations anywhere near where you are. A surprising large number of them now that filmmaking is becoming such a common thing. Getting those people to come to the auditions is the first step. Some theaters like to pre-cast their shows. They pick shows with certain people in mind and then put them in those roles. Community theaters really should avoid that because if you have a reputation of the show being pre-casted, then you have a hard time attracting people to come to the auditions. They think it's a waste of time. They think no point in doing that; they've already cast the roles anyway. You don't want to get that kind of a reputation. Sometimes it's necessary to talk to people ahead of time to make sure they're going to come to the auditions and encourage them to. You never want to make the final selections until after the auditions have been held, because sometimes you get some surprises. Sometimes there's some remarkably talented people that you never knew were out there that show up for the audition and you think that's the one. I know a number of cases where I had been casting a play when I've been directing. I was very disappointed when somebody couldn't do it or didn't come to the audition, and then I found someone else at the auditions that in the long run I thought probably did an even better job than the person I had my heart set on. So it's good to keep an open mind, both for the director, for the theater, and for the actors, and that's the way a community theater should be. It should be open to everyone. In casting, it's important to try to give opportunities to new people who haven't acted before. Typically, you start them out in a small roles, but that's one of the roles community theaters should play, is giving the people the opportunity to participate in theater that otherwise wouldn't have the chance to do that. They'll really surprise with how well they'll do. "