Casting Director Questions

[Zeitoujo]

Posted: 3/3/09 at 11:28am

- What does one study in college to be a "casting director for broadway?"
- How does one go about finding jobs as a casting director?
- When there isn't a call or audition, what do they do with the rest of their time?

Thanks so much!
: ]

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 3/3/09 at 12:48pm

Probably the best thing to do in college if you want to be a casting director is to take a good mix of theatre (focusing on directing) and business classes (as many casting directors tend to wind up operating their own business). Casting directors need to be able to know beforehand what the directors/companies they are working with want to see, so they need to be able to think like a director. They also need a solid foundation in script analysis, especially when it comes to working with new scripts. The casting breakdowns you see aren't just written in five minutes. There is a lot of analysis that goes into those precious few sentences describing who the character is.

Most casting directors I know have pretty much worked their way up through the business starting as interns.

There is a lot to do in between casting calls and auditions. Just preparing for an upcoming open call can entail up to several months of work before hand in talking with your clients/directors, sorting through submissions, filing those submissions, booking space, booking any additional staff you may need to take on for an open call, etc. There is not nearly as much downtime as you may think, unless of course your company is not good at what it does, lol.

[Zeitoujo]

Posted: 3/3/09 at 9:32pm

Thank you so much!
I really appreciate it : ]

[TheCharleston]

Posted: 3/3/09 at 9:40pm

casting directors start at Theatric companies.

You'll want to major in Theatre Arts w/ an emphasis in either Directing or Production & Management.

work your way up from there.

there's no major in "Casting"

Start with looking at Marymount Manhattan and University of the Arts and continue on from there...