San Diego Repertory Theatre Seeking Actors for ‘The Great American Trailer Park Musical’
April 5, 2011 by Lance Carter
Filed under Auditions
The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Music and Lyrics by David Nehls
Book by Betsy Kelso
Directed by Sam Woodhouse, Artistic Director of San Diego Repertory Theatre
We are seeking both union and non-union performers.
About the Play
There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres—and she’s wreaking havoc all over Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil–loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband—the storms begin to brew. This is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek, satirical, country-rock and blues musical about adultery, ’80s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, strippers, flan, and disco.
Performance Schedule
Rehearsals Begin: October 10, 2011
Performance Dates: November 5 – December 4, 2011
Last Day of Possible Extension: December 18th, 2011
Performance Space: Lyceum Stage in Horton Plaza, downtown San Diego
We’re currently seeking to cast 5 females and 2 males the following roles:
All actors must be strong actors/singers with skilled comedic timing and country/rock style vocals.
JEANNIE GARSTECKI 35-45, Belt and Legit Mezzo. Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high-school sweetheart, Norbert. She was 17 when she was married, 18 when her son was born, and 23 when he was kidnapped. This traumatic event turned her into an agoraphobic, and she hasn’t left her trailer since, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away.
NORBERT GARSTECKI 35-45, High Baritone. Norbert is Jeannie’s husband and collets tolls for a living. He tried to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. He is a former high-school football star whose rugged good looks are marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer but is not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. Instead he ends up doing something he’s never done before, sleeping with another woman who happens to be a professional stripper.
PIPPI 28-35, Large Belt. Pippi is a striking beauty with a great body and a taste for clothing that shows it off. She is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes. She leaves her boyfriend and moves to the small town of Armadillo Acres to start over.
DUKE 20s, Rock Tenor. Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive, and excessive Magic-Marker-sniffing boyfriend; “ex”-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke.
BETTY 30s-50s, Rough Belt. One of “The Girls”, Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived in Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Betty is the mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all of “The Girls”, Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry.
LINOLEUM “LIN” 30s, Belt. One of “The Girls.” So-named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison. His fate is an electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off. So Lin watches everyone’s lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes has a smart mouth, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fiercest of “The Girls.”
DONNA “PICKLES” late teens-early 20s, Belt. One of “The Girls.” A newlywed, Donna is called “Pickles” because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant—that is, she’s so convinced she should be pregnant she’s exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his own—even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of “The Girls,” Pickles is airy, sweet, and blissfully ignorant.
Submission Process: Please send headshot and resume to Casting Director, Jessica Bird (no web site links, please):
Email: casting@sdrep.org, or
Mail: Casting: Trailer Park
San Diego Repertory Theatre
79 Horton Plaza
San Diego, CA 92101
Questions? Please call Jessica at (619) 231-3586 x 638
LA: DreamWorks Studios Casting Call for Young Male 11-13
December 1, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Auditions
CASTING CALL FOR LEAD ROLE IN UPCOMING “WELCOME TO PEOPLE”
MOVIE STARRING CHRIS PINE AND ELIZABETH BANKS
DREAMWORKS STUDIOS LOOKING FOR YOUNG MALE ACTOR (AGE 11-13)
LOS ANGELES, CA (November 30, 2010) – DreamWorks Studios has launched a casting search to fill a lead role in its upcoming movie “Welcome to People,” it was announced today by DreamWorks Studios.
Actors interested in the role are invited to attend an open casting call on Saturday, December 4, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. No acting experience is necessary for interested actors, nor are they required to prepare anything for the audition.
Role to be cast is ‘Josh’: Male, 11-13 years old, Caucasian, athletic, independent, and confident. Interested actors should be able to memorize lots of dialogue. Film will be rated PG-13 and actors should be comfortable with dialogue reflecting that rating.
Details on the open call audition are as follows:
Saturday, December 4, 2010
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Denise Chamian Casting
Sunset Gower Studios
1438 N. Gower St.
Building 35, Suite 270
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 315-9445
(Street Parking Only)
Welcome to People is a drama about a young businessman (CHRIS PINE) who returns home after his estranged father’s sudden death, only to uncover a devastating family secret, which sends him on an unexpected journey of self-discovery. Film is the feature film directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman (TRANSFORMERS, STAR TREK) with a script written by Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (TRANSFORMERS, STAR TREK) and Jody Lambert (OF ALL THE THINGS). In addition to Chris Pine (STAR TREK), Elizabeth Banks (THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) has also joined the cast. Film is scheduled to begin production in January in Los Angeles.
About DreamWorks Studios
DreamWorks Studios (www.dreamworksstudios.com) is a motion picture company led by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider in partnership with The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The new company is a continuation of DreamWorks Studios which was formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. The company expects to put into production 5 to 6 films per year that will be distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.
DreamWorks Studios can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dw_studios.
For publicity inquiries contact:
Kristin Stark
(818) 733-9685
For additional information contact:
Denise Chamian Casting
(323) 315-9445
Washington D.C.: Looking for Bald Guys with Tattoos
November 1, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Auditions
Central Casting is looking for Caucasian males with strong acting ability between 25 and 45yrs old with shaved or bald heads and visible tattoos and a muscular build. This will be for a dayplayer role in an industrial.
Please submit headshot, resume, sizes and phone number ASAP to dagmar@centralcastingusa.com.
No phone calls please.
If you do not fit the requirements above; you do not need to reply, but you may forward this to anyone you think would be interested.
These are general emails that go out to those of you on our contact list, as a courtesy. If you wish to be removed, you can unsubscribe by clicking on the link below. Thank you.
4 Ways to Get Cast Without Improving Your Acting
August 12, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Columns
4 Ways to Get Cast Without Improving Your Acting
by Paul Cram
1. Don’t Apologize
When… You just performed a scene you think went awful. All too often at auditions, actors shoot themselves in the foot doing this. Do yourself a favor and shut up. Instead, focus your attention on if there is any feedback. If there isn’t any, say thanks and leave.
2. Do Apologize
When… You are running late. Call and let ‘em briefly know how much longer you’ll be for you to arrive. When you do get there, say a simple “sorry for keeping you waiting” to everyone that you’ve effected by your tardiness.
3. Arrive Fashionably Early
Five minutes early for auditions, Ten minutes early for a job.
4. Say Your Name, Say Your Name, Say Your Name
At auditions, call backs, industry parties and on jobs. Don’t assume people know you. Be the first to extend your hand saying, “Hello, my name is…” Studies show that it takes someone hearing or seeing you several times to remember you.
Paul Cram, a working actor (check out his IMDB profile here), shares his thoughts on getting cast again and again by the same people.
Why Actors Need Websites – 6 Money Saving Tips
July 19, 2010 by Erin Cronican
Filed under Columns
Imagine this: You are in your car (or walking to the subway) and you suddenly get a call from a casting director. They are interested in submitting you for an upcoming project, but need to forward your headshot & resume to the director within the next 30 minutes. You’re not at your computer, so you cannot email your materials to them. And you’re nowhere near their office, so you cannot just drop by with a physical copy of your headshot/resume. What can you do?
Or, imagine this: You are networking at an event (like the Tribeca Film Festival) and you have met so many people that you have handed out your last copy of your reel. You run into an agent who has seen you on stage, but comments that he would like to see your film work. He asks if you have a reel to give him. Sadly, you don’t, and it will be at least a week until you can get more duplicates made. What now?
If you are a business-minded actor, you would have a website and neither case would have been a problem! You could simply tell the casting director, “Drop by my website, where you can download a copy of my headshot and resume, both formatted for printing.” And for the agent, you would be able to say, “Here’s my website. Not only do I have my reel posted, but I also have clips from a few of the other projects I have done, including some singing and a few commercials.”
Having a website is one of the most important promotional tools an actor can have, second only to a good headshot. A website allows you to provide interested parties with a more full look at your body of work, your personality, and the way you run your business. And it allows them to do it in their own time, at their pace and leisure, which is vitally important in the larger, more competitive markets. The easier you can make it for a CD/agent to get to know you, the better chance you have of making an impact with them.
How To Feel Confident And Give Great Auditions
July 9, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Columns
HOW TO GIVE GREAT AUDITIONS BY CHANGING YOUR FOCUS!
Hello fellow actors!
I’m thrilled to be able to share my years of experience as an on-set and stage actor and over 15 years of teaching and coaching actors. Some of the topics I’d like to cover include; how to have sexual chemistry at auditions and on set, the secret to playing bad guys, cops, lawyers, FBI, judges and prostitutes; how to break down audition scripts; how to get more depth and vulnerability as an actor and much, much more!
For my first column I’d like to address:
How to feel confident and have a great time at your auditions.
The incredible technique I’m going to share with you is based on the work of Jerry and Esther Hicks, who introduced the secrets of the law of attraction years before the huge success of the video and book, The Secret.
According to Esther and Jerry Hicks we are always either focusing on what we want or what we don’t want. When you’re unhappy, nervous, angry, etc it’s usually because you are focusing on what you don’t want. “I don’t want to be lonely, I don’t want to have so few auditions, I don’t want to be poor”, etc. The secret to shifting your mood in general and specifically when you audition is to focus on what you do want and how you DO want to FEEL at your auditions and on set.
So here’s a simple process for preparing for an audition:
First, imagine yourself on the way to an audition for a part you really want. try to focus on how you are feeling.
FOCUS ON HOW YOU ARE FEELING
Usually if you’re honest, you’ll say, for example…I feel nervous, I feel excited. I feel anxious. I feel like I’m not even right for this role. I feel unprepared, etc.
Top 11 Reputable Casting Websites
June 29, 2010 by Erin Cronican
Filed under Columns
One of the things that can get me incensed as a career coach is when casting websites pop up promising to give actors access to stardom. Some sites make it sounds like an actor’s big break is just around the corner, and all they need to do is pay a fee and they’re in! But most actors know that success comes with good training, strong relationship building, and the ability & wherewithal to seize an opportunity when it presents itself (also known as tenacity.) The trouble is, even the smartest actor has heard at least one rags-to-riches story, and the allure of a quick win sometimes overshadows common sense.
So, to combat the many unscrupulous characters baiting actors with empty promises, below you’ll find are 11 of my favorite reputable websites where casting notices can be found.
Actors Access
Backstage
Actors Equity Casting Call
Playbill
SAG Indie
Now Casting
Casting Networks/LACasting.com
Casting Networks/NYCasting.com
NYCastings.com
Mandy.com
Craigslist
Any of the others not listed here typically have the same notices that are on the above sites. If you are in LA or NY, I would caution you if paying to use any website other than these listed- it probably wouldn’t be worth the money. Of course, there are exceptions and I am sure a new website will come along and blow away the competition. But as of now, the above sites are the most reputable for those in the major markets.
Auditions & Casting
June 1, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under
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Casting Directors, Filmmakers, Theaters, etc - |
Melissa Leo talks acting, auditioning and preparation
May 26, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Interviews
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:14 — 11.2MB)
When Melissa Leo is on stage or you see her in a TV show or film, the project is immediately elevated to a different level. She has an incredible gift of grounding every scene she’s in, making everyone around her better.
If you saw her Oscar nominated performance in last year’s Frozen River, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Need more proof? Check out the first 5 seasons of Homicide, 21 Grams and the upcoming Welcome To The Rileys.
She’s currently starring in HBO’s Treme as attorney Toni Bernette. If you haven’t been watching the show, you are missing some great performances. Not only from Melissa, but John Goodman, Khandi Alexander, Wendell Pierce… the list goes on.
I talked to her while she was on set, filming another HBO project, Mildred Pierce.
When I first became aware of you in Homicide, and everything I’ve seen you in since, is that you bring a deep reality to everything you’re in. You keep everyone and everything around you grounded. That’s a big reason that Homicide stunk after you left the show.
Oh my God! I don’t know if I want all that responsibility but that’s quite a compliment. An actor at a festival once handed me a card, and she had written on it “Acting, the art of pretending the truth.” And I use her quote an awful lot, because it is. To me, that’s what it’s about, even when things go into the fantastical realm that they can on stage or in film. That’s an extraordinary compliment. Thank you.
After Frozen River, do you still have to audition now?
The auditioning has waned, some of it by choice. For many years, I recognized that I was used for casting directors to impress directors with their choices, to find out how a difficult part, in fact, can work. So I, as I’ve begun to have work offered to me, have backed away from auditions from time to time.
You seem to take these roles that might be difficult to cast, but you fit them perfectly.
Well, I think that anybody who does any kind of work gets the thing that if you’re going to be working, you might as well be working hard. So, that’s what I do, and I guess my passion and love for it is that acting really is my life. The only other thing really is my son.
How the ‘Lost’ actors got their roles
May 11, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Performing Arts News
This weeks Entertainment Weekly has a ton of Lost coverage in preparation of the upcoming series finale.
In the mag, there are some great stories how some of the cast members got their roles. And guess what? I have them right here!
Particularly interesting are the stories of Josh Holloway and Matthew Fox.
If you’re a fan of the show, you should definitely pick it up.
From Entertainment Weekly, May 14, 2010 issue:
With pilot season well underway, ABC needed a finished show in about 12 weeks. JJ Abrams agreed to direct the pilot, and they began furiously writing placeholder audition scenes, just so the actors would have something to read.
Bryan Burk (Exec Producer) The casting process was crazy. It was falling in love with people who were not at all what we had in mind for each role.
Jorge Garcia was invited to come in after Abrams saw him on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and he would up with the tailor-made role of comical lottery winner Hurley. Aging rocker/addict Charlie was made younger after the producers were charmed by The Lord Of The Rings‘ Dominic Monaghan.
Abrams dialed Alias‘ Terry O’Quinn and offered him the role of enigmatic man of faith John Locke.
Terry O’Quinn (Locke) It was a very tumultuous time in my life. I wasn’t making a lot of money. JJ said, “There’s not going to a lot in the pilot. But we’re hoping to develop the role.” The fact that I didn’t have to do an audition, I had a role? It was a godsend.
