jodilong's Blog

I'd like to share this NY Times article with Bernie Telsey, Daniel Swee, Tara Rubin. Jim Carnahan and Nancy Piccione, 3 of the most influential casting directors in NY.

Great food for thought!

Q. What’s the secret to a great audition?

TELSEY: When somebody comes in and surprises you and takes you to an emotional place that the material is demanding but you wouldn’t have thought of. What that involves: completely prepared, making performance choices. It makes you want to be in a room with them longer.

SWEE: The key to preparing is spending time with a text, figuring out who this character is to you. For Seth Numrich in “War Horse” he gave a lesson in brilliant auditioning. He was completely prepared with the text. He had developed a great British accent already. He was completely present, which meant that he was able to listen carefully to the other actors, to take direction. You can see so easily when an actor is not listening.

CARNAHAN: One of the biggest traps that actors fall into is trying to be what we want them to be, and that’s not what we’re looking for. It’s like a blind date. You’re better off just being yourself. And on the other side, with directors, it’s getting some of them to spend more time getting to know actors. With British directors I’m always negotiating for three actors an hour. They just don’t know any actors here. Giving an hour to three actors — the Brits consider that a lot of time.

To read the whole article go to:

Broadway Casting Directors Discuss Their Workwww10.nytimes.comFive Broadway casting directors discuss the challenges of matching actors and shows.