Professional Associate Comments

Here is the feed back on my line of inquiry from my professional associate. I have found this feedback very useful and it has given me some initial guiding ideas from my data collection and my supports my ideas that casting is not based on talent and ability alone. I think that getting feed back from a professional associate is a very good way of getting information to support my inquiry.

I think it’s an interesting area of study, there’s lots of information/guidance on Audition Technique and preparation etc. But nothing that tells an actor how to be prepared for the things out of their control, and to understand the reasons for failure that may not be of their own creation.

 
Benefits of Study

The psychological and emotional benefits to Actors are obvious. The most useless feedback, and in my experience the most common is “you just weren’t right for the part” the study will give actors more ideas on why they “weren’t right” and may help them get over the emotional down and the knocks to their confidence that a failed audition invariably gives you.

Remember an audition is just a job interview, just a very stressful one. So the findings could be applied to the general recruitment environment area too

Data Collection

If you use all the collection methods listed, you could end up with more information than you could be able to usefully handle. Interviews are good (just remember that directors/casting agents may not tell you exactly the truth). Perhaps a staged collection… Survey, then interview after you can tell the information is of worth. Just remember to try to remain impartial.

I would say that you’ll find that people who are in charge of casting select the cast based on talent, personality, look (within the context of the casting) and attitude.

A successful auditionee would need the following characteristics:

Talent/Qualifications – Enough to perform adequetly (but not so much as to outshine the rest of the cast)

Personality – Must be personable and friendly, must be able to work with the other members of the cast

Looks – Must look right with the other cast members, and within the character context (Elliot as an Italian???)

Attitude – Over all these things the actor must want the part and be able to accept direction, however much they dislike the decisions the director makes (unfortunately). Diva’s are rarely cast.