Casting Director Research Paper

All professional actors should be aware of how pivotal casting directors are to getting work in the theatre, film, and television business. Casting directors are the first “friend” you meet when an actor is looking for work, the casting directors are scouting for fresh new talent that they could cast in their upcoming projects that they are casting at the time. Usually, casting directors are hired by television studios, networks, production companies, and producers of Broadway shows to give actors for considering parts. For example, Daniel Pruksarnukul the artistic associate and casting director for Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. for nine seasons shared with me his journey of working in the business and how he worked his way up to different …show more content…
The casting directors are scouts who find the perfect actors for their plays, television shows, and even films, they make or break a young actor’s career. Asking how stressful the job of a casting director is Dan tells me that casting for arena stage usually takes some time. "It’s not about picking talent at all, it’s about learning a community, and really advocating for artists and being an ambassador from the institution that you work for and the community itself, and the responsibility twenty-four hours, seven days a week when you’re out at a show, party, or gala, people know you as being the representative of that theatre and to the community and that can lead to a lot of stress because then you start to wonder who your true friends are and who are not so it’s definitely a tricky thing." In Dan’s educational training there was a huge emphasis on him spending 80 percent of his time offstage, so it’s important to not only evaluate talent and ability, but also company membership when you’re out among the actors, when you’re not in the rehearsal room which Dan states, “it becomes not just a job but a lifestyle.” Dan at a time being young in the entertainment industry he had to grow a thick skin and learn valuable life lessons quickly to not become a victim in a cycle of people trying to get ahead and use …show more content…
Dan states “There’s a couple that really pop out to me I think one of the greatest moments I had as a casting director, I understood the importance I was doing and was not always recognized was this production of Oklahoma which I helped influence in many ways particularly in it being cast in a quote unquote nontraditional way or what I think of as color specific casting and really reflected the Indian territory at the time honestly in terms of census statistics so it was based on historical facts but more importantly, the Washington D.C. at presence it was a wonderfully diverse cast with all sorts shapes, sizes, and ethnicities on stage not just in ensemble parts but also lead roles, the romantic roles in particularly Laurey and Curly which was played by an African-American actress and an Latino Native American actor, and for me looking at that entire cast on stage as hard as it was to get there with a gold standard piece like Oklahoma I felt it was a reflection of America today and the part I think made it the most successful was it was beautifully put together there was not a single actor on that stage that didn’t deserve to be there they all sounded great they all danced really well and it’s just one of things in the moment of theatre that if you closed your eyes it sounds like a show everyone did but once you open your eyes it’s this breathtaking wonderful thing