Open call audition: Assholes need not submit for consideration.

"Work with nice people. There's no reason you have to work with someone who's a pain in the ass. Life's too short." - Jean Smart

Welcome back to another edition of From Behind the Table!

Before we begin, I need to start with “the fine print” for this particular piece: This is my own golden rule and I don’t speak for any other casting directors when I share what I am about to. That being said, I will note that the colleagues I am close to would echo these sentiments 100%. Take that as you will.

You can be the reincarnation of Sir Lawrence Olivier, but don’t be an asshole. You could be God’s literal gift to art of acting, but don’t be an asshole. You could’ve been nominated for several Jeff awards and been featured as one of Chris Jones’ Hot New Faces of 2019 in the Chicago Tribune (despite having been in the Chicago theatre community for 6+ years), but don’t be an asshole.

To put it plainly: I do not care if you are the most talented actor to ever exist on planet Earth. If you are an asshole, I will not be casting you.

The Oxford English Dictionary notes an asshole as “a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.” Which honestly, describes a lot of people, so I’ll get specific.

I am talking about actors who aren’t team players, character actors who walk around with a “chip on their shoulder” the entire process and their nose stuck up in the air, that one guy who is so used to relying on his looks and less on his talent that he flips out at the costume designer when his costume isn’t tailored to his liking, the insecure ingenue who makes herself feel better by making fatphobic comments about her co-star, the pretty young thing who is rude to the monitor at the EPA and thinks no one will find out, the typical “leading man” type who treats his understudy like shit…the list goes on and on and on and truly won’t end for a long time. I have heard it all and most of it is even worse than the examples I have given above.

To answer your next question: yes we do check in with people you have collaborated with, especially if we have never worked with you before OR you are new to town. We will reach out to folks we have relationships with, that you have also worked with. And usually, it’s more than one person because as we are well aware, one persons experience of you can be vastly different than another’s. But if you are 1000% certain we won’t know anyone you’ve worked with, you clearly don’t know how small the theatre world truly is. And this is a great moment to say: do not lie on your resume. EVER. (side note: if you did a show that was produced by a small company at a theatre with their own space like Theatre Wit or Raven, you need to list the small company that produced it and not the place it was produced. Because as the current casting director of Raven, I know our show history 😉).

By reaching out to folks you’ve collaborated with before, we are vetting you as much as we can so we aren’t all surprised you have an anger management problem when you flip out during our 10 out of 12 tech rehearsal.

But this is not a foolproof method so sometimes, we dive deeper. Yes kiddos, we will look at your social media presence. At this point in our doom scrolling addiction era, no one should be shocked that we might take a peek at your instagram to get a sense of who you might be outside of an audition room. And I am not one to judge *social media chaos incarnate RIGHT HERE!* but really think about how you want to be perceived when you walk into an audition room AND if that is reflected in your instagram presence. This includes comments on social media posts about….oh…..I don’t know, EPA auditions. We see it all, my friends. Be smart.

But back to the heart of the matter: I firmly believe that there is no room for assholes or asshole-like behavior in the rehearsal room or during a performance run. This does not mean you have to fall in love with every one of your cast mates (dear god, PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT). It means that you should work well with your ensemble and when a disagreement arises, you act like adults and deal with it. Or, you go to your equity or non-equity deputy, a stage manager, or higher ups within the theatre company to assist in dealing with any issues. We are all here to do a job and your fellow actors are your co-workers, so treat them as such.

I can also state that I have had actors who I’ve cast in shows tell me that they could actively tell the process was better because of the quality of the people we hired to be in the cast. Think about it this way: you will be eating, sleeping, acting and breathing around these people for awhile. You might as well make it as fruitful and productive as a process by not playing the schoolyard bully or forming your sad little adult cliques to exclude someone. Cause then you will be “that person” in their memory of that show and the Chicago whisper network isn’t as much of a whisper as it is a YELL.

The last thing I will note is that most casting directors are well aware people can evolve over time, as many folks within our community have also gone through their own “asshole” phase. So if you were maybe jerk to the directing intern on that one Steppenwolf show who, 10 years later, you are now auditioning for, it might be a good time to own up to your past mistakes and show that growth.

Next week’s piece will come out sooner than you think because it is in conversation with this one and more specifically about the folks WITH hiring capabilities who yield that power in a very toxic way. We all have heard stories about these people and their pettiness; how they might blacklist an actor for dropping a show for a higher paying gig or for simply advocating for themselves and the needs of their cast mates.

Well, it’s time for a good ol’ call in.

So keep your eyes peeled for that one or hit subscribe so you won’t miss it. I might be digging myself a grave here but all forms of toxicity, especially relating to white supremacy culture, should be eradicated as quickly as possible within our industry. Especially if you’re theatre has an EDI statement on their website. And that’s on hypocrisy.

And as always:

“good casting is good dramaturgy!”