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typecasting

Question:

When I first started community theatre, I was getting a lot of variety with different kinds of characters, but my town is small and when people started to know me better, I kept winding up with the same type of roles. Because of this, I started working "behind the scenes", doing backstage work, choreography and what-not.  I did that for a few years, but now that I am back on stage I find that the same thing is happening.  I find that the directors who know me automatically cast me in the same type of role. I would appreciate any advice that may help me.  I only do theatre for fun outside of regular work, and am not really interested in pursuing it as a career, but the fun is lacking when every part I play seems to be the same.  Advice?

Response:

Find a project that you think you are right for and would like to play and produce it yourself. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – When I first started community theatre, I was getting a lot of variety with different kinds of characters, but my town is small and when people started to know me better, I kept winding up with the same type of roles. Because of this, I started working "behind the scenes", doing backstage work, choreography and what-not.  I did that for a few years, but now that I am back on stage I find that the same thing is happening.  I find that the directors who know me automatically cast me in the same type of role. I would appreciate any advice that may help me.  I only do theatre for fun outside of regular work, and am not really interested in pursuing it as a career, but the fun is lacking when every part I play seems to be the same.  Advice?

Response:

When I first started community theatre, I was getting a lot of variety with different kinds of characters, but my town is small and when people started to know me better, I kept winding up with the same type of roles. Because of this, I started working "behind the scenes", doing backstage work, choreography and what-not.  I did that for a few years, but now that I am back on stage I find that the same thing is happening.  I find that the directors who know me automatically cast me in the same type of role. I would appreciate any advice that may help me.  I only do theatre for fun outside of regular work, and am not really interested in pursuing it as a career, but the fun is lacking when every part I play seems to be the same.  Advice?

You might be a bit more specific as to what you want and what you’re getting. Ingenues tend to get stuck in engenue roles, for instance. In the normal sort of theater. engenue tyupes are not going to be playing the dotty old sisters in Arsenic and Old Lace. Casting a play is not so easy, either. Your directors are trying to cast an entire play, and trying to balance out the parts in the most effective way; your abilities in the types of parts you are cast in may be such that the director can’t find someone else among the auditioners that would come up to what he/she knows you can do. Try to audition for plays that don’t have any charcters in your type. And you might also take a good long honest look at yourself and try to determine if you are really capable of playing these other tyupes of parts. A brutal honesty about oneself can go a long way toward helping an actor find a career. An argument could be made that if you are constantly being type cast, then you are constantly being cast; not such a bad thing. —     *                Daly City California:                *     *       where San Francisco meets The Peninsula       *     ******* and the San Andreas Fault meets the Sea *******

Response:

Karina Wright requested advice regarding typecasting. I don’t know all the details here, but it may be that since the directors know you, they also know you can be relied upon, and are a solid actor.  I call those the "anything actors", since they can do anything.  Unfortunately for those actors, sometimes you have your "anything actor" and a more limited (or less experienced) actor competing for the same role.  The "anything actor" can be put in several roles, but the more limited actor is really only right for one.  So they get the role the "anything actor" wanted, and the "anything actor" gets put wherever, usually in the type of role they have done over and over.  Because I *know* they can do it. However, since it is community theatre, you have the option of contacting the director *before* auditions.  Since directors are trying to juggle lots of things at auditions (and who is "right" for each role is only one of those many), I don’t recommend talking to them at auditions.  But I know I would be willing to listen to an actor who called me ahead of time and explained they feel they are getting cast in the same type of roles over and over again, and they’d like to stretch a bit.  I would certainly take this into account at casting time, though I’d still have to cast as I thought best for that production. Good luck! — Susan Wench #457

Response:

: Ask people how far their faith in your acting ability goes. : This ballsy attitude can make people think things like "Yes I’ve been so : stilted in my casting" : Sometimes people don’t realise what they are doing to you unless you point : it out. This is the advice I took.  I talked to a few directors that I worked with this year, and most told me that they gave me the parts they did because they didn’t think anyone else could handle them (YOO HOO!!!).  And one said that for future plays he would give me the script ahead of time so that I can read through it, and then have a chat with him and talk about what role would be best for me.  (YAY!)  One director said he cast me because he felt sorry for me and didn’t think I could play any other role. I had a talk with him and he told me where I could improve. Thank you for all the help everyone.  This was the best advice since I am not interested in making acting a career and don’t want to move away or take the time to produce my own show.

Response:

Move to where no one knows you and reinvent yourself. Ask people how far their faith in your acting ability goes. This ballsy attitude can make people think things like "Yes I’ve been so stilted in my casting" Sometimes people don’t realise what they are doing to you unless you point it out. — http://www.pippin.dircon.co.uk/ – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – When I first started community theatre, I was getting a lot of variety with different kinds of characters, but my town is small and when people started to know me better, I kept winding up with the same type of roles. Because of this, I started working "behind the scenes", doing backstage work, choreography and what-not.  I did that for a few years, but now that I am back on stage I find that the same thing is happening.  I find that the directors who know me automatically cast me in the same type of role. I would appreciate any advice that may help me.  I only do theatre for fun outside of regular work, and am not really interested in pursuing it as a career, but the fun is lacking when every part I play seems to be the same.  Advice?

Response:

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