An Indie Theatre Person Visits Some Casting Sites

7 min readFeb 3, 2024

February 3, 2024, 12:13 am
Filed under: Acting, business, community, Creative Process, theatre | Tags: Acting, actors, Actors Access, Backstage, casting, headshots, job listing, resumes, Show Business, theatre

In the past few years, when I’ve made theatre or audio drama, I’ve mostly drawn on people who were already in my circle or in the circle of my circle. This is generally my preferred way of doing things, as it allows me to avoid the more businessy side of the business. (I know it’s show business but for me, it’s art.)

But this time, neither my circle nor my circles’ circles were big enough to do the job of casting my show. I had to engage with some casting websites. The last time I went to a casting website was 2018 and they’ve changed a lot in the intervening years. They’ve also changed a lot since I started my company.

In the first few years, back in the early 2000s, we would post a listing in Backstage and then actors would send us headshots and resumes in the mail. We’d sort through them — make stacks — and literally call them in. On the telephone.

Back around 2018, we’d post a listing on Actors Access or Backstage and we’d get digital submissions from actors. Actually, back in 2018, I didn’t even post a listing, I just searched for actors and messaged them if I thought they’d be a good match. It was a little like a dating site — but with a project instead of a person. Writing a job listing would be like writing a personals ad. Sometimes finding people for your art is personal.

In attempting to post a listing this time, I found the systems to be much more codified. Posting a listing required things to be expressed in certain formats and structures that had very little to do with my show and what I was looking for. I filled out all the forms in the Casting Call section of Actors Access, clicked all the boxes and submitted it. The next morning, I got a full page of things I needed to submit in order to have my listing posted. It was such a prohibitively long and onerous list, I just abandoned Actors Access entirely. I went over to Backstage and filled out similar information and checked similar boxes. When I finally got through all the e-forms, I discovered I would have to submit to a background check in order to post my listing. I have had many background checks in the past, due to my work in education, but I’m a pretty big believer in privacy so I was not keen to provide all my personal information to a corporation. But I was worn out from filling out the same onerous info twice over already and I needed some actors so I sucked it up and gave my permission for the background check. (I passed btw. In case you were worried.)

I say all this to say what a giant pain in the ass it was just to post a job on these sites. And I got significantly fewer submissions from actors than we did back in the day when it was a lot more of a hassle to mail them. We think all this technology will make things easier and better but I am not so sure.

I know actors get frustrated by how hard it is to break into circles that are already established. I’ve heard many actors say, “How is someone without connections yet supposed to get any?” “Why don’t more producers post open calls and opportunities to submit?” And this digital funneling of casting sites is the answer. It is a pain in the ass to do it, and now, not only is it a pain in the ass, it’s invasive and bossy. If I can avoid these things, I will. No question. Now more than ever.

On a friend’s Facebook post someone suggested that actors use their Actors Access page as their website — and I told this tale of giving up on using that site due to its onerous barriers. (I was just trying to say that hiding your calling cards behind a thorny barrier might not be a great idea for getting work.) An actor responded that all actors appreciated the background checks of producers, to save them from scams and predators. Sure. Okay. I’ll address the scams and predators in a moment. But I’m an actor, too, and I actually do not appreciate background checks in this context. I’d rather be in a place where everyone feels welcome, where producers post their gigs freely and easily and everyone can find each other as simply as possible. As an actor, I want anyone who is trying to hire me to be able to do that with as little in the way as possible. I want the same for actors when I am the producer.

I know there are creeps out there. There were even creeps twenty plus years ago when we did all this through the mail. That’s why a lot of actors had answering services — so if a creep got ahold of their headshot or resume they couldn’t just call you up at your house. A background check is not actually a useful guardrail against creeps, scams and predators. In order to flag up a background check, you’d need to be a convicted creep, scammer or predator and I’m sorry to tell you that the percentage of those who actually get convicted is negligibly small. A background check is really a protection of the corporation against getting sued.

I want actors to feel safe, of course, but I think background checks may be providing a false sense of security. And it is not in an actor’s best interest for the people who want to hire them to have to jump through so many fiery hoops. Inevitably, there will be fewer opportunities to submit to when that happens. And it will privilege the producers who are less likely to hire the new arrivals and the young. The producers in the system have a system. They probably have an assistant (or several) to navigate this website. It is indie producers who will disappear, who will just turn to their own circles and I don’t think that is good for the field as a whole.

And ultimately, will a background check keep you safe from the next Harvey Weinstein? (The current Weinstein, sure. He’s got a record — but the next one?) The next Harvey Weinstein already has a gold star next to his name in the listing. He’s a golden boy. He’ll pass a background check with flying colors and then go on to assault everyone in sight. Scott Rudin has never been arrested, would probably ace a background check, but the reasons to not work for him are legion. But people would still line up to do it. I know most actors would rather hear from the next Harvey Weinstein with his gold star jobs than me, this little indie off-off operation. They don’t mind if people like me don’t get on those platforms anymore. But I do think it’s worth thinking about what those sorts of decisions, disappearances and steps back do to the field as a whole in the long run.

I learned (from an indie voice over casting site) that Backstage (along with several other casting sites) is owned by a Swedish private equity firm called EQT Partners. Let me tell you who I really don’t think has actors’ best interests at heart. It’s a global private equity firm in Sweden; That’s who really doesn’t care about theatre in New York City and we’re just letting it roll, never batting an eye.