Never Cancel An Audition Appointment at the Last Minute

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Don't Piss Off Your Casting Director . . . or Your Cat

Paul Russell (author of Acting: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor Spells It Out for you:

How to Piss-Off a Casting Director (Without Being Seen)
Answers for Actors, Paul Russell’s Casting’s Weekly Blog
May 16, 2010, N.Y.C.

. . . the actors who bow out at the last minute are often high maintenance. And are almost always actors with representation. Actors who a week or two later bitch, whine and moan about not getting any audition appointments or work.

You may think I’m being overly critical or that this is hyperbole. I could begin naming names of the offenders but I still need those delinquents to call-in for future projects to have them once again screw-up two weeks of scheduling work. Sometimes, like children, we just never learn to keep our hands off of the hot stove burner. But hope for a different result from repeated practice is a taunting temptress of insanity.

When an actor pulls out of auditions on short notice holes are left. And those glaring gaps often cannot be filled as the clock tick-tocks its way to sessions.

Let’s do some math. (A boring proposition I know. I failed nearly all my academic arithmetic for lack of interest. What was the point of numbers in musical theater? Oops.)

For this exercise we’ll pretend the project is for a major regional production of a musical; basing nearly all expenditures upon the hour.

* Studio rental: Forty dollars to two hundred dollars an hour dependent upon size required.
* A reader: Twenty dollars per hour.
* A pianist often profits at forty to fifty dollars an hour.
* Casting salary: The casting director’s fee can range from work-for-food (been there, done that) to being employed at four hundred dollars an hour (rarely done, seldom there). For this fictitious project we’ll say the c.d. is getting one hundred-fifty dollars per hour.
* Expenses: Nasty little necessities which make everything run smoothly (office supplies, copying, internet/telephone charges and other miscellaneous items). For some offices the average cost for staples that support a project which is casting a major regional musical production averages $2,500.

Now, let’s add all this up (based on one hour).

* Studio (Mid-size) $65
* Reader (per hour) $20
* Pianist (per hour) $45
* C.D. (per hour) $150
* Additional
audition site staff: $200
* Expenses: $2,500 (I can’t break this down by hour so in it all goes)

* Total $2, 980

O.K., now let’s find out what a gap of seven missing minutes would cost in cha-ching wasted by an actor who got cold feet.

Two thousand, nine hundred and eighty dollars divided by seven minutes of one actor gone rogue while people behind the audition table drum their fingers equals (drum roll):

$425.00 (and spare change).

That’s how much a canceling actor has just cost the producer.