Litabi
Working on a production of any sort, whether a play at a local theater or a robust student film involving a handful of roles, requires lots of work behind the scenes.
No matter how “small” or “indie” your project is, an incredible amount of time and effort likely goes into it, from the acting to the producing to the advertising.
So it should come as no surprise to people experienced in the field that you sometimes can’t find the local talent you need to fill all those roles. You’ve written a play that you’re cleared to put on at a small local theater house?
That’s great, but who’s going to play the roles? Where do you find them? How do you know how much they expect to get paid for their work?
We will help you answer these questions with the following three-pointers. Here’s how to find fresh actors for your theater or film productions.
1. Get Online
Like everything now, actors can be found and hired online! There are plenty of talent-booking sites and apps that will let you search for what you want and then select from an extensive range of options.
You can view the profiles of young actors such as Hayden Byerly, see what they look like, get a sense of who they are and what kinds of roles they play, and then go from there. It costs nothing to browse around the sites or apps and take notes on who you’re seeing.
This is an easy and cost-effective way to job your brain and get some ideas about what kinds of actors you might want to consider for your parts.
2. College Theater Departments
Believe it or not, you can also try to acquire talent from your local colleges’ and universities’ drama departments. Remember, these are students acting in their schools’ productions because they want to be there. They aren’t there for money or any other reason because they love acting and the theater.
So, if you are running a local play or shooting a short film and need some local actors, call up the schools and see if you’d be able to pull from their talent for your project. If you’re able to pay the actors for their work, that’s even better. But you never know what you may find out until you ask!
3. Social Media
Just as there are drama groups in colleges and talent apps, you will also find acting-focused communities on social media. Facebook has groups of all kinds, and similar collectives can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and pretty much every other platform.
You might try hitting up social media to try to recruit actors in your area to try out for your play or film. Who knows? Like the students, many of these might be just starting out and not working and getting paid, and they may jump at the chance to prove themselves to your audience.
Wrapping Up
We hope these methods have jogged your brain a little about the ways to find local actors for your small production. Think about them as you build up your new cast! Do you have any other valuable suggestions to add? Share your priceless views in the comment section.
