Auditioning: A Backstage Guide

Auditions can often be the most feared aspect of being an actor and yet, as the author points out, casting directors are on the side of everyone who auditions for them. They want you to do well, feel confident about the audition and in turn give the director the confidence they need to choose you.

The insights and reassurances throughout this book provide a little-seen glimpse into the world of casting, helping you to understand how casting directors and directors view the process and what purpose the audition serves.

Casting director Sam Stevenson draws on her rich experience, from both her time as deputy head of casting at the National Theatre and her varied freelance career, to delve into the challenges and possibilities that you might face. She explores the intersecting, underlying principles of auditioning for stage and screen, whether you are meeting online, in-person or self-taping.

This book helps bridge the gap between you and the people who are making the decisions, to help it feel like a less scary process.

Sam Stevenson is a freelance casting director, based in London, and working in theatre, television and film. Her diverse projects include productions for the BBC, Sky, Amazon, Warner Bros, National Theatre and RSC. For many years she worked in partnership with Gemma Hancock with whom she shares an Emmy nomination for their work on the BBC miniseries Emma. Theatre includes Tartuffe, Translations, Home, I’m Darling, The Great Wave, Common, Twelfth Night, Ugly Lies the Bone and Blood & Gifts (National Theatre); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith & West End); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Love Love Love, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Lyric Hammersmith); Richard III, This House (UK Tour) and Labour of Love (Headlong); Frost/Nixon (Sheffield Crucible).