Back Stage 411 - Casting FAQ

How to Find More Casting Notices - 10 Tips for Searching for Auditions

Thousands of casting notices are posted on BackStage.com every month, with updates being made daily. Follow these 10 casting-search tips to save time and make sure you're not missing out on any awesome new opportunities:

1) Cast a Wide Net: The more categories and states you search, the more casting notices you'll see. Although you might be more interested in some categories than others, you should still select ALL of the categories and states that you're even a little bit interested in, or else you'll miss out on some very cool stuff. Click here for help with searching for casting notices.

2) Customize Your Search: Use Back Stage's Advanced Casting Search options to narrow down your results using personalized search filters, including age-ranges, pay-ranges, ethnicity, and gender. To see more casting notices, choose multiple Advanced Search filters. We recommend choosing ALL of the pay ranges. And instead of just choosing your exact age-range and ethnicity, choose all of the age-ranges and ethnicities that you can realistically play (keep in mind that the search filters are based on the character descriptions of the ROLES being cast, not the exact ethnicity of the actual actors). Click here to learn more about Advanced Casting Searches.

One-Click Searches - Quickly Browse Through Casting Notices

In the entertainment industry, actors rely on Back Stage for real-time casting and audition information, acting advice, job listings, and entertainment-industry news. From production listings of Hollywood films to auditions for Broadway theatre productions, BackStage.com is an invaluable actors' resource.

The following single-click quick searches will help you find all of the latest casting opportunities available in your area.

Browse Casting Notices: Use the Browse Casting page on Casting.BackStage.com to quickly see how many projects are currently seeking talent. The Browse Casting page is organized into sub-sections listing casting and job notices by categories, states, companies, and more, providing a convenient overview of who's hiring and what gigs are currently available. 

Saved Casting Searches: Visit your Saved Searches page to create, update, and run your own customized searches using personalized search criteria.

Additional one-click quick-searches can be found below:

Search Help: "I'm Seeing Casting Notices That Don't Fit My Profile"

Back Stage uses an advanced search algorithm to find you casting/job notices that match your exact needs along with notices that MIGHT also be of interest to you – even though they’re not an exact match – including notices that contain tags that are very similar to your search settings, along with projects that might possibly be interested in an application from you even though you don’t exactly match any of the character/job descriptions listed in the notice.

This search algorithm uses the search filters/options you’ve chosen (job categories, gender, age ranges, etc.) combined with some “fuzzy logic” to try and find you the best range of notices.

The more search filters/options you’ve chosen, the better your search results will be.

However, because the Back Stage search engine also uses some “fuzzy” search parameters to make sure that you don’t miss out on additional opportunities that MIGHT fit your needs, you will receive some “false positive” search results – casting/job notices that just aren’t right for you – which you’ll want to ignore.

But we feel that it’s safer to have some extra notices sent to you that don’t exactly fit your profile – rather than limit you to only seeing 100% exact matches – just in case some of these additional notices MIGHT be of interest.

Search Tips: Find, Sort, and Attend Auditions

Every year Back Stage publishes over 10,000 casting and job notices, with new notices being published on BackStage.com (and old notices being removed from BackStage.com) seven days a week — making Back Stage an always up-to-date resource.

In addition to searching through Back Stage's online casting & jobs database for notices that fit your interests, another great way to find out about new opportunities is to read Back Stage's Auditions Highlights, Casting News, and Seeking Submissions posts on Blog Stage, as well as Back Stage's weekly Production Listings and Bulletins.

The "Audition Highlights" posts on Blog Stage include the popular weekly "Auditions at a Glance" calendars from the New York, California, and National/Regional sections of the national Back Stage newspaper and digital magazine. The casting notices highlighted in these weekly calendars are conveniently organized by the date and day-of-the-week the auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your audition plans.

When looking for new notices, try some of the following Audition Search Tips:

What is a Casting Alert? How do I make it work?

The Back Stage Casting/Job Alert tool is a convenient and automated "search agent" that searches the BackStage.com casting/jobs database for you, finding new notices that match your personalized Saved Search criteria.

You can create one or multiple Casting/Job Alerts, with each alert being set up to search for notices that match you interests. Back Stage's Casting Alerts can save you a lot of time, since your Alerts will conduct your searches for you and then send you timely results.

Each of your Alert agents will email you your newest Casting Notice search results on a regularly scheduled basis. Within the email, you'll see a list of casting/job headlines and summaries, with links bringing you back to the specific notices on BackStage.com so you can quickly submit to the projects.

To get started, visit your Career Center/Actor's Toolbox and click on any of the Saved Search or Casting Alert options.

Or, simply fill in the "Saved Search Name" field located at the bottom of the basic or advanced Casting/Jobs Search page, check the "Create a casting alert" box, and then click the "Save Search Criteria" button.

10 KEY CASTING/JOB ALERT TIPS:

Finding More Casting & Job Notices on BackStage.com

BackStage.com features all of the casting notices from Back Stage's weekly print-edition newspapers and digital magazines, plus hundreds of additional notices from across the world, especially in the U.S. However, if you’re not seeing as many notices online as you’re expecting to see then you may need to broaden your search a bit.

Four casting search tips to always remember:

Finding Open-Mike Nights -- Calls for Comedians, Singers, Musicians, Dancers, and Variety Performers

Back Stage lists a variety of Open Mike (aka, Open Mic) opportunities every week in the casting/jobs section of BackStage.com and the Back Stage print editions.

These opportunities are listed in various categories, depending on the type of talent being called for. And the opportunities being listed may vary from day to day and week to week, depending on what information Back Stage has available.

However, the two Back Stage categories where Open Mike Night and Club Talent opportunities are most commonly found are:

• Comedy & Improv -- this category includes calls for stand-up comedians, improv comics, and comedy duos, groups, and acts.

• Cabaret & Variety -- this category includes calls for singers, dancers, some comics, new cabaret acts, club talent, and variety performers

The following Back Stage categories are also  worth checking out for Open Mike, Club Talent, Variety Show, Burlesque, Cabaret, and Talent Showcase  opportunities, competitions, gigs, and jobs:

Advanced Casting Search — Customize, Personalize, and SAVE Your Search!

Create an Advanced Casting Search to quickly filter through the thousands of casting/job notices on BackStage.com by location, job category, character age-range, character-ethnicity, character gender, pay ranges, keywords, and more. 

After completing the following six steps, you'll be able to save and run personalized and customized Casting Searches from now on in just a couple of seconds.

CREATE A PERSONALIZED CASTING SEARCH:

1) After logging into BackStage.com, visit the Advanced Casting Search page to create and save your very own Advanced Casting Searches.

2) Use this search page to select exactly what type of casting call you're interested in (job categories, pay ranges, ethnicity/gender/age-range of the roles, the states where the project is casting, etc.).

3) At the bottom of the form, in the "Save Search" box, enter a memorable "Name" for your search (e.g., you might want to call it "My Union Film/TV Casting Search #1," to distinguish it from any additional Saved Searches you create later), and turn on the "Create a Casting Alert" option.

(Note: This Save Search/Alert box only appears on the search form if you're already logged into Casting.BackStage.com, so make sure you've logged in and see the Save Search options before filling out the Advanced Search page.)

4) Click the "Save Search Criteria" button to save your personalized search.

5)  From then on, you can simply visit your Saved Casting Searches page on BackStage.com to run your personalized search with a single click. Just visit your Saved Search page and then click on the "Run" button (it looks like a little arrow/triangle/play button) and you'll immediately see all of the newest casting notices that match your search criteria.

6) When you use Back Stage's Saved Search page to run your searches, you'll save tons of time – because you'll never need to fill out the search form again. You'll be able to see all of the casting notices that are "right for you" (based on the search criteria you entered initially) with just one click, 24/7. Plus, the Casting Alert option will email you the newest search results on a daily basis; the Casting Alert will just send you casting notices that match your personalized Saved Search.

ADVANCED SEARCH TIPS:

Help Topic: "I can't see my new Cover Letter, Saved Searches, Resume Updates, or other Casting Items!" - Page "Refresh" (F5) Notes

If you’re sure that you’ve saved and/or updated a cover letter -- or any other item on BackStage.com, such as your Saved Searches, resume changes, etc. -- but you’re not seeing the new items or changes or they appear to be available, then there’s likely just a temporary “cache” problem between your web-browser and BackStage.com.

Usually the simplest way to solve this is to simply “refresh” the page(s) you’re having trouble with.

To refresh a page, click on the “refresh” or “reload” button on your web-browser’s toolbar a couple of times. Or click on the F5 key on your keyboard a couple of times. (Note: On some multimedia keyboards and Apple/Mac computers, you may need to hold down on the “Fn” Function Key at the same time as the F5 key in order to make the refresh-function work; and for some browsers Ctrl-F5 may work instead.)

Casting for Extras/Background Performers

Back Stage runs a lot of casting notices calling for extras/background performers every year for a wide variety of films and TV shows.

You’ll find calls for extras extras/background performers mixed in with our normal casting notices, in various categories.

For instance, sometimes near the end of a normal casting-notice character-breakdown (the second paragraph of every casting notice) you’ll see a boldfaced character/job-title that has a description that includes a phrase such as “Extras,” “Background Performers,” “Background Actors,” “Location Actors,” “Day Players,” or “Various Other Roles” – these catchall statements are usually in reference to the opportunities for extras and smaller roles for the project.