Casting
Types
What is a casting type?
A
What is Casting Type?
● Casting Types - The "types" of
characters an actor is most likely
to be invited to audition for and
play. Often also referred to as
"essences", typecasts can be
based around a combination of
physical appearances,
energy/vibe, and age range.
What is it?
● How casting sees you
● Audition tool
● Grow over time
● Not limiting
● May not reflect real life
Five Features
● Age range
● Gender
Identity
● Look
● Personality
● Job
title/status
How to determine Casting
Type?
● Accept who you are
● Performance history?
● Emotionally leaning into what makes you unique
● Not defined by casting type
○ Not a critique
○ Multifaceted, complex being
○ Cannot be simplified into archetype
● Knowing yourself as a performer
Determining Type
Cont’d
● Naturally drawn to
● Flexibility is important,
likes and dislikes
● Passionate vs lifeless
● Strong Points & Weak
Points
○ What works & what
can improve?
●jock
●boy- Examples of Type
from Acting in Musical Theatre Vol 3 by Joe Deer and Rocce Dal
next- Vera
Young Men Young
door ● princess Women
● girl next door
●nerdy ● bully
● jock
kid ● trendsetter
● ingénue
●quirky/ ● brainiac
● sassy smart ass
● young mom
trendy ● little sister
● Southern belle
●smart- ● moody outcast
artist/
poet/ Examples of Type
musician
from Acting in Musical Theatre Vol 3 by Joe Deer and Rocce Dal
Vera
Young
● nice
Adult guy
Men ● leading lady
Women
● her best friend
●blue-collar ● jock
● executive/lawyer/politician
● social climber
worker ● cop/career military
● mom
●cop/career ● teacher/professor
● doctor/nurse
● wacky neighbor
military ● saleswoman
● artist/poet/musician
●lawyer/ ● Cosmo girl
● strict librarian
● trailer trash
politician ● earth mother/hippy
Final Thoughts
● Type is another tool
○ You can use it
○ You can ignore it
● Helps w/streamlining audition/song
selection
● Not a limiting idea
● Do your best to objectively examine
yourself
● Complex, talented, skilled, multifaceted
human
Activities to Help Find Type
● 1: Note your singing range. This should be the range where you have all your
best notes; not those you can force out, but where you are at your functional
excellence.
● 2: Make a list of characters in musicals whose range matches yours. (This
should be an ongoing project and may need to be constantly expanded and
updated.)
● 3: Ask your voice teacher for an assessment of the type of voice you have:
soprano, mezzo, rock/pop belt, mix, etc. You may fall into more than one
category. Don’t list any that you can’t sing with mastery.
● 4: Beyond simple voice type is an awareness of the kinds of music you
genuinely sing well. Are you a hard-rocker? A hip-hop guy? A faerie pop
specialist? A country girl? While every actor has a range of possibilities, it’s
important to know where you live with stylistic authenticity.
● 5: From your earlier list of roles whose range you can sing, now narrow the
list to those whose vocal type matches yours. For example, you may have
the right range to sing an 80s pop belt song, but if your sound is too “legit”
you won’t be cast as a belter.
Activities to Help Find Type
● #1: Ask your friends/teachers what celebrities you remind them of and write down those names.
Ask your friends what words they would use to describe you and write them down. Ask them if
they were to cast you in their favorite movie, what character you would be, write it down. After
asking several people, you should hopefully start seeing some similarities.
● #2: Create a list with the most common terms your were given listed first. Circle the 3 to 5 terms
that feel most comfortable to you.
● #3: Research the celebrities your friends/teachers selected for you and write down the roles they
have played in the past. After you have completed your list, cross of any of the roles that do not
match the 3 to 5 terms you decided on in step #2
● #4: You now have a list of terms that describe you and a list of characters you could play based
on the celebrities who are similar to you. Begin looking through musical theatre synopses online
(start by using Wikipedia – this will require that you read, possibly a lot) and write down the names
of roles that sound like they fit you based on your work in steps 1-3.
● #5: Look those characters up on YouTube. Watch scenes and songs and start making a list of the
roles that really interest you, and the songs that you like.
● #6: Look up the range, style, composer, date of composition, librettist, and songs of each
character you could play in a spreadsheet that you can refer back to for the rest of your career.
This is the list you will use anytime you need to choose a song for a lesson/class.