by Edward Precht. @pertoltprecht.
NEW YORK, NY - The past week has delivered unprecedented changes to the Broadway community in the wake of COVID-19. In an attempt to maintain a sense of normalcy for the community, some of Broadway’s top producers and Actor’s Equity have announced their plan to livestream a video of a bored casting directors half-heartedly listening to your sides, so actors can feel like they’re being ignored from the comfort of their own home, sources confirmed..
“It’s like I’m there,” says Nico Roland, aspiring actor and beta tester of the new livestream service, tentatively called CastOut. “It’s like I’m in that rehearsal room, doing everything, anything I can to get the attention of someone who couldn’t give two shits about me, but I’m doing it in my pajamas!”
Tara Rubin Casting, Jim Carnahan, and Telsey + Company are planning to release CastOut early next week, with more casting offices joining the service as soon as their agents “stop giving a fuck.”
“It’s the next best thing,” said Lisa Saparelli, a representative from Telsey. “Self-isolating? Missing that feeling of waking up early in the morning, schlepping to Midtown, waiting in a big room full of people you don’t know but who you’re pretty sure all hate you, getting your number called to stumble through your usual monologue from A Behanding in Spokane, only to have the person who’s supposed to be watching you reading a May 2017 copy of Time Out New York instead? You miss that, right?”
Early reviews have called the service “a godsend” and “beautifully, discouragingly familiar,” and has already garnered accolades from several Broadway stars.
“I love CastOut!” says The Cher Show Tony winner Stephanie J. Block. “The casting director has just the right amount of cold detachment in their eyes. And when they yawn as I belt out a few bars from The Mystery of Edwin Drood? Perfection. Plus, I love that you can take it anywhere – I’m standing outside of Ripley-Grier in the pouring rain right now to get the full experience!”
CastOut is available through your Backstage.com account, and is only active between 6AM-10AM, with a break for coffee. Equity actors get first priority, though all Non-Equity actors are still encouraged to stay online to “make the whole experience that much more disappointing, and that much more realistic.”