Casting — Behind the Scenes

This blog is relevant to adults who are looking to apply for one of our principal performance roles whilst our main casting window is open. For ensemble roles, the same process applies, but please be aware that even though you will apply during the same window, we normally cast our ensemble once our main principal line up is in place due to the need for ensemble to pick up understudy tracks.

For children’s casting please click here and for production/creative teams and crew, please click here

Imagine Theatre welcomes applications from everyone and all applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability status.. Indeed, we are very lucky to receive thousands of applications each year from performers, creatives, stage management etc who want to work for us and it is therefore essential that we have a fair process which allows us to give every CV or spotlight link we receive the time and consideration it deserves.

The request on our website of HOW and WHEN to apply to us is part of that process, and we’d really appreciate it if you would help us to help you.

We understand that applying for roles can be laborious and that you may want to try make your application stand out by doing something a little different. However, rather than sending us a message over social media or phoning in, please apply via the method stated on the website. Applying to us via a method that’s not listed on the casting page on our website, or applying outside the window of when we have casting open may affect the outcome of your submission. Your application may not get considered and we don’t want that to happen to anyone.

We are extremely active on our social media channels, therefore appreciate that we may appear old fashioned by not accepting applications via social media. Facebook and Instagram are not user friendly in allowing us to move messages about employment into any other format. We can’t move them into our casting database, and as a result they may not be processed and could get overlooked. In addition, these platforms don’t make it easy for us to download photos or CV’s. Our company ethos is to give everyone a fair chance and fair consideration and by sticking to the method stated at the end of this article we can ensure that this happens, we know we’ve not missed anyone who wants to be considered, and you know your application has been treated as you would like and expect it to be.

We wish we could audition everyone who applies to us, but with the sheer volume of applications it’s not feasible for that to happen. Therefore, as stated on our website, we only contact those we want to audition. We aim to post the dates of the principal auditions on our website and if you’ve not heard from us by the audition date, then you’ve not been selected for an audition with us.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that, although you may not hear from us in a particular year, that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in receiving your CV again in subsequent years. Some years the balance of roles means that we might be looking for more Dames and comics, or another year we might need more principal girls and father roles. It all depends upon the mix of titles we’re producing and what casting may already be in place. A breakdown of the roles that we are casting for will be posted on our website and spotlight ahead of the audition calls going out. If there isn’t anything that fits your casting bracket this season, please keep applying in following years. Never say never! You never know what a casting team saw in you or your initial application and what they might want later down the line.

What we will do is make a commitment that if you have an audition with us, we will let you or your agent know the outcome, however this may not be straight away. Due to the fact we are usually casting for multiple productions all over the country, casting is a huge jigsaw puzzle that sometimes requires 3 or 4 key people to fall into place before we can cast the rest. If they don’t accept straight away and we’re left waiting for a little while, this can have an impact on the rest of the casting. It might be waiting for a ‘name’ to confirm, resident dames/comics or just that someone is waiting to hear if something such as a touring contract is going to happen for them. We promise we try to do things as fast as we can, but as you can now appreciate, it’s not that simple.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and we look forward to hearing from you.

The email to apply for both Principal and Ensemble Understudy roles to is casting@imaginetheatre.co.uk – this inbox is manned during the time that we say casting is open on our website. This date will also be announced on social media, so please keep an eye out on our channels for opening and closing dates. It may feel like you’ve not heard back from us, but so long as you apply at the right time and get our email bounce back reply then your application will be being considered by us. Please DO NOT apply to individual emails within the company, we only accept applications sent to the casting email as stated above.