Casting call for black cats, Los Angeles, 1961. The studio was seeking cats for the Roger Corman movie Tales of Terror. In the performing arts, casting (or casting call) is a vital pre-production process for selecting a cast (a meaning of the word recorded since 1631) of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance. The casting process sometimes involves a series of auditions before a casting panel, composed of individuals such as the producer, director and/or choreographer. In the early stages of the process, performers often may present prepared audition pieces such as monologues or songs. Later stages may involve groups of actors attempting material from the work under consideration in various combinations; the Casting Director considers both the talent of the individual actors and the chemistry of their combination. Depending on the prestige of the role, casting calls may go out to the public at large (typical for community theatre), to professional and semi-professional local actors (for supporting roles in theatre and film) or to specifically selected actors (for leading roles, especially in films). In the production of film and television, a similar process is followed. However, especially for major productions, the process of selecting actors for sometimes hundreds of parts may often require specialized staff. While the last word remains with the people in artistic and production charge, a Casting Director or "CD" (and sometimes the Casting Associate) are in charge of most of the daily work involved in this creative filmmaking process during pre-production. A Casting Director is sometimes assisted by a Casting Associate; productions with large numbers of extras may have their own Extras Casting Director. The "CD" remains as a liaison between director, actors and their agents/managers and the studio/network to get the characters in the script cast. Some Casting Directors build an impressive career working on numerous Hollywood productions, such as Mary Jo Slater, Mary Selway, Lynn Stalmaster, April Webster, John Papsidera, Tammara Billik, Marci Liroff, John Lyons, Bill Dance, and Mindy Marin. The significant organization of professional screen and theater casting in the US is the Casting Society of America (CSA), but membership is optional. Casting Directors organized in 2005 and became members of a collective bargaining unit, the Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 (Location Managers Guild of America) At least in the early stages and for extras, casting may be decentralized geographically, often in conjunction with actual shooting planned in different states, e.g. in Hollywood or New York (studio) and one or more exotic locations (e.g. Hawaii, the Far East) and/or budget locations, e.g. Canada, Ireland. Another reason may be tapping in to each home market in the case of an international co-production. However for the top parts, the choice of one or more celebrities, whose presence is of enormous commercial importance, may rather follow strictly personal channels, e.g. direct contact with the director. The resulting list of actors filling the parts is called a cast list.
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