Posted by DSOB
on 8/10/2009, 1:00 pm, in reply to "precasting"
In years past the talent pool was much shallower, and Muni would think through the available talent before deciding to do a show. West Side Story wasn't done for years until the head count of male dancers was high enough that a quality production could be done. Similarly, you don't do a show unless you know there is at least one (and hopefully two) people capable of a really demanding lead in a show. (High schools HAVE to do this, or they are doomed to horrible productions.) But you don't necessarily cast the one you thought of in that process, as new, better people might show up, or a known person might blow you away. So just thinking about people is not wrong.
I've also had directors ask me to think about auditioning for a specific part. Nothing wrong there, either. Indeed, I haven't gotten the part on multiple occasions, because one or more better people auditioned for the part. (No surprise to most of you, I'm sure, that I wasn't cast, just a surprise that I was even asked to audition.)
But I've been to callbacks where it became clear to me I wasn't in the mix and they wasted three hours of valuable time when I had more important things I should have been doing. The bitter taste lingers forever, and is not easily forgotten years and years later.
Independent productions certainly have the right to pre-cast, and they might actually improve their productions by doing so. If you are doing a production and you tell me Ed MacMurdo and Mary Kate Smith have the leads, I'm probably more interested in trying out for the show, as I already know it will be pretty darn good.
But like STS said, make it clear what you're doing and don't deceive people.
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