Where can you find auditions if you don’t have an agent? That’s exactly what we’re going to be talking about today.

I mentioned in a previous post that having an agent doesn’t guarantee you’ll get an audition. In fact, meeting the casting director is going to be one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. Hopefully, these tips will help you find castings and other opportunities.

The main place to find castings and auditions is on Spotlight. This is the industry standard casting website for the UK and Europe and also has a partnership with casting websites over in the US.

All the major production companies and casting directors post their projects on Spotlight. All the big agencies have profiles representing their clients and pretty much everyone who wants to be considered for professional projects has an account on Spotlight.

There are however some very specific requirements that you must meet to be able to create an account. If you’re an adult, it’s going to cost you £158 a year to subscribe to their website and you either have to have four professional credits or you’ve graduated with a minimum of a year's training from a full-time accredited drama school or university course. 

That might seem impossible for some however there is another option. They have a ‘Young Performers’ option which is cheaper at £103 a year, and a young performer can be aged between 4 and 25 years old. The catch with young performer accounts is, you need to be signed with an agent who can then create the profile for you.

If I was to hazard a guess as to why they do this, I think it stops all of the time-wasters from creating an account which in turn means casting teams and producers aren’t inundated with applications from unsuitable applicants. By making it a bit more exclusive they’ve made it a must-have for all professionals.

There are other casting websites such as Backstage. If I’m completely honest, I don’t have much experience with this casting website, mainly because Spotlight is the industry standard so there is no need for me to use another casting website.

From what I can see they have good financial backing, a good marketing team and I know they get a lot of young actors signing up to receive information about their casting opportunities. You can find their subscription fees on their website but that is all I can say about Backstage. I’ve heard some people say good things about it and I’ve also heard some not-so-good things. I think it’s important you form your own opinion so check out their website backstage.com

I said earlier that 'Spotlight' has exclusivity because not everyone can sign up, making it more appealing to casting teams as they know everyone on 'Spotlight' has some credits or the support they need to attend auditions. I don’t believe backstage has that exclusivity meaning anyone can sign up and apply for castings if you’ve paid for it.

Another casting website is Mandy.com. In fact, Mandy claims to be the number 1 jobs platform for cast, crew, and creative professionals and they have opportunities in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, India, and many other countries.

Once again, I have no experience with Mandy however, I am intrigued by them. I haven’t heard a huge amount of positive stories, but I also haven’t heard anything negative. The interesting thing about Mandy is you can create a free account. This will give you access to a small number of opportunities. Understandably, if you want the big ones you’ll need to sign up and pay a premium.

One of the positive’s I’ve heard about Mandy is with their free account you’ll get access to the Non-Paid opportunities, and whilst this might not seem great at first, it will give you an opportunity to develop your showreel. 

Non-Paid opportunities can be anything from charity events to Short Films for University courses. Student filmmakers need actors to feature in their course work and I think this is a great opportunity for you if you’re just starting out. They’ll use the best equipment, spend hours editing it to make you look amazing because they’re being assessed on it. They’ll put a huge amount of effort in to make you look good and although you’ve worked for free, you’ll then have a fantastic showreel that you can send to agents and casting directors, everyone’s a winner.

Just be sure not to sign any contracts or agreements without having someone look over them first, and never do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Social Media is a fantastic resource for open casting calls. You won’t find blockbuster movie castings being advertised on social media, not unless they want to use it as a marketing exercise, but you can find some really good projects on social media. These are usually for projects that are looking for someone a little more specific.

Recently I saw a casting for someone who is visually impaired but can play the Violin. Others might be location-specific like they’re looking for a 16-year-old boy and girl from the Valleys of South Wales. If the casting brief is that specific, the casting teams will put the breakdown on Spotlight as well as social media in the hope of finding exactly what they’re looking for.

I follow a load of big casting directors on Twitter and Instagram. You need to do some research before applying though. Check the casting company is legit first. Most casting directors will have a business email address like casting@casting companies name .com. If the email address is VocalDiva2007 @ Gmail .com then I tend to avoid those projects.

To find out more about the casting company, visit their website, all of their socials, and google them to find out how legit they are.

I share a lot of the legit projects on our social media pages at My Theatre School. We’re on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok just search for @mytheatreschool 

The main way to get seen for big projects is to have an agent who will submit you on Spotlight and they’ll look after you to make sure there are no issues. Check out episode 2 of the Theatre Kid Podcast for tips and advice on ‘How to Get an Agent’.

That’s it from me, hopefully, this blog post has given you a good idea of where to find auditions. If you’d like some extra help preparing for those auditions, we offer phenomenal training over at MyTheatreSchool.com The very best way to learn how to be a professional, is to work with and learn from professionals. You can do exactly that with our incredible team over at The Academy at My Theatre School. You can find a link in the show notes, I strongly recommend you check it out if you’re serious about becoming a professional performer.

In the meantime, have an amazing week… I’ll see you next time.

- Karl