Casting associate

Salary: £32,000 per annum

Are you someone who loves theatre, has a great knowledge of actors, and wants to work in an exciting and creative organisation?

The Donmar Warehouse is seeking a Casting Associate to work with the Casting Director as part of the In house casting team, they will ensure the department runs smoothly and efficiently. The role will work closely with the Casting Director delivering high class casting across Donmar productions, readings and workshops. It's a role with lots of variety that includes the creation of lists, artist and production research, leading communication with agents, preparing and running audition days and leading on casting workshops and readings. We are looking for someone with at least two years experience working in casting. We need someone who has an extensive knowledge of actors, a confident communicator and loves the theatre.

Responsibilities

• Working with the Casting Director to provide strong and consistent casting support across Donmar Warehouse productions.
• Being the point of contact for all casting enquiries and overseeing and delivering the administration functions of the department.
• Leading availability checks with agents and nurturing strong relationships with agents on behalf of the Donmar.
• Deliver casting requirements in the deadlines stipulated by the Casting Director and Artistic team.
• Contributing casting ideas and creation of lists across projects and readings as required, supported by the Casting Director.
• Leading the planning and management of auditions to ensure they run with success. This includes the preparation of materials for meetings, artists and agent liaison, and managing schedules and spaces for auditions.
• Planning and facilitating zoom meetings and online taping as needed.
• Creation and deal memo’s, access riders and contracts, including the processing of invoices as required.
• Working with the Artistic team to plan for readings and workshops.
• Build a strong and supportive environment for all actors and companies in our buildings, attending previews and press nights.
• Leading on communication with different departments within the company, ensuring casting information is shared and updated as required. Including the creation of casting sheets for productions.
• Attendance of show cases and industry events, representing the Casting department.

Knowledge, skills and experience

Essential

• At least two years experience of working in a professional casting environment, this could be in theatre, TV, film.
• A commitment to forging a career in the Casting industry.
• Extensive knowledge of actors across the breath of the industry.
• Good problem-solver and a confident decision maker who is able to establish the best solutions under pressure.
• Experience of attending showcases and performances being able to confidently identify talent.
• Strong knowledge and relationships with UK and US agencies.
• Experience in negotiating deals with agents, and drafting deal memos and contracts for actors.
• Great initiative and ability to organise a large and demanding workload.
• Ability to work under time pressure and capacity to stick to deadlines.
• Excellent administrative and IT skills
• A confident communicator, with experience dealing with large quantities of emails and telephone calls.
• Able to show a commitment to inclusion and diversity in your working practice.
• A passion for theatre and the work of the Donmar.
• Working knowledge of theatre departments and their interaction with Casting Departments.

Desirable

• Has successfully cast a professional theatre production as Casting Director.
• Fantastic knowledge of plays, playwrights, directors and agents.
• Experience working directly with directors and playwrights.
• Experience of working with union and in house agreements.
• Experience of working in a producing venue and understanding of programming processes.

We believe that representation matters; diversity of identity, of perspective and of lived experience enriches our work and our lives. We recognise that the Donmar and the wider theatre industry is not representative of contemporary society in terms of workforce, artists and audience. We particularly encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented both at the Donmar and more widely in the industry, and specifically from D/deaf or disabled, or neurodivergent applicants and applicants who experience barriers and inequity due to ethnicity, gender identity and/or socio-economic background.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.