Behind The Scenes: Searching For A Perfect Cast

Theater director Michael Disher hates opening night.

When the lights go down, he is forced to stand at the back of the Southampton Cultural Center, silent and still. His work is finished. He has to let go.

“It’s like taking the training wheels off a child’s bike and going, ‘Well, you’re either going to pedal this sucker or you’re going to fall over and skin your knee,’” Mr. Disher said during an interview at the theater last month, gazing toward the stage. “And then you hope and pray you made the right choices during casting. I can usually do it within 48 hours. It ain’t easy. It’s pretty dicey. It’s not foolproof. Never is, never has been, never will be.”

Auditioning looks much different from behind a director’s chair than to an actor on stage performing a memorized monologue, according to local industry pros. There is no one way to hold a casting call, they said, at least not for East End theaters. Each has its own method, which depends on whether its productions are professional—the rules change when the Actors’ Equity Association, commonly referred to as “Actors’ Equity” or simply “Equity,” gets involved.

The Actors Equity Association, which was founded in 1913, is a labor union that represents more than 49,000 professional actors and stage managers in the United States. And while there are slight variations, Equity theaters in the Hamptons—Guild Hall in East Hampton, Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, HITFest in Bridgehampton, and occasionally the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue—generally follow the same process, which involves a mandated casting call known as an Equity-eligible performer audition, or an “EPA” in the trade.

Whether the directors cast based on the EPAs is their decision entirely. Sometimes, roles or even entire casts are already spoken for, explained Guild Hall artistic director Josh Gladstone during a recent telephone interview. The theater’s production of “Equus” in 2010, for example, was driven by actor Alec Baldwin’s interest in the play. The star ended up coming on board as a producer, as well, Mr. Gladstone said.

But more often than not, the casting process isn’t as simple as making a telephone call to check on an actor’s availability, Bay Street Theatre Artistic Director Murphy Davis explained.

First, for Bay Street, there is a conversation between four key people: Mr. Davis, the director of the play, the playwright—if alive and interested in being involved with the process—and the casting director. They each come up with a list of about 20 actors for each role and confer, giving their top three to five choices in order of preference. Then, they come to an agreement on whom they should offer the role to first.

The Bay Street Theatre group is currently at this stage with the theater’s upcoming one-woman show, “My Brilliant Divorce” by Geraldine Aron, which opens on May 29. But Mr. Davis was not at liberty to say which stars are on the discussion table. For Guild Hall’s next production—“LUV,” a comedy by Murray Schisgal—which will open in June, Guild Hall has reached out to actors Ray Romano and Debra Messing, and the EPA is scheduled in Manhattan for Monday, April 16.

“When casting a name, you’re often, as anywhere else, trying to increase the exposure of the theater,” Mr. Davis said, citing the casting of Darrell Hammond in last year’s lead role as Truman Capote in Jay Presson Allen’s “Tru.” The theater has also hired actress Mercedes Ruehl four times, and Mr. Davis has worked with stars Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason and the late Rue McClanahan, among other famous faces.

The next step, according to Mr. Davis, is that if no one on the preferred roster accepts the role, the group holds a Manhattan audition. That’s when a number of actors from the original lists are called in. The stipulated EPA is also required, both in the city—from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.—and on the East End. The latter draws out 20 to 40 local actors, while Mr. Davis said he’ll see 200 to 250 actors in Manhattan.

“My eyes are always open,” he said. “If a non-Equity actor shows up, and I have the time, especially out here, I will definitely see them. And I’m happy to. Equity gives us a quota of non-Equity we can use. It usually comes up to one or two, and if they’re cast, they become Equity.”

Generally speaking, the more celebrated the performers, the less contact time a director gets with them, said Mr. Disher, who now works solely with non-Equity actors in Southampton.

“Many times, with local performers, it’s like raising a child, and sometimes the pains of childbirth, because I clearly don’t know anything about that,” he said. “With professionals, it’s like adopting a child or dealing with visiting relatives who you like. You know they’re coming, you know what’s required, you prepare accordingly and then they go. Sometimes, your kids don’t leave.”

Most non-Equity actors receive a menial stipend for their work, or nothing at all. Equity pay begins at $710 per week at Bay Street, Mr. Davis said. Guild Hall commonly pays the $300 scale for semi-pro or Equity small contract actors, according to Mr. Gladstone, but higher-level shows go upward of $1,000 to $2,000 per week.

“Doing regional, not-for-profit theater—certainly if you’re used to getting Broadway pay—you’re doing it for the love of theater, not moneymaking,” Mr. Davis said. “For any of us in not-for-profit theater, moneymaking is not the driving force.”

For HITFest’s upcoming production of “In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel,” which opens on Thursday, April 19, founder and artistic director Josh Perl launched a campaign on Kickstarter, a website used to raise money for creative projects. Most of the $12,500 raised by 76 donors will go toward the four-man cast’s pay, as well as the crew’s.

To further cut costs, many of the local theaters hire only actors with East End accommodations.

Sarah Hunnewell, executive director of Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue, said she always casts locally, if she can, to avoid exorbitant housing costs. So far, two of the five actors in the theater’s next production, A.R. Gurney’s “Black Tie,” which opens May 24, are local—Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline—while the third, Tyler Gardella, lives in Manhattan. Ms. Hunnewell said she hasn’t finished casting yet, but imagines the last two actors will be from out of town, as well.

“I end up usually putting up several actors every show,” she said. “Also, we have patrons who live near the theater and very kindly offer to house actors. We figure it out. We don’t rent out guest houses. It’s way beyond our budget.”

Auditions can also be pricey endeavors for local theaters, where funding is tight. So in addition to salaries, a casting call is not required for non-Equity productions, the directors pointed out. But it doesn’t always hurt to have one, said Mr. Gladstone, who in addition to being the artistic director at Guild Hall, is a frequent contributor to HITFest, formerly the Naked Stage.

“If it’s not an Equity contract, it’s at the producer’s prerogative,” he explained of holding a casting call. “If we were to do an audition for every Naked Stage, we’d never be out of the audition room. We do one annual call, usually in the fall. We get a pool of names and bring them on by a project-to-project basis. And every now and then, there’s that moment when magic happens. The right person walks into the room at the right time, and bingo.”

Mr. Gladstone longs for the actors that shake him, excite him, stir him, he said. It’s easy to tune out after watching 30 actors audition, he admitted, adding that he looks for those who make bold choices, take chances and shed new light on the familiar.

For actors, the auditioning process is far from stress-free, and Mr. Davis is the first one to recognize that.

“I started as a young actor and I was a terrible auditioner,” he said. “Oh, terrible. I was a decent actor, but I would just freeze up and not be able to do my work. I learned in the first one or two years of auditioning in New York City, as a 20-something-year-old, that for some reason, I’m not getting roles. I love doing theater so much, I decided to make plays with people—sometimes with me in them or sometimes supporting other people. That’s brought me to the position I’m in now for the last 30 years.”

Mr. Disher described casting calls as nerve-wrecking and harrowing one—not for the actors, but for himself.

“I deal with all these neurotic actors who come through the door and they go, ‘I’m so nervous, I’m so nervous,’” he said. “They don’t know the half of it. They are nervous for themselves, which is pretty much ego-driven and egomaniacal. I sit here and go, ‘Huh. I have to find the most appropriate person for the number of roles that I have to cast.’ Don’t talk to me about being harrowed.”

He laughed, shaking his head.

“I have more stress on me to put together a cast that comes closest to what the script dictates and what my vision sees. And, boy, are there compromises.”

Now that the final curtain has dropped on “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” at the Southampton Cultural Center, Mr. Disher said he is getting started with his summer show. This year, it’s “The Graduate.”

“I have to find a Mrs. Robinson, community-wise, who will go

au buffo

. Naked. Local,” he said. “It may be frighteningly easy. No, it won’t be part of the audition! That would be so gross if I was like, ‘Hi, everybody come in and show your ta tas.’”

And after a two-day auditioning process on May 20 and 21, he’ll have another perfect cast—or as close to perfect as he can get.