You Got the Part: A Casting Director Guides Actors to Successful Auditions for Film and TV

Ian C. Nelson, Librarian Emeritus, former Assistant Director of
Libraries (University of Saskatchewan) and dramaturge (Festival de la
Dramaturgie des Prairies).

The award-winning and very experienced casting director Marsha Chesley
has written a breezy, upbeat guide to auditioning for film and
television roles that is a quick and sometimes informative read.

Addressing professional actors and, not incidentally, directors as
well, much of the advice turns out to be common sense (know yourself and
“stick as close to who you are as possible”), common courtesy
(arrive ahead of time with your picture and résumé and be prepared),
and—not surprisingly—commonplace (found in most other auditioning
guides jamming our bookshelves). Occasional nuggets of original advice
pop up here and there (the preparation and use of demo reels and the
niceties of ensemble and pair call-backs), but some really important
advice is, alas, passed over very quickly (“act with the lines, not in
the pauses between them”) with no further elaboration.

Throughout the book Chesley zeroes in on debunking 12 casting myths—a
clever mnemonic hook that probably distinguishes this guide. A section
purporting to characterize not-so-great directors would be better as
part of a comedy sketch. The guide is attractively designed to take one
through the processes of preparation, audition, and follow-up, and there
are plenty of cross-references from one section to another. Still, faced
with the vicissitudes of personal chemistry and any number of extraneous
casting factors, Chesley’s advice too often is reduced to the
frustrating cliché “just be better than everyone else.” Sure.