NT : Go Backstage : Departmental Profiles : Casting

Casting

Casting A Spell
Toby Whale and the National Theatre Casting Department
Al Senter

See Casting in discover: Making Theatre  

Those of a nervous disposition or in search of a few moments of quiet reflection are advised to steer clear of the National Theatre's Casting Department. With two productions playing in each auditorium and several others waiting in the wings at various stages of rehearsal and planning, there is a constant through-traffic of actors in search of employment and parts in search of interpreters. And overseeing this perpetual activity is the genial Toby Whale, the National's Head of Casting since June 2003 and the latest incumbent of what Whale describes as “The best job in British theatre”.



He's been no slouch at being cast himself at various levels of the National's management, rising from schoolboy usher to eventual house manager. But it was while he was general manager of touring company Paines Plough that the career which seemed to be heading straight for arts administration suddenly veered in a different direction.

“I'd realised I didn't want to be filling in Arts Council forms until I was 60,” says Whale. “Obviously I'd seen a lot of theatre by this time and I'd always enjoyed the business of recruiting actors for Paines Plough. So I started to freelance for both agents and casting directors – in many ways two sides of the same coin – and decided it was more fun to buy than to sell. So I went into casting.”

Whale acknowledges the debt he owes to his mentor, the distinguished casting director Marilyn Johnson. She inculcated in him many of the principles which he brings to the job at the National.

“She was fantastic; she basically taught me how to do it. She taught me not to be frightened, trained me to deal with agents, with budgets, with money and instilled in me the need to be as rigorous as possible when casting – to make sure that you've covered the entire field.”



He quickly made a name for himself in theatre and television working for Max Stafford-Clark's Out Of Joint company, Michael Grandage at the Sheffield Crucible, the Royal Court and Almeida Theatres, as well as casting Spoonface Steinberg, The Student Prince, Wire in the Blood and Hearts and Bones for TV. The runaway success of East Is East at the UK box office consolidated Whale's reputation in the film world and the business which he ran from the garden of his West London home was obviously thriving. So why did he abandon his precious independence to return to the National?

“I'd kind of resisted giving up freelance life, but I really wanted to be involved at the National at what was clearly going to be a very exciting time.”

Depending on the demands of the repertoire, the size of the National's acting company varies from 100 to 130, with actors frequently rehearsing one show during the day and performing another in the evening. Whale and his two colleagues – his deputy, Gabrielle Dawes, and assistant Alastair Coomer – provide an open door for any actor with a problem to share, from a request to be considered for a role in a future production to permission to be released for work in other media. Given the harsh realities of the acting profession, where too many actors are chasing too few parts, Toby Whale and his department are inevitably the focus for lobbying, directly from actors or from their agents. Perhaps because he has experienced so many aspects of the business, Whale is acutely aware that he is dealing with the aspirations as well as the livelihoods of especially vulnerable people.

“As a casting director you need energy, of course, but you also need to be open, to remind yourself that you're not the one with the power. I think of myself as a bridge between actors and the National and what I do is to service the requirements of others. You need to understand actors, how they work and what they want in order to do their jobs well. You have to be receptive rather than judgmental and you must always remember that acting is an extraordinarily difficult way to make a living.”



At the strictly egalitarian National, Whale is spared the horrors of the star system that operates in the commercial theatre, in the cinema and on television. He is under no pressure to cast the latest hot-shot talent, engage in interminable haggling over the prominence of actors' names above the title, or worry about the dimensions of the Winnebagos in the location car-park. On the other hand, the National is well aware of the clout that certain names carry at the box office and that these actors must be rewarded accordingly. Whale must therefore negotiate from within financial limitations yet, as he points out, most actors accept that their earning power inevitably dims when they come to the National.

“Nobody gets rich working at the National but nobody's on the breadline either. In general it's pretty easy to persuade actors to work here. The plays are interesting, you have some of the best facilities available in this building – everything is on hand to enable actors to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. It's always the play that attracts them, and what we're all trying to do is to serve the play.”

In the company of other heads of department, Whale attends the series of meetings that punctuate the working week at the National. But he'll also be involved in separate encounters – often months in advance – with directors of forthcoming productions. Projects such as Alan Bennett's new play The History Boys with a cast composed mainly of adolescent males, or Katie Mitchell's production of Iphigenia with its emphasis on a female chorus, require extra attention.

“Theatre directors tend to know more about actors than their counterparts in film and television and so meetings will tend to be longer and more thorough,” explains Whale. “If a director knows who they want – and they normally have a clear idea – I'll talk to the agents about availability. Sometimes we'll make a straight offer, sometimes we'll meet for a chat.”

With his years of accumulated expertise, he could probably reel off a list of twenty potential Hamlets or Hedda Gablers at the drop of a Spotlight. But he much prefers, he says, to look beyond the obvious and approach casting conundrums from a different angle.

“Clearly when you're discussing the casting with a director you'll bring your own ideas to the table and I always try to take a lateral approach and never typecast. That's a really important part of the job. It's wonderful when you see an actor doing something unexpected and carrying it off and you say to yourself, I didn't know they could do it like that. A lot of casting is also conditioned by the style of the show. When I first talked to Simon McBurney about his production of Measure For Measure, for example, we came up with six very different actors to play Angelo.”

For most people a trip to the theatre or cinema or a night roosting in front of the latest television drama are part of their precious leisure activity. Not so for Toby Whale – his professional antennae are never switched off.

“It really is crucial to keep your ear to the ground and to gauge what is happening. We go to drama school productions, agents are constantly sending us details of their clients, actors invite us to see their shows, and I much prefer meeting people to simply holding auditions. But there's no real substitute for seeing an actor's work. I have to be certain that an actor will be able to hold the Olivier stage and that normally means that they have the training and the experience behind them. I don't know every actor and I'm constantly learning new things. I'm always talking to agents and to other casting directors. It's important to keep the casting process as open as possible.”

To an actor moodily pacing up and down at home, willing the telephone to ring with good news, casting directors can seem remote figures with the power to enhance or torpedo a career at will. Few actors can be guaranteed constant employment, of course, but the pain of rejection is surely dulled a little if the bad news is delivered with care and sensitivity. In an uncertain and at times a brutal profession, actors can hope to find in the National's Casting Department under Toby Whale's conscientious leadership, a haven of consideration and understanding.



© Al Senter, March 2004



Al Senter is an arts journalist and broadcaster and a frequent presenter of National Theatre Platforms.