A Place Of Work

There is a particular casting office that I have been to a number of times now. A casting office, I should say, is a place where various companies contracted to locate actors for various commercials, TV shows and such hold their auditions. This one is about the largest I have personally been to, and over the last few months, I've been to a good number of them. I would say also it's my favorite to visit for a few reasons.

It's fairly conveniently located (in Hollywood), which cannot be said of them all. The ones in Santa Monica are particularly distant, and while they are not impracticably remote, I don't favor visiting them. It's in a fairly good neighborhood, which is also not a universally true quality as far as casting offices go. There is a great grocery store just down the street and another across the street. I like visiting them both before and after auditions.

The office itself is laid out like this: there is nothing on the ground floor. One goes up the stairs to the office, and consults a big board in the lobby which lists the various auditions being held that day. It then remains to go to the table outside that room, sign up, and wait. There are endless diversions while waiting. One can bring a book or fool around with a phone. There's the snack machine. I like to observe the people, as I've said before.

You never know what you'll see there. Sometimes there are hordes of children and their parents. Sometimes there are bunches of guitar players, women on roller skates, or strange mountain men. Whatever characters you see on the screen, the actors who could play them must assemble in a room and be seen amongst each other. As this office is so big, there's no better office for such people-watching, and that's the chief reason why it's my favorite.