Jul 22
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Casting Symposium

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I promised I would post the transcript for the Casting Symposium held in Edinburgh in June. It features advice to actors from top UK and US casting directors and talent agents: Click here to download the file.

One of the topics discussed was how to work in the US, if you’re a European actor. You need an O1 Visa. Click here and here to download information on O1

Jul 11
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“Wanted”

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I was sorry to have missed the premiere of  “Wanted” in Prague, but I’m happy that it’s doing so well and I’m proud to have worked on it. I first met James McAvoy when he was here shooting Children of Dune in 2002, and his success is so well deserved. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guys. (Glaswegians are always so nice!)

Like many films, a fair amount of footage ended up cut. Unfortunately one scene, which was particularly heavy on Czech actors, ended up on the cutting room floor. Hopefully you’ll be able to see these well respected Czech actors in the cut scene section on the DVD:
TOMAS HANAK

JAN TRISKA
MIREK SIMUNEK 

Jun 23
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Casting Symposium, Scotland

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Casting Panelists (from left) Priscilla John (Casting Director, London), Maureen Duff (Casting Director, London), Derek Power (Talent Manger, LA), Nancy Bishop (Casting Director, Prague), John Hubbard, (Casting Director, London), Maryam Hunwick (Agent, Edinburgh). Leading professionals met at the Edinburgh Film festival to discuss topics of interest to actors. Photos are thanks to actor, James Watson. 

I was really pleased with how positive and encouraging the panel was. And thanks to all those you turned up (I think we had more than 200 people in attendance, including directors and producers.) I’ve already received thank you emails from actors from as far as Belgium, London and Dublin, who flew in for the event.  I will provide a FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EVENT ON THIS BLOG as soon as I have time to transcribe it. So stay tuned for valuable advice. This will include a copy of the “01 Visa” which are the work requirements for European actors who want to gain work permission in the US (provided by Derek Power.)


Priscilla and Maureen. 
Nancy and John.
John and Maryam. 
Maureen, Derek, Nancy.
Derek, Nancy, John.
The audience of actors, producers, directors. 

Jun 16
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CAST SCOTLAND, TALENT SYMPOSIUM, 20 June, 3pm

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Apparently we’ve already have sold 75 tickets for the talent symposium at the Traverse Theatre, so if you’re planning to come, it’s a good idea to  book a ticket at www.edfilmfest.org.uk. 

I’ll be moderating a panel of:
John Hubbard, Casting Director, UK
Priscilla John, Casting Director, UK
Maureen Duff, Casting Director, UK
Derek Power, Manager, USA
Maryam Hunwick, Agent, Scotland
Hope to see you there! For more info, please see my website: www.nancybishopcasting.com
Thanks
NB
Jun 08
0

Casting Seminar, Actors Centre, London

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It was a blast teaching a one day seminar at the Actors Centre. I had thirty students and everyone got to participate at some point. Above see Katie and Tim doing a scene from Alien Vs. Predator. Not bad for a cold read. One of the things I emphasize in playing this scene, is the position of the eyes towards camera… that means when those creepy eggs appear from nowhere, the actors’ eyes have to really see them, and close to the camera lens. Facing camera and allowing the audience to believe that you believe that this is the last moment of your life is a challenge, but when done well, it looks easy. Both of them manage a convincing fear in the eyes. We talked about how Tim benefitted from internalizing the freak out bit “We’re never going to get out of here” the second time when he did it in close up, and Katie saw that she could probably fiddle with her hair less. I tend to cast lots of these types of scenes in Prague. If someone lives through the monster movies, they’re generally cast from LA. If they die, they’re cast locally, from Europe. 

May 29
0

Prague Fringe Festival

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Thanks to the lovely Stephen Gove from Edinburgh, we have a zappy Fringe Theatre Festival in Prague. I’m always advising my students, that if no one is casting you then cast yourself in something… do a fringe festival. And sure enough some of my Prague actors are doing just that. I was so proud of Matt Blood-Smyth, James High and the whole cast and crew of “Sacred Cow” that’s playing at the Rubin right now. I congratulate Brian Caspe on his direction and Elleanor Cummins on her script. The play is ever so Irish, reminding me of the caustic, but darkly funny Beauty Queen of Leenane and like. The only decision that didn’t work for me was that the role of Pavel, the Czech pub owner, should have been played by a Czech actor. Come on Brian, there are plenty of them here in Prague! See www.pragueplayhouse.com for details. 

I also caught Magic and More with Frisco Fred. He says it’s for all ages. It’s not. It’s for kids. 
As for Pip Utton with his Hitler, and Michael McEvoy with Not in My Name; the trial of Machiavelli, I have some ambivalent reactions. I loved McEvoy’s thesis that Machiavelli’s “Prince” has been bastardized, and that many of the same torture techniques that were used on him are still being used today at Guantanamo… but why did he need to take out a sledge hammer and bash it over the audience’s heads at the end? OK… we got it that he was making a comparison with Bush and the US before he started lecturing to us about how nasty our war is (yes… we all know), with the final blast of Bush’s voice at the end. It would have been far more interesting if he had let us come to the conclusion ourselves, which we easily would have. 
Pip Utton was a much more skilled performer, who finds moments of resonance in taking clips from Hitler’s actual speeches which as a whole also… yes again… found correlations in contemporary times. I’m not quoting this verbatim but “a lie becomes truth if you repeat it many times.” Yes that’s politics today. And as this nefarious Hitler character spit out his ethnic cleansing aphorisms, “if a people are a problem, then just get rid of them,” (Sorry again not quoting exactly)I was haunted by Rudi Giuliani’s removal of homeless people from NYC. (OK, he didn’t kill them but that’s next.) I was so happy and relieved that Pip Utton didn’t feel the need to lecture to us about that… but no, I was wrong! Lights went down, then up, and he slipped into another character, letting the audience think it was the real Pip Utton. Then he started casually flipping off the racists jokes and sentiments… all so that he could prove to us, his dumb audience who can’t figure it out ourselves, that racism still exists. I was squirming like a jelly fish I was so angry. Why didn’t he trust us to figure that out ourselves? No… he had to explain the play and its relevance to us. Though maybe he’s right that the audience IS stupid… a few people left during this section since they thought he was serious. OK… so actually these offended audience members merely lacked humor. I would recommend the show, just leave after the first forty five minutes and you’ll feel really enlightened. 
TOPPING AND BUTCH is always good too, and I’d love to catch Peter Hoskin’s show (he’s pictured above, shaving) A Stretch of the Imagination.
And support the Fringe. Our arts are in danger in Prague.
May 28
0

Havel’s new play

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I felt so honored to be at the premiere of Vaclav Havel’s latest play, Odchazeni (Leaving.) Kate Connolly, a Guardian journalist, went around with a mic reminding everyone that it had been twenty years, since he had written a play!

I must say, it was typicially Havel. He keeps his style of playing absurdism in a realistic setting, and I had to giggle at all of the conventions that I know so well from his earlier plays… the characters who appear on stage and don’t speak, but non the less steal the show, the hubris of the main character… yet it’s all in a post market economy context. 
Havel says it’s not about him, but it’s about an ex Prime Minister, with a glamourous “long term girlfriend” (which his wife Dasa was meant to play), and his nemesis is a character called Klein (which couldn’t have anything to do with Vaclav Klaus.) The fact that his wife, actress Dasa Havlova, backed out of playing the role of Irena at the eleventh hour, was the subject of much gossip. Ostensibly her absence was for medical reasons, yet no one seemed to believe it… speculating that she had fought with her husband, or with Jan Triska (the lead actor) or the director. Yet, when I talked to other actors in the cast, it seemed that she really had simply stressed out, putting real pressure on a weak heart and thyroid. In any case, she was sitting next to him and smiling during the performance. (It must be stressful to play yourself in your husband’s play.)
As I was reading the play, previous to seeing it, I was snickering a lot about the convention of the “voice” which intermittently comments on the action, reminding the actors to stop exaggerating and over- acting, and occasionally criticizing the play’s construction. It turned out to be Havel’s voice, which was perfect.  I noticed that one critic called this a “new convention,” but it reminded me of the voice from the hole in the wall in “Memorandum.” My friend Lou Charbonneau, who has done considerable research on the play, as he wrote his Master’s Thesis on it, told me that apparently Tom Stoppard advised him to loose the voice. At the end of the play, the voice enters to say something like “my colleague told me I should end the play here, but I must apologize to my advisor.” It must have been Stoppard. I’m glad he didn’t listen. As much as I like Stoppard, Havel has is own humble style that works for him. Part of that style, is doubting his every step, but then making fun of himself in the process. 
Martin Palous (Czech ambassador to US) introduced me to Havel in glowing terms, saying “this is Nancy Bishop who directed a very funny film about Americans living in Prague,” and I shook his hand, but it was awkward and I didn’t know what to say to him beyond congratulations. My first meeting with him was much more interesting. It was a summer night in the year 1995. President Havel was enjoying a beer at a pub on the stairs to the castle. He was sitting with Dasa though it was before their marriage. I introduced myself in my awkward novice Czech and told him that I was directing one of his plays in English (I think it was Protest.) I then told him that it seemed that many Czechs didn’t like it that Americans were working on his plays in Prague. He smiled at me and said, “before the revolution there were 10 million Czech communists, but now after the revolution there are 10 million Czechs against communism.”
 
May 28
0

GI JOE

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I’m currently looking for a very short, very round man to play a French Chef  in GI Joe. (Like under 5’5″ or 170 cm).  Shoots in Prague 7+11 June.  Director, Stephen Sommers, is looking for a Gaston type character, like from Ratatouille. The is for locals in Prague only. Please send submissions to casting@nancybishopcasting.com

Thanks
NB
May 23
0

CAST SCOTLAND, TALENT SYMPOSIUM

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The Edinburgh Film Festival presents top castings directors and talent agents on a panel to discuss topics of interest to actors. This two hour symposium will include one hour, moderated by Nancy Bishop, in which panelists John & Ros Hubbard, Maureen Duff, Priscilla John, Maryam Hunwich and Derek Power will discuss:

– How actors can establish a relationship with an agent and casting directors
– What are casting directors looking for in actors
– How actors can best promote themselves
– What are the possibilities for Scottish actors to reach beyond the Scottish, and UK market
– What is the process for actors to pursue work in the US
This will be followed by a one hour questions and answer session, in which participants can directly address the panel.
When: Friday,  20 June, 2008
Time: 3.00
Where: The Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED
Cost: 5 GBP
To book tickets see: www.edfilmfest.org.uk
About the panelists
Moderator: NANCY BISHOP, CSA, is an Emmy award nominated casting director. An American, working from Prague, she has cast over fifty projects. Her credits include, Prince Caspian, Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist, and she is currently working on GI JOE for Paramount.
MAUREEN DUFF was born in Glasgow, but has been working in London for many years. Her projects include, The Flying Scotsman, X-men, Still Crazy, The Beach, and Richard Attenborough’s Closing the Ring. 
JOHN and ROS HUBBARD are well renowned casting directors in London who have been casting in England, Ireland, Scotland (where they cast Taggart) and around the world for twenty-five years. Their work includes Evita, Bourne Ultamatum, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. 
MARYAM HUNWICK has established an excellent reputation for her talent agency, Hunwick Hughes (formerely 41 Management) in Edinburgh, for guiding the careers of award winning stage and screen artists, including Kate Dickie, Martin Compston, and Kathleen McDermott. 
PRISCILLA JOHN is a well established casting director in London. Her prolific career includes Jewel in the Crown, Coronation Street, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad and About a Boy. 
DEREK POWER is a Hollywood based talent agent who often represents Eurocentric talent. Among many he has helped guide are Sir Ben Kingsley, Greata Scacchi, Robert Dornhelm, and now Graham McTavish, a Scottish actor who recently starred opposite Sylvester Stallone in the return of Rambo. 
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