What does casting have to do with events?
Since I started building Castiko several months ago, my main aim has been to serve the performing artist community. The biggest pathway to success for an actor today is to get noticed by a casting director, and therefore get a part in a creative project. So that is where we focussed our attention.
Castiko has become a powerful professional tool that casting directors use to maximise themselves. Castiko helps casting directors amplify their reach, leverage their networks, and manage their projects like ninjas. We created a smooth, step-by-step process for casting directors to find actors, call them for auditions, manage attendance, and manage videos from these auditions. All this is up and running, and we’ll be pushing out a major update soon as well.
What this does is — actors get unprecedented access. Actors don’t need to speculatively go to casting directors’ offices anymore. Just sign up on Castiko and get connected to the casting director, and they will contact you. Actors save time, energy and money, but most importantly, they can find comfort in the knowledge that when something relevant comes up, they will find out.
So — now actors have some spare time on their hands, and Castiko is in a position to create new opportunities for them to use it creatively.
On the other side, savvy casting directors are already facing tech fatigue. After all — how many profiles can one browse everyday! They definitely didn’t get into this profession to sit behind a screen. Plus, we keep getting asked to create new opportunities for casting directors to discover new talent.
ENTER STAGE RIGHT - PAC.CITY
PAC.CITY came out of these experiences and insights. We’re bringing together a supportive, adventurous, curious community of actors, casting directors and audiences for short, intimate performances. Actors get to perform from their hearts without constraints, and try out new material. Casting directors get to see new talent, and also see actors they already know from a new perspective.
With this kind of event, the audience is usually small: those who come will already have a soft spot for great art. So we decided to try and bring them into the process too. We’re iterating a unique feedback system so that each performer gets tailored insights into their performance from the audience.
This first event is a testing ground for all these ideas. It’s already giving us a lot of encouragement — the seats are all taken, our performers are preparing hard, and we’re raring to go. If all goes well, this format will become part of a larger movement to sustainably bring potential collaborators together under the same roof.
Let’s do this!
