The 30th Galway Film Fleadh, in association with Maureen Hughes Casting with special guest Carla Stronge Casting from Northern Ireland and Spotlight, have announced the return of Spotlight on Actors, a unique casting workshop unlike any other. The workshop takes place on Saturday 14th July, 2018.
Spotlight, the home of casting in Ireland, is bringing their studio to Galway to create a casting village at the Fleadh, helping actors from all over Ireland experience the professional studio set up for themselves. Actors will be invited to provide a self-tape of their audition via Form Plus (details will be provided), or to have their audition filmed at Spotlight’s Studio at Bow Street, Dublin (early booking is advised). This will offer an original and exciting chance for actors to prepare and record their scenes, experience how it will be viewed professionally, whilst also offering participants the opportunity to mingle and be introduced to the casting element of film projects within the ‘pop-up’ environment.
Casting director Maureen Hughes, began her career at the Druid Theatre, Galway in 1984. In 1991, she became Casting Director at the Abbey Theatre under the Artistic Directorship of Garry Hynes where she remained until 1994. She joined UK Casting Director Susie Figgis in 1996 to find the lead casting for Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy and subsequently went freelance in film and television casting. Film credits include the low budget Once which won an Oscar for Best Song in 2009, and Six Shooter, which won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short in 2006. Other films include Wakewood with Aidan Gillen, Eva Birthistle and Timothy Spall. Television work includes Single Handed, Rawand Love/Hate all of which have transmitted on RTÉ. She worked on The Other Side of Sleep, directed by Rebecca Daly, which premiered at Directors Fortnight in Cannes and stars Antonia Campbell Hughes and Sam Keeley; Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place, starring Sean Penn and young Irish actress Eve Hewson; A Thousand Times Good Night, starring Juliette Binoche and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, which won the Jury Prize and Best Film at Montreal Film Festival; and Noble, a film based on the life of the extraordinary Irishwoman Christina Noble starring Deirdre O’Kane. She has just cast Taken Down, a new 6 part series for RTE which has been co-written by Stuart Carolan and Jo Spain and will be produced by Spiral Films and has completed work on Nightflyers which recently shot at Troy Studios.
Upon completing her degree in film and television in London, a varied medley of film and television production jobs followed until Carla Stronge returned to Northern Ireland in 2004 and began street casting on feature films. In 2007 she set up Ireland’s largest extras agency, now named The Extras Dept. Carla quickly became the first port of call to assist and inform casting directors visiting Northern Ireland, often working on the same productions and by default regularly casting small parts and child roles. Carla’s first official casting credit was HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2010 after having had the opportunity to assist Nina Gold and Robert Sterne in their epic countrywide search for local talent for Season One. This would spell the final time Carla would co-ordinate the background, instead focusing entirely on honing her skills as a casting director. Since then, Carla has worked on all eight seasons of Game of Thrones (including the pilot) winning an Emmy in 2015 for Outstanding Casting in Drama Series and again in 2016, also racking up an Artios Award nomination in 2017 after becoming a member of the Casting Society of America. Her first casting director credit was BBC 2’s The Fall starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan – the critically acclaimed drama series that first aired in May 2013 to record audiences. Since then she has cast The Secret for ITV with James Nesbitt and Genevieve O’Reilly as well as Channel 4’s Derry Girls their biggest comedy success since 2004 and now also numerous other up and coming feature films including Aoife McArdle’s Kissing Candice (with Amy Rowan) and Scott Graham’s third feature film We Don’t Talk About Love. Carla’s further credits include: The Frankenstein Chronicles andThe Woman in White with Gary Davy, Come Home and Death in Nightingales with Julie Harkin and My Mother & Other Strangers with Kate Rhode James, as well as local casting on High Rise and Lost City of Z.
During the casting workshop, the actors will see how casting directors use Spotlight to cast their projects as well as spot-picking, reviewing and critiquing the actors’ performance footage. Spotlight is used by casting directors around the world every day to cast their projects, offering professional performers access to roles in theatre, film and television. As a performer, joining Spotlight is the best way to get noticed by casting professionals throughout Ireland, Europe & USA. Spotlight gives Irish performers the opportunity to apply for roles that are cast locally and internationally and at the Spotlight studio in Dublin, actors are able to film their auditions using state of the art equipment, giving them global exposure and a professional edge.
PLEASE NOTE: Places on the casting workshop are limited to 30 places. Places allocated on a first come, first served basis – all successful applicants MUST bring an updated CV and headshot with them on the day and have a one-minute long monologue prepared and ready to perform live (no longer than 1 minute). Applicants will also be required to provide a self-tape of their monologue – this can be done by sending a downloadable vimeo or wetransfer link or have your audition filmed at Spotlight’s headquarters in Dublin. The self-taping dates at the Spotlight Dublin office are Sunday 1st July / Monday 2nd July / Tuesday 3rd July / Wednesday 4th July, and there will be a very limited number of slots available for taping in Galway for anyone who is unable to travel to the Dublin office. You must book a slot in advance for the self-taping.
The casting workshop costs €50 and takes place on Saturday 14th July from 12.30pm – 3.30pm in the Galmont Hotel, Galway (formerly Radisson Hotel).
Please also note there is an age restriction on this workshop – applicants must be at least 16 years of age and over.
Deadline for all applications is 9th July 2018.
For further information or to apply for a place, contact Emma Owen by email at: masterclasses@filmfleadh.ie