Mark Teschner spent twenty-four years casting the daytime drama General Hospital (1989-2013) and its spin-off, Port Charles (1997-2003). A graduate of Connecticut College, Teschner fell into casting very quickly after realizing that acting wasn’t for him. He’s been an independent casting director since 1985, with the first seven years spent in New York before ABC brought him to Los Angeles for General Hospital. He also casts independent features, including Always Say Goodbye, which won the Hollywood Film Festival award for best new feature. Teschner was on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has also served as vice president of the Casting Society of America.
Teschner has won seven Artios Awards for the casting of General Hospital, and seven Emmy Awards for outstanding achievement in casting.
Between the two shows, we literally cast hundreds and hundreds of parts a year. We’re looking for people every day.
Despite how busy we are, I do look at every submission and every piece of mail that comes through the door. I always feel that if I don’t, I’m not doing my job and I may miss the one person I’m looking for. We get between three hundred to three hundred and fifty unsolicited photos a week, separate from when we’re actively casting a specific role. When we’re very busy, I’ll come in earlier to accommodate the workload. Casting isn’t a nine to five job; casting is a lifestyle where your office hours may be nine to six but what you do is ongoing. I can’t go to a movie or watch television without, on some level, working. So, the work gets done. Between myself, my terrific associate, Gwen Hillier, and our casting assistants, everything gets done.
No matter how busy we get, we work very hard at being actor and agent friendly. I feel that it’s important to have a dialogue with the talent community. It’s a very symbiotic relationship and we’re all working together. Agents and managers want their clients on the show and I want the best actors on the show. It’s a joint venture. The flip side is that we’re all under a lot of pressure and there are a lot of time constraints.
No. I am the reader. I enjoy working with the actors, I give a lot to them. I don’t want to have a reader work with the actors and then, in the callback, have to switch. This way, they read with me and have worked with me so there’s a familiarity there. Auditioning is a very hard process for the actor. They have a tough time because they’re not necessarily given a lot back from the other side of the table. I tell actors that if they feel they aren’t being given enough in an audition, their job is to somehow make that work because the casting director is still going to hire someone and it might as well be them. You just have to go in and find a way to make it work.
I like to think that a General Hospital or Port Charles actor is a really good actor. I don’t like to label beyond that because, to me, a good actor is an actor who can transcend all mediums and styles. Some people think that daytime actors require a certain look, but we have many roles where we’re not really concerned with the look. Particularly, with our recurring roles. Of course, the majority of the contract roles are played by very attractive people because, oftentimes, that is part of the requirement. But that’s only one part of it. General Hospital has won the Emmy for outstanding daytime drama three years in a row. If we were casting exclusively on looks, we wouldn’t have an Emmy in our bag. We’re looking for people who bring intelligence, skill, nuance, soul, and a lot of other elements to the roles. If I sound somewhat defensive about the “look question,” it’s because I think it’s a myth that daytime is exclusive to the concept of an actor’s looks going into the equation. Every television show and every movie has several people in them who are stars, partly because of the way they look. And daytime is an incredibly tough medium to act in because you’re acting new material every day. We’ve recently dealt with breast cancer, a character dying of AIDS, a character living with HIV, and a physically challenged actor dealing with trying to compete to be a doctor. If we didn’t have wonderful actors on our show, we couldn’t tell those kinds of stories.
We also have an on-set acting coach to help our actors meet the demands of the script. That’s particularly helpful for our younger actors who are thrown into a situation where they probably haven’t had a lot of experience - and suddenly we’re asking them to do twenty or twenty-five pages of material a day. Since one of the things we do for our younger roles is to find and develop raw talent, we want to help the actors and really be there, giving them the opportunity to grow and develop.
Acting can be a very solitary profession. The actor’s community has to come from their own personal life and the community they create, either through class or a group of peers who make up a support system. Actors should also create a situation where they’re getting together with other actors for readings. I always tell actors not to make your acting career about waiting for the job. If you’re not acting and getting paid for it, find another way to act. Either showcase yourself or get together with your peers every week and create an opportunity—even if you’re doing a reading in your living room. The craft of acting is a skill and you have to use that acting muscle. If you don’t, it atrophies.
I have great empathy for actors. It’s hard enough acting, let alone getting a job. And actors only have two things: their talent and their dignity. Those are the two things you can control. Not every audition experience is going to be pleasant or painless, but if actors can come out knowing they did their best work that day, then they can be proud of what they’ve accomplished. So many factors go into someone getting a job—you can come in and give an incredibly great reading and not get the role. That doesn’t mean you haven’t left your mark, it doesn’t mean you won’t get a job down the road. It does mean that you weren’t deemed the right person for that role at that time. For example, for a contract role, I might read anywhere from two hundred to three hundred people. Does that mean that the one hundred and ninety-nine who didn’t get the job weren’t talented? Of course not. There might have been some wonderful actors who didn’t get the job and we may use them later. Good work leads to opportunity, if not at that audition, maybe at the next.
Having an agent is crucial in terms of getting you access, but you don’t have to have an agent to get here. I will read actors without agents either because I get an unsolicited photo and résumé that captures my attention, or because I see them in something and like them. An actor has to showcase himself and create the opportunity to be seen. I go to many showcases, both waiver theatre and scene showcases. I try to cover as much as I can. Many of the actors I see in those circumstances are without representation. Not only have I brought many of them in, I’ve hired them. I hire a lot of my day players from people I’ve seen in showcases. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things about the job. I love going to the theatre and the next day calling and offering parts to the actors I’ve seen the night before. Some of those actors may be without representation but they’re out there honing their craft and showing their stuff. Here’s the reality: in this day and age there are so many actors, it’s almost impossible to meet someone just from a photo and résumé in the mail. And it’s very hard to get the attention of an agent or a manager through a mailing. I’m not saying don’t do mailings - I’m saying don’t rely on them. Get in the trenches and create the opportunity to be seen. You never know who’s going to be there. It’s really about creating your own chances rather than waiting for them.
Mark Teschner Casting
323.671.5542
4151 Prospect Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90027