“Casting Call Woe exposes the different standards of expectation when it comes to male and female acting roles”
The Telegraph
Based on the viral blog sensation, Casting Call Woe is a new show created by blog author @ProResting and TIFF STEVENSON (Mock The Week, People Just Do Nothing) which has been directed by multi-award winning director HANNAH EIDINOW (winner of five Scotsman Fringe First Awards) and will be workshopped at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. Using genuine breakdowns and audition notices, TIFF, @ProResting and regular stand-up comedian and actor WENDY WASON (Sherlock, The IT Crowd) will expose the crazy world of auditions, bad scripts and just how awful it can be for women in the industry alongside guests from the world of acting and comedy including ARABELLA WEIR (Fast Show), RUSSELL HOWARD (Russell Howard’s Good News) and MARY LYNN RAJSKUB (24) who are set to tell their own audition horror stories.
Both laugh out loud and thought provoking, Casting Call Woe lays bare stark industry truths with facts about female representation alongside bizarre, inappropriate and ridiculous casting breakdowns. For example, through the lens of the Bechdel test, an indicative measure of the active roles of women in film (in which 45% of the top grossing fail), the show asks what film has a shark with nearly as much dialogue as women? Or what back-slapping, buddy fest surprisingly passes? Women make up just 22% of leads in the top 110 highest grossing films and casting calls continue to be reflective of this, with websites where actors pay to be notified of jobs posting calls including:
- She is past her prime. Aged 23-30
- Actress with good sized boobs wanted to play sexy nun
- Lead actress for a film about feminism. She is moderately attractive
- Pretty girl. Does what women do best – looking after her boy
- She should be wearing an apron with maybe a floral pattern on it (to underline femininity)
@ProResting graduated as an actress in 2006, she has played all kinds of roles from Shakespearean wenches to 8-year old boys. Her blog Casting Call Woe has been featured widely in the press in publications including BuzzFeed, The Telegraph, The Guardian and Grazia, leading to @ProResting hosting events, performing stand-up and appearing on radio shows.
TIFF is an award winning stand-up comedian, actor and writer. In addition to Casting Call Woe, she will be performing her seventh solo show Seven at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, which follows a critically acclaimed run of her show Mad Man. As an actor, TIFF is series regular on People Just Do Nothing, and has appeared in The Office, Love Matters & Talk Radio. As a comic, she is a regular on Mock The Week and is international correspondent on ABC hit The Weekly. TIFF writes regularly about women’s issues for the Metro and is currently making a documentary exploring plastic surgery, ageing and our perceptions of women’s faces.
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Casting Call Woe – Tiff Stevenson & Blog Creator @Proresting
Venue: Gilded Balloon, The Museum
Date: 15th – 28th Aug
Time: 4.30pm
Box Office: 0131 622 6552
For more information and press tickets, please contact: Victoria Wedderburn (07557160139) or Nathan Dean on: edinburghpress@avalonuk.com
LINE-UP:
15 Aug Phil Wang & Sarah Kendall
16 Aug Phil Nichol & Sally Phillips
17 Aug Russell Howard & Mary Lynn Rajskub
18 Aug Russell Howard & Mary Lynn Rajskub
19 Aug Ed Gamble & Shappi Khorsandi
20 Aug Ed Gamble & Lily Bevan
21 Aug TBC & Arabella Weir
22 Aug TBC & Zoe Lyons
23 Aug Phil Nichol & Zoe Lyons
24 Aug TBC & Beattie Edmondson
25 Aug Jack Barry & TBC
26 Aug Carl Donnelly & Val McDermid
27 Aug Carl Donnelly & Arabella Weir
28 Aug Glenn Moore & Arabella Weir
