Janet Hirshenson is a casting director. The Casting Director. Janet, co-owns the The Casting Company. There, she is a casting director. What is a casting director? In pre-production, Casting Directors work with both the Director and producer to assemble the perfect cast for the film. As a result, casting directors must have in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of new and existing acting talent. For some major productions, the process of selecting actors for sometimes hundreds of parts may often require specialized staff. While the last word remains with the people in charge, artistic and production, a casting director or "CD" (and sometimes the casting associate) is in charge of most of the daily work involved in this process during pre-production. A casting director is sometimes assisted by a casting associate; productions with large numbers of extras may have their own extras casting director. Casting Process. The casting process somewhat involves a series of auditions before a casting panel, composed of individuals such as the producer, director and/or choregrapher. In the early stages of the process, performers often may present prepared audition pieces such as monologues and songs. These audition pieces are usually video taped, attached with resumes, and head shots and then shared with producers, directors and studio representatives. Later stages may involve groups of actors attempting material from the work under consideration in various combinations; the casting director considers both the talent of the individual actors and the chemistry of their combination. Depending on the prestige of the role, casting calls may go out to the public at large (typical for community theater), to professional and semi-professional local actors (for supporting roles in theater and film) or to specifically selected actors (for leading roles, especially in films). In the production of film and television, a similar process is followed. Character breakdowns, part of the script breakdown, are often provided to auditioners, and provide a brief summary of a character (age, gender, race or ethnicity, personality, situations they may be involved in). An actor may go through several casting calls before receiving a part. Independent Casting Studios are often used for casting calls so that the castings can take place in various locations. Dewar Studios in Great Titchfield Street in central London is a good example of the independent casting studios that provide facilities to casting directors.