The Lyric does not have a casting department.
Our Administrative Manager controls a lot of our casting, providing breakdowns for and liaising with agents and artists.
Auditions tend to take place typically in Belfast, Dublin and London. We generally cast ‘show to show’ but on occasion we do 'through-cast'. Our aim is to find the best actor available for each part regardless of where they are based. The majority do tend to be based either in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.
We send out information on the productions to a number of agents. It includes the names of the creative team, character breakdowns, closing date for applications, audition dates and rehearsal and performance dates. It should be remembered that the casting process is a creative one, and therefore requirements can and often do change from the original ideas as the process gets underway.
As well as specific casting suggestions, we receive numerous letters and phone calls from actors and agents. Many of these are to invite us to see shows, or watch TV and film appearances. We try to see as much of this work as possible but this is relatively small due to staff constraints. It should be noted that people stand a better chance of someone covering their performance if good advance notice is given i.e. more than a month.