MICHAEL CASSARA CSA, Casting Director, Michael Cassara Casting

Michael has had his own casting company since 2003. If theater is your thing then seeing Michael is a MUST, but he's recently taken on a number of very exciting film projects as well! In New York, he is the resident casting director for the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) where he has personally cast over 50 musicals since the festival's inception in 2004. Starting this fall, Michael is also serving as the resident casting director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) and is currently casting 8 musicals for their 25th annual Festival of New Musicals. In the regional theatre world, he regularly casts plays and musicals for Gulfshore Playhouse, Mercury Theater Chicago, The Old Globe, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Olney Theatre Center, and many more. Some favorite credits include Forbidden Broadway: Alive & Kicking (off-Broadway and cast album), Heat Wave: The Jack Cole Project (dir. Chet Walker), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (starring Richard Kind), Fat Camp (NYMF, off-Broadway, Cleveland, and upcoming Broadway), The Yellow Wood (dir. BD Wong), The Molly Maguires (dir. Sheryl Kaller), Closer Than Ever (20th Anniversary tour) and many more. Recent film credits include The Hyperglot (dir. Michael Urie), Grantham & Rose (dir. Kristin Hanggi) and Contest (dir. Anthony Giunta). Michael began as an actor, and started his career on the "other" side of the table with Johnson-Liff Casting. As an educator, he teaches regularly at many top training programs throughout the US and Europe. Visit michaelcassara.net and "follow" him (@michaelcassara) on Facebook and Twitter.

After a Q&A he'll see Monologues/Songs ONE on ONE