Delicia Turner Sonnenberg admits that she hasn’t been casting long enough to be jaded about it. “I love actors and I love to give honest feedback. Maybe that will change,” she said. But for now, Turner likes to echo the sentiments of San Diego Rep’s artistic director, Sam Woodhouse. “He may have been quoting someone else, but he says to an actor, after an audition, ‘You did great. Now it’s time for us to do our mumbo jumbo.’ That’s what we do.”
Turner mentioned some incentive for Los Angeles actors to head south. “We pay housing and travel and, hey, San Diego is gorgeous,” she laughed, adding, “My job is to make sure that the art is in good hands when I leave it. I am interested in fostering the next generation of artist.” In her rise through the ranks at San Diego Rep, Turner is doing just that.
First Casting Job
The one she now holds. Turner started out as Associate Casting Director for San Diego Rep in 2001. “I’m currently transitioning into the Casting Director position,” she said. The first show she cast was the very successful I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
Turner came from a general theatre background. “I was doing stage management and directing here at the Rep,” she recalled. “They needed a casting associate. I said, ‘I can probably do that,’ and began filling that need.”
Coolest Casting Gig
Recent hit Love, Janis. “This was a big project. The show was running Off-Broadway already. The director, Randal Myler, is fabulous. It was so nice, working with him and also Janis Joplin’s brother. Sam Andrew, an original member of Big Brother and the Holding Company (Joplin’s original band), was involved. The musical auditions were just amazing. It was wonderful to hear all this great music all day every day. The atmosphere was cool. Everyone was so generous and complimentary. Even those who weren’t cast were generously treated and complimented by Randal. It was a good time. I loved seeing the people auditioning getting to participate in a jam session,” Turner recalled.
Key Things She Looks for in an Actor
Personality. “I want to know who the actor is. I get to that by seeing how relaxed they are when they introduce themselves. Are they a ball of nerves or are they warm?”
Something that assists Turner in her assessment of an actor’s personality is her background as a theatre director. “I look at the kind of choices they make in their audition,” she said. While Turner admitted that the skills involved in presenting a monologue differ wildly from the skills of performing an entire play, she explained that she can size up an actor’s personality in the first 30 seconds of the audition. “It’s about choices, discipline, preparation. I could be wrong in my assessment, but it’s a starting point for me getting to know who this person is.”
Turner also looks for training, but finds a confidence level with auditioning to be even more telling of an actor’s skills. “The more auditions you have, the better you are. Auditioning is a skill you need as an actor. It’s important to know what auditioning feels like so that you are not so dependent on getting the part. Auditioning regularly lets you know what it feels like when you nail it. It also helps with rejection because you learn that you sometimes don’t get the part because of matching.”
Matching, according to Turner, is about the entire cast and its composition, rather than about the performance of the actor himself. “It happens all the time,” she said. “It’s one of the biggest challenges about casting. The director will have an idea of what he wants to put together. Sometimes that’s a shared view with the casting director, but sometimes it’s not. I might bring to the table, after screening hundreds, five actors I think are perfect. If none of them matches with the idea of the leading man the director has in mind, we’ll start again. It’s completely subjective.”
Pet Peeves
“Some casting directors don’t mind, but I hate it when an actor has to start over more than once,” she said. “I expect some nerves, of course, but I love it when an actor has confidence, knowing they’re going to nail the audition. Starting over and over is just the actor letting his nerves get in the way of the performance.”
Turner continued, “I have a lot of admiration for actors. It’s brave work to stand in front of people and say, ‘Let me show you this and I hope you like it.’ So, since it’s brave work, be brave.”
Advice for Actors
“I really want the actor to be good. I think, if you keep that in mind, you will do better work. Know that I’m not sitting there thinking I’m going to see 20 bad people in a row and hope for one of them to be good. As the actor, you should think of your audition as doing me a favor. I try and tell my actor friends, ‘Look, if you’re good, you’re making my job easier.'” Turner hopes that, holding that information in mind, the actor will be more relaxed during his audition.
“So often, talent is only one part of what goes into casting an actor. It’s not a small part, mind you, but there are so many other elements. Actors need to know that. All you can do is have a great audition.”
Best Way to Get Seen by Her
“We generally put ads in Back Stage West and put notices on our website [www.SanDiegoRep.com] when we’re casting. When we cast for the entire season, we do Breakdowns for agents as well,” she detailed. Turner conceded that many excellent actors do not have agency representation, and explained that it is because of this that she uses other methods to bring actors in. “We publicize in the trades so that actors in Los Angeles and San Diego can learn for themselves what we have going on.”
As for seeing actors when not holding seasonal auditions, Turner encouraged submissions. “When actors send their headshots and resumes, I do go through them. I’ll put together a list of people I want to see and then meet them. Most of the people I see will be on a per-show situation, but sometimes an actor is passing through town and wants me to see his work. If I have time, I will always see actors.”
One detail to note, when submitting your headshot and resume for a specific show, is that Turner scrutinizes your resume for work that is similar to the show she is casting. “We were casting the musical Working and received resumes with no musical theatre listed. I’m not just going to take your word for it that you did a musical. I want to see that in your credits,” she said.
Another note about submissions: “I don’t have time to read all of the shit actors sometimes attach to a headshot and resume, like reviews and stuff.” When asked about postcards, Turner was quick to say, “I like a full headshot and resume. A postcard won’t cut it.”
Her Opinion on Alternative Submission Methods
“I wish! I don’t know if [online casting] will ever be so much of a force in casting. We’d have to print it all out. There’s so much to flipping through the headshots,” Turner said, adding that she will see actors on tape when they cannot attend an audition for a specific role.
What She Would Change About the Casting Process
“Spiritually, if I could change the way actors view auditioning, that would be something. I’ve seen actors do really good initial auditions and then blow it at the callback because there’s more at stake. I call those actors and go, ‘What are you doing?!? Come in. Relax. This is your part to get,'” she insisted.
Turner acknowledged that making calls to actors after auditions may be a case of extending herself too much, but mentioned that doing so is a big part of what she enjoys about casting.
Most Gratifying Part of Her Job
“I love it when casting an unknown talented actor—someone who maybe doesn’t have an agent or who is not in the union—and they’re just perfect for it. No offense to movie stars—I understand that having a name is a box office draw—but I love it when that unknown kid is just great. That is why I will call [the actor] and say, ‘They love you. What I want you to do is be more relaxed and do what you know how to do.'”
This interview was conducted in early 2002 and it originally appeared in Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews by Bonnie Gillespie, available at Amazon.