The casting process for TV3’s brand new soap ‘Red Rock’ got underway last week with two Dublin casting sessions at the John Player Factory on the South Circular Road held last Saturday and Sunday. The first open casting session attracted hundreds of hopefuls, and the coming week will see the search continue for stars of the show with regional casting sessions in Cork, Limerick, Belfast and Galway.
The casting team is made up of leading Irish casting director Louise Kiely as well as Thyrza Ging, Eva-Jane Gaffney, Allen Kiely, Karen Scully and Jane Barry. It is expected that the team will see over 2,200 people across key casting sessions held in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast and Galway. The team is looking to represent the diversity of contemporary culture and ethnicities in Ireland as well as different age groups.
Louise Kiely has built her reputation as one of Ireland’s leading casting directors, and has cast a number of up-and-coming Irish actors in successful films, including Jack Reynor in the critically acclaimed ‘What Richard Did’, the BBC series ‘Quirke’ as well as the Irish casting on ‘Ripper Street’ and ‘The Sea’.
Hinting at what they’ll be looking for from the scheduled casting sessions, Louise Kiely said: “We are super excited to get started. There will be a ticket system at each of the venues, on a first come, first seen basis! We can see 500 per day in Dublin and 300 per day in the other cities. In order to get seen, I would advise getting there early.
“If we cannot see you on the day, we shall accept self-tapes in the coming months. We would ask that people prepare a Film/TV monologue of a minute in length. We are creating a whole town, cast-wise, from the ground up. What a cool challenge!”
The ‘Red Rock’ casting team are unlikely to cast anyone still attending secondary school outside the Dublin area as it uneconomic and impractical for them to travel outside of school hours. Louise Kiely and co will be accepting self-tapes in the coming months via www.louisekiely.com.
More details on the regional casting sessions will be issued in the coming days. For more information on the casting process visit Louise Kiely’s Facebook page for the latest updates at www.facebook.com/LouiseKielyCasting or her website.
‘Red Rock’ will go into production this autumn and will be produced for TV3 by Element Pictures and Company Pictures. The series creator and chief writer is Peter McKenna.
