Daytime dramas, or "soap operas" as they are commonly know, are some of the best places for a beginning actor to start out. Did you know that Sarah Michelle Gellar, Marisa Tomei, Mischa Barton, Kathy Bates, Mark Hamill, John Stamos and many other celebrities got discovered on soap operas like Days of Our Lives and General Hospital? Soap Opera are the most popular TV programs on daytime television. Most television series spend a week or more filming one episode, but soap operas produce one episode a day all-year round. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger. The narrative changes constantly keeping the soap opera fresh for new viewers. They need a large, dynamic cast, and have new characters appear all the time. As a result the casting directors audition people almost every day for a variety of roles, and one of them could be yours.

Kinds of Roles

There are four levels of acting done on soap operas. The lowest level is being an extra or doing background work. This is the same as any other show on television, except that because of the limited environments of most soap operas they tend to populate the sets with the same extras for consistency.

The next level up is the "under-five." An under-five character is featured briefly on an episode but has fewer than five lines. These could be waiters, random pedestrians, police officers, etc. An under-five is also referred to as a featured extra. They don't necessarily have to speak to get under-five status, but the dialogue spoken to them must affect the plot. Associate casting directors typically concentrate on casting extra and under-five roles.

The bigger roles are chosen by the main casting director. Above the under-five in importance is the "day-player." The day-player is an actor that has a significant role on the soap opera, but is not part of the regular cast. There are two kinds of day-player. The first kind is the one-shot role that only appears in one episode. The second kind is more substantial, and is more like guest starring periodically or in a specific story arc. Casting directors typically try-out around 75 people for a recurring role, but only around 5 or 6 for a one-shot.

The top of the soap opera food chain is the contract player. A contract player is a permanent cast member who can stay on the show for years. Some contract players have been on their soap operas since they first premiered. Some cast members still working today started out when their shows were still on the radio! Contract players are in almost every episode, and work from 10-12 hours a day, five days a week. Casting directors and producers collaborate on seeking out contract players, and can audition up to 300 people in New York and Los Angeles. Contract players are the only soap opera actors who have callbacks, which take place in the form of screen tests with established characters from the show.

Demands of The Soap Opera

Soap opera actors work extremely hard. They have to memorize anywhere from 20-60 pages of dialogue a day, and be prepared for last-second script changes. They show up at 7 AM ready to display a huge array of emotions at the drop of a hat. Time is precious on the daytime drama set, and every mistake throws off the production schedule. Casting directors seek out professional team-players because it's vital the team works well together.

If things don't work out, producers have the power to kill off a character immediately, casting the actor off the show with little warning. But characters can reappear at the most unlikely times in the most unbelievable ways, so a great degree of flexibility is required. Sometimes comas and plastic surgery are used as devices to recast characters with different actors.

It can take a lot of time and effort to make the climb from extra to contract-player, but the experience is worth it, and even extra work will teach you all about TV production. Most casting directors on soaps use agents or personal recommendations, but they are also the most interested in new headshots and resumes from enthusiastic actors.

Casting directors of soap operas prefer that their stars have lots of experience in live theater productions. The commitment and hours required by theatrical performances prepare actors the most for the harsh daytime drama schedule.

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