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NEW YORK, NY – CircusTalk, the online casting and career marketplace for circus and the performing arts, announces the launch of a new membership level, Talent Seeker PRO, which helps talent seekers conduct detailed talent searches for artists in circus, variety arts, dance, and physical theater.
The new feature enables talent seekers to conduct detailed searches, allowing them to identify specialized or multidisciplinary artists via the discipline search functionality. Talent seekers can also manage their preferred candidates on a dashboard that provides multiple workflow organization tools, such as personalized search sets, tagging, and lists.
Last year, CircusTalk conducted a qualitative research project designed to explore the casting process from the perspective of talent seekers and find out more about their methodology, tools, and resources. The research concluded that while circus is undeniably a distinct art form, it is not always recognized as such and it has not yet been integrated fully into the broader performing arts sector. Barriers to its inclusion include circus’ specialized technical acumen, higher production costs, and high safety standards compared to other forms of art and entertainment. As of 2021, the field of circus casting is still one primarily built on personal networks, proprietary databases, and referrals, and lacks the practice of formal casting breakdowns. These processes perpetuate exclusivity within the industry, rather than supporting the creation of a level playing field for circus artists and creators.
Television, film, and theater casting has been integrating independent online casting databases into the hiring process for over two decades to broaden the selection and filtering process and to render it more efficient and inclusive. “It was time for non-verbal performative artists to have the visibility and accessibility that an online casting platform can provide,” says CircusTalk co-founder, Andrea Honis. This idea of bolstering visibility has long been a principle behind CircusTalk’s work and mission. Since its launch in 2017, its talent database, accessible via CircusTalk.com, has been growing exponentially; today it features over 27,000 performing artists from 193 countries.
“I am thrilled to be launching this feature and proud to be able to fill a gap in the market. Our independent database of international talent is designed to serve freelance casting directors, casting specialists within companies and organizations, and anyone who seeks to hire talent but does not have the luxury of a private database. I am confident that the accessibility this bespoke casting tool offers will also support more diverse and equitable casting practices,” says Stacy Clark, CEO.
The demand for multidisciplinary talent is growing in the performing arts, theater, film, and television. While CircusTalk’s research pointed out that circus has tremendous potential and momentum to grow within the performing arts, it also shed light on the fact that the industry has work to do in order to better integrate the circus and variety arts into the “business” of performing arts.
