[jesuiscommejesuis]

Let us all discuss typing! I am interested in seeing really how many classifications actors have. Of course we all know the typical ones - ingenue, leading lady, character actor, soubrette, villain, etc. What else is there?

[Chevstriss]

Bimbo
Vamp
Best Friend/Mary Sue
Sidekick
Battle Axe
wise kindly old man

[QuaxoCoricopat]

I was told by an equity actor that I was "ethnic ingenue" and she was "Irish ingenue"

I lol'd because only in Minnesota is having dark hair and eyes considered 'ethnic'.

[jesuiscommejesuis]

Chev: are some of those considered like sub-types under character actors/actresses? How similar are best friend and sidekick?

[Chevstriss]

sidekick is usually the villain's idiotic comic sounding board

Best friend is usually someone who gives good advice, helps out the protagonist

[PappyCat]

I'm always funny friend.

In life and on the stage! Lol.

[JIJane]

www.musicaltheatreaudition.com lists all the different types.

[Robinflamingo]

From high school thru my early thirties, being well endowed and nearly 6 foot, I played either slutty/naughty roles, or the Best Friend Who's Naughty: Ado Annie, Nancy Twinkle, Aldonza, Gymnasia, Tzeitel (tallest=oldest). However, as time went on, I found myself in the Mama roles. The three I haven't played yet that I am DYING to do are Golde, Mama Rose, and the grand combo of naughty AND mama...Madam Thenardier!

[Monsieur D'Arque]

My type is sort of nebulous... Half of my work is in comedy...

Quick-change comedian
Character roles
Parts with bizarre, sometimes painful, physical requirements
Burlesque accent roles, i.e. the smarmy Frenchman, comic Nazi, etc.

The other half is in drama, where my type is completely the opposite. I play the quiet, troubled, usually wounded, often unstable heroes or antiheroes.

Bobby in Company
Bob in Smile

Someone remarked to me when I began rehearsal as Bobby that "This is the second show in a row where you've played a depressive man named Bob who hears voices in his head."

[mezzo_soprano]

[kakoforever]

I'm 19 and still playing younger, and milking it for all it's worth. My voice teacher says I'll play the best friend, mezzo/2nd soprano type, in the older shows, and the daughter or comic relief in the newer ones.

I recently did "As Long as he needs me" in a workshop class, and it was perfect in my voice and my look. I'll probably have to wait a few years to play that role though.

[MaryMag]

Different theaters type me totally differently. One makes me Anita and Ado Annie, another makes me the stratospheric soprano, one makes me the bad girl, another makes me the little girl/engenue.

Just when I thought I was getting a feel for my type.

[lakmé]

My friend Laura and I call ourselves leading ladies in training.

[Kiwi]

Personally, the most common role I've gotten is the New York fiancee who gets dumped in the end, followed by the mother-type figure to the leading character. My favorite one to play is the slutty character

[sopranodespair]

I'm an ingenue.

[Beagle On Stage]

As long as we're now all just sharing our own type. I'm the prodigal son. I'm great at starting as a douchebag and ending up reformed and gentle. I'm told that the best part is that I can take a humiliation onstage - it has a shocking effect when I spend the first hour and a half as a very strong character, then suddenly lose everything and show up disheveled and without a shred of dignity. I'm pretty and typically play from fifteen to twenty-five, so it's a good fit for the time being. I suspect I'll eventually get too old to keep selling the right age, and keep the same shows but switch roles, going from Matt, Pippin and Paul to El Gallo, Leading Player, and Barry.

[dcrowley]

Well... I have been typed as the cocky, egotistical romantic figure... Examples: Sir Harry (once Upon a Mattress) Hanschen (Spring Awakening) Lorenzo (Merchant of Venice), Harcourt (The Country Wife). Also, I have been typed as being the withdrawn, angsty character before.

[sweetsoprano]

I'm typically the ingenue, boy crazy or the airhead. But, I also get cast as feisty or headstrong girls (which I have much more fun with).

[wicked_diva]

If I'm acting with people my age (like at school) then I get the older lady roles. Sometimes the motherly ones, but usually the crazy know-it-all, headstrong, gossipy ones.

And when I'm with people older than me in shows (like community theatre) I'm either in ensemble, or I have minor roles of girls in late teens-20s, usually the gossipy type.

I don't know what it is about me that screams gossip. And something seems to scream feather duster, too, since I've used feather dusters in at least 3 shows...

[Roger's Chica]

I'm really only ever the ingenue or the slut.

And apparently, I'm playing a more-than-several-years-into-her-career school teacher this spring. Weird.

Anyway, I need to lose approximately 10 lbs or I will be uncastable due to my type.

[Beagle On Stage]

[wicked_diva]

[EponineMNFF]

Hmm... At my school (where there are no boys), I tend to play the "Big Papa" kind of role. Ie. Zeus in The Odyssey and Duncan in Macbeth.

I play mothers a LOT too. Mrs. Gibbs in Our Town, Mrs. Taylor in Bat Boy... etc etc.

I have no idea what I'll be when I go to college and people are older and/or male. I'll probably be the best friend type or something. I'm guessing that when I'm older, I'll go back to the mother types. I'm really hoping for The Baker's Wife, Mrs. Lovett and Mama Rose--I call them my "more realistic" dream roles.

[Amber]

I don't even KNOW my type. I've been cast in a variety of different roles- Fastrada in Pippin, Glinda in WoO, Rose in Bye Bye Birdie, Witch in ITW, and Cookie in Rumors.

I usually handle darker characters, but then I got Glinda and Rose, and Cookie's quirky and kind of comic relief.

So I have no clue.

[UniquePerspective]

I'm not sure I have a type either, except I've been cast in a few roles that are loud, even though that isn't a "type" per say.

[deedlebug103]

Does anyone feel discouraged because they don't really fit in to a "type"? I am continually relegated to the chorus, because although I'm in great shape, I'm a skilled lyric soprano and a strong actress, and can sing the heck out of all of the "ingenue" roles (Eliza, Julie, Laurey, Marian, etc.), I don't have the typical "look" of an ingenue!! Has anyone else had to deal with this?

[shakalakababy]

Is crazy a type? Because almost every role I played has been a crazy or semi-crazy person. I don't know why. I guess i'm more character roles then, i'm definitely not an ingenue at all.

[mercurialasaka]

According to one of my current directors I am a 'character leading lady' which are basically the villainesses or strong chracter women like carmen in curtains, pennywise in urinetown, mme thenarider in les mis, the chaperone in the drowsey chaperone, ursula in the little mermaid, or lovett in sweeney. I guess it fits since I've been the villainess in most every show or the strong, funny older woman in every show I've been in in my entire life (I skipped being annie and was always hannigan) or else I am the 'matronly' mother figure. But hey, I'm happy with that type. I'll never be the 'lead' (unless its sweeney or mame or hello dolly or gypsy) but damn it I will have the most fun!

[EponineMNFF]

[Baker]

I was told that I'm the boy-next-door type and I couldn't be greasy if I tried.

...which must be why I've played Rooster Hannigan, Sky Masterson, Charlie Cowell, Judas in Godspell, the Artful Dodger...

But at my school I was stereotyped as the Southern kid for three years in a row. I was Reuben and sang "One More Angel" in Joseph, then I was Willard in Footloose, then I was the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (which involved a Southern accent in the Kansas scenes).