Casting Call for Short Film

Casting actors for the following roles for the student short film “You Weren’t There”. Filming will take place during the month of March in Easton,PA. High school and college student actors can also submit for these roles.

Characters:

Danny Carlton:
Ethnicity: White / European Descent
Male: 16-25 years old

A 19 year old teenager who is attending his sophomore year at college. He must confront his emotional past when his father reenters his life while at college. He enjoys playing sports and being with his girlfriend Sarah. He is a cancer survivor. He is a member of the college squash team. He also enjoys running and playing tennis.

Professor Carlton:
Ethnicity: White / European Descent
Male: 35-55 years old

The father of Danny who left the family when Danny was 5 years old. He is a man who also must confront his past and the decision he made at the time by leaving his wife and son. He has cancer and wants to be together with his family.

Susan Carlton
Ethnicity: White / European Descent
Female: 35-55 years old

The mother of Danny, she is a strong woman who loves her son and still loves his father, Dan Carlton.

Carter
Ethnicity: White / European Descent
Male: 16-25 years old

Danny’s best friend, who is also a member of the college squash team. He is 20 years old. He lost his parents in a car accident and was raised in a foster home.

Sarah
Ethnicity: White / European Descent
Female: 16-25 years old

Danny’s 19 year old girlfriend, who Danny confides in by talking to her about the situation between him and his father. She had been Danny’s girlfriend since senior year in high school. Se is a member of the track and field team.

Coach Wilson:
Ethnicities: White / European Descent or African American Descent
Male: 30-55 years old

Danny’s college squash team coach, who wants to see Danny succeed in the classroom and on the team. He cares about what happens to him and his future.

Plot:
Danny Carlton is enjoying his sophomore year in college. He is studying to become a lawyer and is a good academic student. Extremely athletic he has a sports scholarship and plays on the college squash team. He spends time with his girlfriend Sarah and his best friend Carter who also is a member of the squash team. Life is great until another professor teaches his law class for the remainder of the semester. But there is one problem the professor is his father Dan Carlton who left him and his mother when he was just 5 years old. The past 14 years his mother has taken care of Danny raising him by herself. Danny wants to protect his mother from being hurt again and not see her go through the same trauma she had to endure when his father left them. Professor Carlton regrets leaving his family and not knowing how much time he now has left to live before cancer takes his life, he wants to be together again with his wife and son as a family.

Since his dad Professor Carlton has reentered his life after so many years, he has to confront his emotions and conflict he has in size him seeing his dad again. He dislikes his dad because he left his mother and him when he was younger. Over the years as he grew older, he also grew to not like his father for leaving his mother alone and having to take care of a child all by herself. Protecting his mother is very important to him because he doesn’t want her to live through the same experience she did before. During the time Danny had cancer it made him want to protect his mother even more because he didn’t know if he would be there to continue to protect her.

Professor Carlton is also having to deal with the past, the decision he made to leave his family, and emotions he is feeling seeing his wife and son again. He visits his wife to tell her he has cancer and wants to be together again with her and his only son. He finds out that his wife has forgiven him, but his son has not and has become more distant over the years. Danny also has to face his emotional feels seeing his dad and talking about his dad with his girlfriend and his best friend. Danny has a flight with his dad and things emotionally spiral out of control for Danny.

Danny finds out that his father has cancer from his mother. This emotionally connects with him because he had cancer and survived having cancer. He remembers how it affected his mother worrying what might happen to her son. Cancer has entered into his mother’s life again a second time with his dad now fighting it to survive. Danny understands why his dad wants to reconcile their differences with his son and to be there for his family.

When summiting for a role please provide the following information in your cover letter. Provide you name, age, role you are summiting for, why you would be a good fit for that role, current headshots, any links or video clips of your acting, IMDB credits if you have any, and if you can self report to filming locations. Send role submissions to pysherz@lafayette.edu. Put “Casting for You Weren’t There” in the Subject line.