Chapter 8

Cast Page Element

Use the standard page margin, without page number. Capitalizing the character names helps set them apart - you may even wish to write them in bold. If the character description wraps onto a second line, use a .5" hanging indent.

The Rules: This is the readers' and potential producer or director's reference page.

  • Detail your characters' age, gender and anything else that is essential to casting.
  • If necessary include a little spin on "who" your characters are.
  • Include whether one actor is meant to play multiple characters (referred to as Multiple Casting).
  • Do not write exhaustive descriptions of the characters' behavior; you have to show this in the play.

Here you can also include any setting information, whether there's an intermission in your play, or no obvious act break. If you want the play to run without intermission, tell us that too. Here's the Cast Page from my play Milk and Cookies.

                               Cast of Characters

MARGE NANCY REAGAN BALLMOTH, harried thirty-something mother
JACKIE, her ten-year-old son, played by the actor who plays Rufus
BRUCE, the average-looking man from the milk carton and about Marge's age
BLONDIE, a youngish, not necessarily blond woman
MARGE'S HUSBAND, about Marge's age and played by the actor who plays Rufus
RUFUS, a thirty something mysterious freelance version of the witness protection
        program living in Montana

The play takes place over several days in various suggested settings in California, Nevada,
Idaho and Montana.