Joyful Raven’s solo show Breed or Bust will be performed at the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023 2nd - 28th August. Tickets can be found at www.gildedballoon.co.uk

Joyful Raven is an actor, writer and comedian. Born into an iconic political theater family, she has been devising theater for over 25 years. Her last solo comedy Tales of a Sexual Tomboy was dubbed “…one of the funniest shows now on display on Bay Area stages” by the SF Chronicle. Tomboy won “Best of the Fringe '' at the 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival and was awarded an ‘Encore Performance’ at the 2017 United Solo Festival in NYC. Her additional theatre credits include lead actor and co-author of four plays for “Prize of Hope '' winning company Human Nature and co-founder of the ensemble-driven theatre company Rococo Risqué, winner of SF Weekly Best Theater Ensemble.

Joyful has also appeared as an actor in many projects on stage and film, including Odyssey Works, an immersive theatre project; The Pursuit of Happiness, with Will Smith; and Spring Awakening, directed by Broadway and West End director Stafford Arima. She studied theater at Sarah Lawrence College in NY and holds an MFA in theater from UC Davis. She teaches Solo Performance and Storytelling at Berkeley Rep School of Theater. 

Sarah Mayhew is an Actress, Co-Artistic Director of Old Trunk Theatre Company and Associate Artist at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.

Sarah has had a wonderful career as a dancer, improviser and actress. Sarah was a major part of  improv troupe, Scared Scriptless for many years before becoming a Co-Artistic Director for Theatre Company Old Trunk that went on to have many successes with Playwright Sadie Hasler’s Pram Kicker and Fran and Leni that toured all over the UK. 

You can catch Sarah in television shows such as White Gold and PROFESSOR T and most recently Alfie Dale’s short film My Brother is a Mermaid that has been having huge success in the film festival circuit, including Hollyshorts, Leeds International Film Festival and IRIS Prize Winner for Best British Short just to name a few. 

Sarah is also very active with the Essex Girls Liberation Front, a group of women smashing the Essex Girl stereotype.

You can follow them on Instagram @essex_girls_liberation_front_

And you can follow Sarah on Instagram and Twitter @hewston

Zita Zutic Konak is a Casting Director for ET Casting having cast multiple commercials, films and music videos.

Zita has had a wonderful and very non linear journey to get to where she is right now. Starting out as a child actor in Serbia to making her way to the UK and studying at Kingston University and finding a passion in directing and pursuing that at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Before finding her love for casting Zita worked in a variety of fields including a floor runner to being Third Assistant Director on Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie. 

Every casting director is different with what they want and do not want to see, listen to Zita give her take on the:

• The audition process

• Actor preparation

• Her opinion on the self tape

Follow Zita on Twitter @zitazutic and keep up to date with casting calls from ET Casting at https://www.etcasting.com

* During the episode we talk about what makes a great self tape and how really there is no real right or wrong answer except good lighting, sound and that your face is visible. In the link below is the video I was trying to think of during the show*

Josh Hutcherson’s incredible Spider-Man audition that goes above and beyond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvCdfXozqF8