Sides are the most ordinary document in an actor's life, and also the one that tells you the most if you know how to read it. A set of sides is a deliberate edit. Somebody chose these pages out of a whole script, cut them, maybe crossed out a few lines, and sent them to you because they show what the role has to do. Reading sides well means reading those choices along with the dialogue.
The word has two meanings in the business, and they rarely get confused in practice because they turn up at different stages of a job.
Audition sides
When people say "the sides" before you have booked anything, they mean audition material. A typical set runs from one to six pages: a single scene, or two or three short scenes, each featuring the character you are reading for. A one-line role might get a quarter of a page. A lead in a feature might get three scenes, each chosen to show a different part of the person.
Casting usually picks scenes that test something specific. One might show the character under pressure, another shows the comic rhythm, a third shows them alone with someone they love. If you get two scenes that feel very different, that is the point: they want to see that you can play both colors of the same person.
Theater auditions use sides too, though the word is used a little more loosely there. You may get a scene from the play, a page of a song, or be asked to bring your own monologue and read sides only at the callback.
Where do sides come from?
The casting office prepares them from the full script, then distributes them alongside the breakdown (the casting notice describing each role). In the US, most professional sides reach actors through the casting platforms that agents and casting directors use, Breakdown Services and its actor-facing site Actors Access, Casting Networks, and others, or arrive by email from your agent. In the UK and Ireland, they tend to come through Spotlight or straight from your agent, and the same is broadly true in Canada and Australia with their own local platforms.
If you have representation, your agent or manager forwards the sides with the appointment or self-tape request. If you are submitting yourself, they are usually attached to the listing once you are selected to audition. Either way, read the breakdown first. It tells you the age range, the type and often a one-line description of the character that the sides alone will not. If you want help decoding those notices, see how to read a casting breakdown.
Why you only get a few pages
Mostly security. Scripts for unreleased film and television are valuable, and every extra full copy in circulation is a leak waiting to happen. Many productions do not release full scripts to auditioning actors at all, especially for smaller roles. Some sides are watermarked with your name for the same reason.
There is also a practical reason. Casting has a few minutes per actor, and the sides are what those minutes are spent on. Sending a sixty-page script to three hundred people reading for a one-scene part helps nobody.
That said, the full script is the best preparation you can get. If one is available (on a published play, a released film, or through your agent for a bigger role), read it. When it is not, you work from the sides and the breakdown, and you fill the gaps with sensible choices.
How to read a set of sides
Sides look like a screenplay or play script because that is what they are, but they carry a few marks of their own. Go through them in this order.
The header. Most sides open with the project title, the role name, the casting office and sometimes the date. Check you have the right character and the right version. Revisions happen, and actors do occasionally prepare yesterday's pages.
Scene headings. In screen sides, lines like "INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR, NIGHT" tell you where you are and when. These are the cheapest given circumstances you will ever get. A conversation in a corridor at night is a different scene from the same words over breakfast.
Cut lines. Casting often strikes through lines, speeches or whole characters with a single line or a big X, usually to shorten the scene or remove a third person so only one reader is needed. Do not say anything crossed out. Read the struck material once anyway, because it can explain what is going on.
Fragments of other scenes. Sides are often cut straight from the script pages, so the top and bottom of a page may show the end of the previous scene or the start of the next. Those bits are usually struck through or marked "start here" and "end here." Find your first and last lines and box them.
Watermarks. Diagonal text across the page, often your name or the agency's. Ignore it while reading, and never share or post the pages.
Action lines. The descriptive text between dialogue. It tells you what the character does, and sometimes what they feel. Treat it as information about the scene, and do not try to perform every adjective.
What to do with your sides once you have them
Read them all the way through twice before you decide anything. The first time, take in the story of the scene. The second time, read only for what the other character says about you and to you, because that is where most of your character information lives.
Then work through the usual questions: who you are talking to, what you want from them, what is in the way, and where the scene turns. Mark the turns with a pencil. If the sides contain more than one scene, decide what changes for the character between them.
From there, the job is getting the words into your body. How far you go depends on the format. For a self-tape, most casting directors want you close to off book. For an in-person audition, you can usually hold the sides, as long as you are looking up far more than you are looking down. If you are handed the pages on the day with no time at all, you are doing a cold read, and the expectations drop accordingly. The full process lives in how to prepare for an audition.
One practical habit: keep a clean printed copy for the room even if you prepared on a screen or a heavily marked page. A scribbled-over page is hard to glance at under pressure.
Sides on set
Once you have booked the job, "sides" means something else. On a film or television shoot, the production prints a small booklet each day containing just the scenes being shot that day, usually reduced to half-page size so it fits in a pocket. The day's call sheet is often stapled to the front. Assistant directors hand them out at the start of the day, and cast and crew use them to follow what is being shot.
Set sides are a working document. They reflect the latest script revisions, which may be printed on colored pages, and they are the version you should know. If your sides on the day differ from the script you learned, ask an assistant director which is current before the first rehearsal on set. Finding out after the first take costs the whole set time.
A quick glossary of sides language
- Sides
- The pages you audition with, or the day's scenes on set.
- Breakdown
- The casting notice describing each role. Sides are usually attached to it.
- Revised sides
- A newer version sent after the first. Always prepare the latest.
- Struck or cut lines
- Text crossed out by casting. Do not perform it.
- Pages
- Often used to mean the same thing as sides, as in "the pages came in late."
More questions
Why don't they send the whole script?
Usually to protect it. Unreleased scripts leak, and productions limit how many full copies circulate. Sides also save everyone time: casting picks the scenes that show what the role needs. If a full script is available, your agent can sometimes request it, and reading it is always worth it.
Do I have to memorize my sides?
For an in-person audition you can usually hold them, but you should know them well enough to look up most of the time. For a self-tape, aim to be close to off book, with the pages just out of shot as a safety net. Callbacks raise the expectation again.
Can I change the words in my sides?
Stick to the text as written, especially in comedy and in network television, where the writers are often the producers watching your tape. Small slips are forgiven. Rewriting lines or adding your own jokes usually is not, unless the brief explicitly invites improvisation.
What if the sides are for a different character than the one I'm reading for?
It happens, usually when a small role has too few lines to audition with. Read whatever character the brief tells you to, and take it seriously. Casting has chosen those pages because they show the kind of person or energy they need.
What does it mean when lines are crossed out in sides?
Struck-through lines have been cut by casting, usually to shorten the scene or remove a third character. Do not say them. If a crossed-out line was a cue for you, adjust so the scene still makes sense from what is left.