<p>Since our kids are probably getting ready to perform their last shows in high school, let's look at who/what they've been. This is inspired by jeffandann's list of his D's roles over on the MT board.</p>
<p>My son has been a gang member, someone's sub conscience, a homosexual aids activist, a general who murders cows, a pompous boss, a boy sexually attracted to a horse, a murdering barber, and - presently - a professor who gets syphilis from one of his students!</p>
<p>Wow, my son would have loved the chance to be in something like Equus or Sweeney Todd.</p>
<p>Between the high school and community theatre, just about his only choices were between old-fashioned musicals, Shakespeare, and things like Neil Simon comedies.</p>
<p>He did get to play Mark in RENT.</p>
<p>In college one of his roles was a pimp named “Worm”…</p>
<p>My son has been God as a grad student, Orpheus, Dame Ellen Terry (long story), a policeman, a clown, a cowboy, a schoolyard bully, a baseball player, a beanstalk climber, a nightingale, a Nazi, a Columbine shooter, and done sound and lights and props galore. Although he never gets a good role at his high school, he has performed at Wolf Trap, the Kennedy Center, Lisner, and the National Cathedral, through other opportunities.</p>
<p>What a wonderful thread!!! My son is currently a weak minded man who answers to a plant, as well as straight laced British man caught up in a web of spies, he has also been a mentally challenged man living in a group home, a heartless man made of hay, a rebellious teen with a love for his car, a confused adolescent who is in love with his cousin, a boy lost in the woods, a mischievous monkey, the youngest child of a biblical icon, a dying cowboy, a law student in love with a blonde, a criminal who kidnaps women into the sex slave world, and the child of a widow who sleeps with a confused prince…</p>
<p>NJTheatre Mom…it is all how you spin it!!! I have a feeling your son and mine have been in similar shows…</p>
<p>I’m noticing theatre roles tend to enable an actor to play more diverse characters. Is there less type casting in theatre? My son only had one theatre role and that was in middle school. That was the only role he has had against type.</p>
<p>His roles In TV or film tend to revolve around degrees of vulnerability. Some roles he has played are a blind boy whose mother was murdered, a son whose disappointment with his father changes when his dad takes him to work one night, a son used by his devious mother to get a boyfriend, A kidnapped boy, an awkward tween destined to become a great sorcerer, a poor teenager who kills two junkies, a teenager on the run from bank robbers with his family, and a leader of a group of greasers from the 50’s.</p>
<p>shacherry…at least in my case, my son did not do any professional tv or film, his roles were shows done at school and community theatre as well as student films from the local art school. This allows for him to hold a lot of diverse roles. He also participated in a few One Act Play festivals where his school did very edgy material, very edgy.</p>
<p>Shacherry, youth theatre (and, to an extent, community theatre) is different from professional theatre, where typecasting does exist. </p>
<p>At the amateur level there are so many fewer males than females who even audition that boys tend to get cast pretty easily and play a wide variety of roles.</p>
<p>My son is half Asian (his dad’s from India) and looks vaguely Hispanic. He’s gotten callbacks for professional roles as a Lebanese, an Arab, a Latino, a mixed blood guy from South Africa, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Photo, is this role diversity something that just happens with theatre when they are kids because of such few plays about kids or an advantage to stage performance overall, even when they are adults?</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll play…my son had limited opportunities in high school, though, so I’ll go back a few years. His roles have included a Scottish murderer, bumbling British tourist, lovable larger-than-life scoundrel, country preacher, wannabe gangster teenager, high school teacher turned child predator, high priest in ancient Greece, and the idiosyncratic King of Siam. </p>
<p>Shacherry, I often think of your son in his younger years as a completely adorable pickle enthusiast. :)</p>
<p>Shacherry…I love Times3 comment!!! And yes, NJtheatreMom is correct. That is what youth theatre is geared towards, though. And high school programs work the same way. My son is fortunate in that he has been in children and adult productions so he has had a wide variety of parts. However, not a drop of professional work, so he is completely inexperienced in a way your son is not. My daughter is the same (btw…she comes from some side of our family and has all the recessive genes…she is often thought to be Hispanic, Asian or Middle Eastern). She has been in 1 independent movie that is about to be released (she shot it while a sophomore?? in high school?? cannot even remember, just remember she could not drive) and she plays an young Islamic terrorist…My son could probably not play that part!!!</p>
<p>That’s so interesting about your daughter’s role photomom5! My son was cast as the on-camera narrator of a public service announcement telling people about how Arab-American young people are just like other young people…and he isn’t one!</p>
<p>Real Arab-Americans would have laughed, but I guess the target audience wouldn’t know.</p>
<p>He couldn’t accept the role because of a scheduling conflict, but we joked about it – what if he became famous one day and someone discovered that this film existed with him saying to people “Hi! I’m Sami!” (not his real name).</p>
<p>Wow. Where were all these talented boys when we needed them at my high school? This was a fairly prestigious arts school and we had such a shortage that we sometimes had to resort to gender bending to put on full length plays. And guess who usually ended up doing it with me being the tallest girl in the class? </p>
<p>Great article, Fish. It has been observed that, in at least one college acting program, there are very few guys who are actually…um…effeminate… but there are not too many tall, beefy ones either.</p>
<p>A tall, beefy guy who can also act will be in high demand. A number of athletic types have made the crossover with great success.</p>
<p>I forgot about the pickles. Times3 having met your son, physically I can see him in all those roles. Photo I think your daughter’s exotic gene will help her stand out.</p>
<p>My son’s acting coach, who is gay, says that although the “closet” had many bad aspects, at least it forced gay actors to present themselves as more heteronormal. (Is that the word?)</p>
<p>I loved the “Calling All (American) Boys” rant.</p>
<p>What a fun thread! My son attends a mid size Christian school, so nothing too shocking or provocative. And a lot of Shakespeare in the community theatre. So, here is his list: Gabriel, the archangel; A carpenter who authored the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of pyramus and thisbe; part of an evil gang that terrorizes an elephant in an allegory for the American post-war occupation of Japan; a man with a wonder hat to render him safely invisible to all women; a kind-hearted but rebellious ma</p>
<p>This is a great topic to pass the time! My son started acting in his sophomore year in high school and fell in love with it.
He started out as a young boy in a musical family that had an affinity for lederhosen, an unhappy creature who hates Christmas, a prince who is turned into a beast, a boy who is a musician and obsessed with Beethoven, a logical man in an absurdist world, a peasant, a grieving husband, a husky dog, a royal man in love with a girl who loves another, an Elizabethan party guy, and currently a small town Reverend who is against dancing. </p>
<p>I have a friend whose son is exactly what I would think the theatre world needs, he is well built, straight and an incredible dancer. He did not get into a single audition BFA program last year (and he auditioned for quite a few). His mom told me that he looked nothing like all the other kids auditioning…or the students already in the programs.</p>