<p>I know this is off topic, but responding to jbehlend…my D played Audrey in Little Shop while at Tisch and the costumes for Audrey ALSO were not the typical ones seen in most productions, but were more in line with what you are saying was done at your S’s high school too.</p>
<p>My kids have done Les Miserables twice (so far) and casting for that show is always an emotional minefield. I think it’s just such a powerful show and the kids get so emotionally caught up in all of the intensity that it just spills over into casting. The great news is that because they’re all SO passionate about the show, they end up having an amazing time no matter where they’re cast.</p>
<p>Having said that, we’re anticipating more casting drama this summer (doing it for the 3rd time)! S is officially too old so he’s really struggling with NOT being a part of it at all (He played Enjolras last time and it was his favorite theatre experience of ALL TIME) and D has already played Eponine twice (also her fave role of all time) so she’s pretty sure they’re going to HAVE to give it to someone else this time around and it’s killing her to have to stand by and watch someone else play “her” part! She’s due for an ensemble part and that really is totally fine with her, but it’s still going to hurt, especially since it will officially be her last musical in high school (even though it’s with an outside group, not a school). Or, they could give her Fantine or Cosette (or even Eponine again) and we’d all have to deal with the fallout of people complaining how unfair it is, (true) blaming her for being “teacher’s pet,” (not true) etc. Oh, the drama of Youth Theatre!</p>
<p>Is this the same theatre group that’s done Les Mis three times? Why on earth would they do that?</p>
<p>This one has only done it twice. Where is the one that’s done it 3 times located? Our group has done it twice in 5 years because the kids all LOVED it so much and because they limit it to high school students, so those kids in Jr. High who have been waiting and waiting to be old enough keep begging for them to do it again! </p>
<p>I look at it this way, LOTS of ballet companies do The Nutcracker every single December and no one complains! :)</p>
<p>Maybe I misunderstood, but it appears from your earlier post that this will be the third time your D is doing the show. That just seems unfortunate to me that they don’t explore other shows and allow the kids to experience something new, when there are so many wonderful options out there. Just my opinion. :)</p>
<p>My kids refuse to repeat shows. By the time they finish one run, they are so sick of the music that they don’t even want to hear it again. There have been a couple exceptions. S did a tour of Seussical when he was younger and a couple years later he agreed to repeat his role (jojo) for a regional company. And D has done Joseph…Dreamcoat a couple times - once at a camp and once at school. Fortunately, we live in an area with an abundance of performing opportunities (even for my kids who don’t do the “pay to play” thing).</p>
<p>No, it was I who misunderstood! I thought you were talking about a company that had ALREADY done it 3 times. After this summer, yes, this particular company will have performed Les Miserables 3x.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with you at all. I’ve noticed a somewhat sad and disturbing trend in musical theatre among kids in our area. While the high schools can and do often produce new (or old) works that are unfamiliar and will expand their students’ exposure to the MT canon, unfortunately among the Youth Theatre (pay to play) companies, whenever one tries to do something different, the kids won’t sign up. If it’s not something they’re familiar with, they decide that is a good one to “sit out.” And also unfortunately, producing really good quality shows is so expensive that the companies have to rely on tuition to cover the lion’s share of the costs. There is a critical mass below which it becomes unfeasible to do the show! In addition, when you’re dealing with young children (most groups here have casts from ages 8-18 or thereabouts) you have to be a bit more sensitive to the appropriateness of the material.So it’s no wonder these companies keep repeating the same 10-15 shows over and over. </p>
<p>Another, perhaps less obvious reason is because when you have young kids in the show, they will invariably end up playing ensemble roles while the lead parts go to the teens. So, every year, you have a new crop of teens who have been patiently waiting for their turn to vie for the great parts, and they, (being the real customers, not the audience members) tend to demand their favorite shows so they can try for Belle, or Peter Pan or The Cat in the Hat or Eponine. Even more unfortunate is that there seems to be a trend to reject old standards! There was one local company that pretty much went out of business because they tried to do “Annie Get Your Gun” and they couldn’t get enough kids to sign up for it. They thought it was “old” and “boring” so they took that show off. BUT they wanted to do something, so they went out among the other companies in the area that were doing “Seussical” and “Beauty and the Beast” and other more contemporary but SO OVERDONE shows, and just sort of never went back to the first company. </p>
<p>So these companies have to keep their families happy and coming back or risk going under. It’s a complicated and kind of depressing situation. Having been involved with several of these different companies throughout the years, I know that the artistic directors would love to do other shows but they are rather stuck. And they truly have a desire to educate their students and give them the experience of participating in theatre. They believe in the value of theatre for “regular” kids, some of whom don’t fit in anywhere else. It is amazing to watch a 9-year-old who is too shy to say “boo” to anyone, gain confidence and poise through theatre.</p>
<p>Now, back to my kids. They have done 3-6 (or more) shows per year, nearly every year since they were 6 & 8 years old. They don’t stick with just one company and they do other things besides youth theatre. So they have had the opportunity to do some different shows that they have loved. However, neither one would EVER pass up an opportunity to do a well-done production of Les Miserables, no matter how often they had done it in the past, especially since for all practical purposes, currently it is ONLY available for youth companies and schools. Once you graduate from high school you can’t ever do it again unless you’re fortunate enough to be cast in a professional production of it, (which hopefully my D will be one day but my S will not).</p>
<p>They announce call backs today or first thing tommow morning. The director told my D that he was very impressed with her audition, so we’ll see.</p>
<p>Looking ahead to next year, my daughter will be a senior and there are about 4-6 senior girls that all are pretty talented. As a general rule they’ve always tried to focus on seniors as it’s their last hurrah. What musicals are out there that would have several featured girls parts? So you know in recent years they’ve done Oklahoma, Hello Dolly, 42nd Street, The Wiz, Singing in the Rain, and the junior highs have done Seussical (my daughter was Gertrude), Beauty and the Beast, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Pirates of Penzance so they wouldn’t repeat those either. They always do shows with large ensembles so they can get more kids participating. </p>
<p>Any thoughts? And Nunsense doesn’t count.</p>
<p>There are several featured female roles in such shows as Once On This Island, Fiddler on the Roof, Fame, Grease, Sweet Charity, Leader of the Pack, Bye Bye Birdie, Nine (though not enough male parts), Hair, Spelling Bee (no large ensemble), Aida, R&H’s Cinderella, Urinetown, Babes in Arms, The Boyfriend, Into the Woods, Hairspray, Chicago, Rent, Peter Pan.</p>
<p>Jeffandann. Please post results so we can congratulate or commiserate! I feel like these kids are family!</p>
<p>@tracyvp - we see the same thing with our local youth theatre companies. This past fall my d’s group did “Parade” and they had to bring in college kids to fill out the cast because so many kids “sat it out” (because “it was sooo depressing”). And this is a farily recent JRB musical with a Tony-award score! This spring they had to do a poll to pick a show that more people will sign up for. Market dynamics are a pain. H.L. Mencken was correct, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence [or the taste] of the American people.”</p>
<p>As it turns out, Parade worked out absolutely for the best because the BFA kids raised the whole level of the show and my D learned an amazing amount from standing side-by-side with them (plus she was thrilled to be able to be in a show with big-time college students). The show itself is an incredibly moving piece of theatre and they did it so well with a small, tight cast that it brought the house down. Not a dry eye…</p>
<p>Thank goodness she goes to a PA HS were they always pick some really interesting shows.</p>
<p>tracy, thank you for your reply. It’s interesting to hear about the ‘pay for play’ opportunities that some of you have in your area. To be honest, I’m not familiar with that model at all. Where we are, youth theatre does not require kids to pay for the opportunity to participate. Most are registered charities that have corporate sponsors and charitable donors. They secure the rights to shows, hold auditions, and whomever is cast does the show without being obligated to pay anything. The largest and most well-known such youth theatre in our area (and there are many others) has not repeated a show for as long as I’ve been aware of their shows, which is many years. </p>
<p>They offer classes which would generate some revenue but the shows are a separate entity. They tend to do a variety of types of shows, everything from Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line, Hair, Rent to Spelling Bee, Seussical, Honk Jr., Lucky Stiff, City of Angels, Cabaret, etc. </p>
<p>Emsdad, I agree with you that Parade is a powerful and beautiful piece of theatre. What a loss for those kids who had no interest in doing it.</p>
<p>Soozie, thanks for the list. They play the '“what musical are they doing next year” every year around this time, and generally they cast based on the talent they know they have coming back, especially seniors. It gets announced at show choir “boot camp” the week before school this coming August… You listed Grease which is on my list, but the kids aren’t enthusiastic.</p>
<p>How about turning this discussion on its ear and thinking about the reverse side of the HS casting scenario. Tempted to make this its own thread but I’ll put it here for now since I don’t know how to link topics w/in this forum. But if somebody thinks this is a good topic idea and knows how to do it, feel free:</p>
<p>What does it feel like to be the kid that people will say “always get the lead” and therefore should be hated on? </p>
<p>No doubt, there are examples of unexplainable and frustrating preference in HS casting however there is also an element of “casting Darwinism” that should be respected. Sure, it’s hard to be someone that is outside that inner circle wanting desperately to get in. At the same time, it can be as painful to be one of the kids that does regularly get picked when the only thing that you are guilty of was being talented, meticulously prepared, and fully committed. Please eliminate every diva that you can think of from your mental image. I’m talking about the kids that truly nice, humble, generous with the ensemble etc. that wear their successes well – yet are labeled as a diva for no other reason than they got the part that somebody else wanted. </p>
<p>Nobody ever asks for sympathy for THAT kid. </p>
<p>Gosh I can even up the ante and cite a specific example (and I’m absolutely not talking about my own kid here for the record):</p>
<p>Example: Kid is in a “pay for play” program as TracyVP mentioned and her Dad donated $50K or more annually to the program which in essence amounts to a rounding error on his tax return. Kid regularly gets the lead and the hating is because the assumption is that she gets the role only because of Daddy’s big wallet. Yet the kid is truly talented and in essence a musical anchor for any production she is in and many of the haters would not have production to attend were it not for her Dad and his wallet. (OK this kid had some diva-like moments truth be told but that aside, she really was talented, sometimes nice but not always and I don’t think ever won a part over a more talented kid whose parents had a smaller wallet.) What is it like to be that kid?</p>
<p>Nobody ever asks for sympathy for THAT kid either.</p>
<p>Discuss…</p>
<p>Update for you all: callback list came out lat night and my daughter was on it! Callbacks are this afternoon. Her goal was to get a callback this year so she counts this as a victory.</p>
<p>jeffandann - great news! Keep us posted on the final results.</p>
<p>@jeffandann - Congratulations!!</p>
<p>@halflokum - Over time D realized that sometimes it’s great NOT to get that huge lead. Fortunately she’s had both experiences, but now when she doesn’t get the plum part she REALLY knows that one can shine in any role, and also that the group dynamics can be kinder to the ensemble than to the leads. Plus she has certainly learned empathy, even for the star. </p>
<p>Talented kids with very wealthy and/or influential parents deserve empathy, but I also think among equally-talented performers it’s frustrating to watch someone’s parents curry favor with their checkbook. Unfortunately, many cash-starved arts organizations (probably including some college MT programs) are susceptible to this. The good news/bad news is that this is also true in professional theatre, so as with most casting anomalies, the sooner kids accept it the better. And as you say, many actors are employed by one patron’s generosity.</p>
<p>jeffandann- yeah!!</p>
<p>“Group dynamics can be kinder to the ensemble than to the leads”. Well put MomCares. </p>
<p>Like many high schools, my daughter’s school musical reserves lead spots (girls especially) for upper classmen – seniors mostly but sometimes a junior sneaks in. There is virtually no way for underclassmen (girls) to get a lead. But an underclassman with a special talent (dancer or singer as an example) may get lucky enough to have a featured moment in the ensemble. However being featured can come back to haunt you once you’re finally old enough to be considered for a lead role. A feeling of “he/she’s already had a turn” when in fact, no, like you, he/she has never been a lead either.</p>
<p>It can be rough to be good in the high school musical business. Perhaps because measuring talent including your own as well as your perception of others’ talent is subjective. An affable freshman who makes the varsity basketball team and is the star high scorer, everybody loves. His or her success can be measured objectively by number of baskets. In the case of musical theatre, an affable freshman who gets the coveted lead role because of amazing talent (in the director’s eyes) will not be loved by everybody. Like MomCares pointed out, it is good to learn empathy, even for the star.</p>
<p>So true, halfokum. Our school spends as much on theatre/choir as it does on sports. It’s a smart private school that uses theatre to fill their seats. They recruit with it. Lots of talent. We have sent someone to the NY Jimmy awards every year they have had it. That means the parents have a lot at stake, too. A freshman girl just got her third major lead this year. Is he talented- oh yes! Is she envied- oh yes! Parents are trying to figure out “why they love her”. It has to be something other than talent. It’s not. She has “it”. I did my homework before we went to the school and I liked the fact that grade makes no difference. Everyone competes equally. You love or hate that idea- depending where you kid falls. We have many friends in other schools that give upper classmen the leads and that works for them. They did their homework before picking a school.</p>