To be unimpressed with this drama class script

Yabu it’s her first one of course she got a tiny part.

How long are the sessions? She won’t be just watching other kids rehearse their bit and popping on stage for her one line and off again.

either there will be character work/stage business/dances for her to be involved in OR most of the session will be games/exercises/activities and this Shakespeare few scenes is a tiny part of the whole. I don’t see why you would rule out dances or choreographed movement just because it’s Shakespeare, both are commonly included in this type of kids performance.

Theatre doesn’t work on an entirely equal everyone says 5 lines and stands CS for 5 minutes basis. Thank goodness - because it would be dull, dry and pointless if it did.

I'll accept something was there when you show me what I missed.

Ok, what am I missing from your op, that describes it as anything like what Caligurl described it as?

Help my clearly substandard reading comprehension.

I joined a Saturday afternoon stagecoach group when I was 14.
we didn’t get the chance to audition either and my first term I didn’t have a single line, I had to mime out something (can’t remember what) whilst other people spoke.
I was quiet socially but had confidence once on stage and had done many local productions before where I had large speaking roles etc (local am dram, at school etc) I was frustrated but I kept my head down and was determined to prove that I could do more.

The next term I got 3 lines.

Following that (after the teachers had time to know my abilities, strengths and weaknesses - and I’d paid my dues so to speak) I had the main parts. (In both straight acting pieces and musical theatre pieces)

You can’t always be the main person, and although you’re all paying it is unrealistic to try and spread everything equally, neither theatre nor life works like that.
Your dc will still be learning and perhaps next time will get a chunk of dialogue.

You called it "the play". Nobody really had much reason to think it wasn't a play. You mentioned eight or nine scenes. You mentioned a final scene. That all sounds like a play to me.

Caligurl then goes on to describe it a something other than a play.

Immediately after which you describe it as something very similar to Caligurl, and you then say 'it's far from a play'.

Caligurl must be psychic.

She's been there for a week. One week. Just a couple of hours.

They're not going to give her Titania or Lady Macbeth on the basis of a couple of hours.

Op, I didn't see anything in your opening post that suggested

"It's a showcase. Think of it like a talent show, or an audition where the same scene will be read multiple times by different actors. It's not meant to be cohesive"

I read the op. You said it was a simplified Shakespeare.

Only after that was posted did you say it was something more akin to that description.

So yes, I read the op.

There is also a skill in being part of the chorus/ensemble which is just as important to learn. And also an important life lesson that you can't always be a star

Cross posted with op.

Interesting that Caligurl seemed to know something that the op was just about to post...

It doesn't sound like a showcase to me. It sounds like a simplified and shortened version of a Shakespeare play.

Where did you get the impression that it's not a cohesive production? (I use the word production to mean something that has been produced btw, so I'm not sure how it's not one)

But it's not a 'production'. It's a showcase. Think of it like a talent show, or an audition where the same scene will be read multiple times by different actors. It's not meant to be cohesive. Individual scenes will stand on their own, there should be clarity within them but not as a wholem. Parents are not expecting to see continuity they just want to see their little darlings act.

@MagicTape makes a lot of sense.

YANBU. I'm sure they can't have exactly the same number of lines but it's not fair for half the kids to sit bored through endless rehearsals if you're all paying. It doesn't really matter so much about the end result as them enjoying the process, so who cares if it's hard to follow so many characters?

This is a really really smart response.
And if the OP knew a bit more about drama, she'd know that even in non-musical theatre things happen on stage involving non-speaking characters; there is stage business; there is the work that goes on silently. One doesn't just stand around waiting to deliver one's single line!

My child does a similar class. New joiners generally get small parts but all the children learn all of the songs and dance routines. The reason new joiners get small parts is that the teacher doesn't know if they are going to fall apart with anxiety if they don't learn their lines on time, burst into tears on stage, or drop out after three weeks. Nor do they know if the parents are going to be flaky AF, shout at the child if they forget their lines in the performance, or shout at the teacher for giving the child too much to do when they've also got SATs / 11+ / their Grade 27 violin exam this term.

Generally at the franchise my child attends, a small part one term means a bigger one the next time, and at the end of each term the children are asked to express a preference - some children don't want a speaking part and just want to dance, some want a lot of lines, some want a singing solo but aren't bothered about speaking parts and so on. They can't obviously accommodate every child's preference but my experience was that they did their best.