Last week my daughter (10) trialled a drama class. She came out happy and said they’d played games and done activities, all good so signed her up.
The following week she’s come out with a script, a simplified Shakespeare. 8/9 scenes long and some big big parts. Some characters speak in blocks in most scenes. It would be challenging for the age group (yr 3-6) but fun.
Shes been allocated one line in the final scene. I kind of expect this in school plays etc, some kids are picked, some aren’t. I’d expect the same for a staged performance to some extent. The play planned is the whole half term and is only for parents.
I’d expect a paid class to have a much better script picked than 5/6 kids getting huge amounts to do, 5/6 getting one or two lines and a few having unspoken parts. We pay the same, I don’t really expect to pay for dd to watch other children developing and practicing skills for the half term whilst she’s audience for them. I’d expect a reasonable equality, as appropriate and everyone to be learning to the best of their ability. Surely there are scripts out there adapted for this purpose, to give balance. It’s hardly a west end production, it’s just a local drama centre group than doesn’t do staged performances.
For disclosure, dd is one of the oldest. She’s quiet, (high functioning asd) but once on stage goes into role and is pretty articulate and expressive. The parts were picked by the teacher observing them in a game then allocating parts quickly to children. She would be quieter in an improvisation game than in a scripted play, but she’s only been there a week so maybe they haven’t seen that side of her. They do a play every half term for parents only, a quick few scenes. As I said, it’s not that she isn’t picked for a key part that bothers me, it’s the fact there are a number of huge parts for just a handful of children whilst everyone else is on the side. It’s Shakespeare, so not something where they are still dancing etc
I have particularly looked for somewhere without big stages shows in the hope they didn’t focus on a few naturals whilst the rest learn to be a good audience for the most confident children.