How do teachers decide which child plays which role in a play/nativity?

[Gingerbready]

Just as above

I mean, really who gives a shit if Joseph is too scared to speak in a reception nativity.

There are a few kids whose parents are very involved with the school, who get prominent roles or are front and centre in the choir or group dance. Every year, every performance without fail they end up tearful and crying, leave the stage to find their mum. It’s actually very hard to watch because these kids are so obviously uncomfortable. I imagine the impact on them is far from confidence building. It does matter that the children in main roles can at least hold their own up on stage. Not for production value but because anxious, distressed children aren’t a good thing in any setting.

This thread makes me so grateful for what my children's primary school did for the Xmas show.

Every year had their own song, easy whole class 'costumes' eg antlers made at school or 'wear your pyjamas'. Performed in sequence starting with nursery and reception who left the hall after they'd done their bit.

Two form entry so split each year group into separate performances, two performances for each half over two days.

Few short speaking bits for those who wanted them.

It was fab. Not much work for teaching staff. Nothing for parents to do other than turn up. Kids totally relaxed and enjoying themselves.

@Bearnecessity That sounds funny. What sort of things was Mrs Innkeeper telling your son to do during the performance?

I actually think you can get to know a lot about a school by watching them handle casting. It's a chance to help some of the kids gain some confidence. It's not about delivering a west end show. It's no great feat to cast the already competent and confident kids. You don't have to force kids out there but you can bring on some of the more hesitant ones and let them shine. My son has autism and was the least likely choice for a main part in year 1 yet the school gave him the lead solo. It took a lot of work to get him to learn the lines/actions/timings but he did it and it had a huge impact on his confidence. It's just lazy to keeping casting the same handful of kids.

Usually ds’ school try to give everyone at least one line to say, unless a child says they don’t want to say anything. Usually they manage it by splitting up the narrator part, then asking the children to all play one character. I’m pretty sure they do that up to year 5. In year 5/6 they let the children audition for the parts, which is what happens for most secondary performances.

At my DDs school the kids of the PTA always seem to get the starring roles.

Who wants to speak a lot/little
Who will actually do it properly
Who can speak loudly
Who can manage to (within reason) stand on stage for the longer parts without starting to pick their nose etc between lines due to being bored
Who had a large part last time and who didn't

Yep, at my kids' school it's the same kids every year. The tallest, gobbiest obvious candidates. Very tedious!

Also a lot of the scripts have funny bits in and for those lines you need someone who can deliver the line correctly and possibly with animation otherwise the joke is missed which is a shame

I don't know how they pick but me and my children have always been chickens 😂

Every year had their own song, easy whole class 'costumes' eg antlers made at school or 'wear your pyjamas'. Performed in sequence starting with nursery and reception who left the hall after they'd done their bit.

My school does this too - which works well for most of the kids, but the same few were carried off stage crying every time, one little one appeared on stage carrying a box of tissues. I can’t help but think if they’d been allowed to stand towards the back or with a teacher they might have coped better than being front and centre, or being given a solo spot that was too exposing for them.

@SolitaireChampion

I generally ask them to audition. Then give most lines to best readers (as long as they asked for a speaking part) then no speaking to poor readers, or a group line with a more confident child if they are desperate for a part. The worst thing in the nativity is that we always have a girl crying because they want a speaking part but won't be a shepherd or king and isn't a good enough reader to be a narrator or the angel. It's a nightmare, I hate it it always results in tears and complaining parents. I teach yr2.

Maybe you should rethink your approach if you often have children crying and parents objecting.

We ask all the children who wants a big part, who wants a small part who wants to dance and who wants to sing a solo. We then hold auditions for those who want to do a solo by getting them to sing in front of the class. Based on the auditions, we select the children to do a solo. The other parts are chosen based on what the children want. We ensure every child has a speaking part and their chance to shine.

It is actually harder to find children for the big parts - most don't feel confident enough to do it.

Last year my ds was cast as the lead part in his final primary school christmas performance with loads of speaking parts. He was picked as he had really lost his self confidence and was a little bit lost so his teacher thought it would perk him up a bit. He of course had no idea this was the reason and it worked just as we had hoped.

DD can’t read well but she learns the part or dances or does a few cartwheels or has one single but crucial line etc etc etc. Same for all of them - the teachers generally seem to have a method for including everyone.

To be entirely honest although I had DC who were always picked at primary I wish they hadn't done it because the music teacher thought it was the West end stage and the productions had far too high a profile. DS had far too many roles but dropped his instrument and choirs by about age 10 because he decided to focus on sport instead and there was no time to do both. Evidently he was the only boy in his year who could sing.

DD was/is a little different: she is very quiet and can be anxious but loves the stage. At 3 her little nursery gave her the only speaking part, The Inn Keeper, as a reliable and confident speaker (both children enunciated clearly and have voices that carry). At about 5 she started with a little drama group, partly because she loved it and partly because she was otherwise very shy. Her involvement in drama has continued and she is a brilliant comic actress and although some of her parts have been tiny she has never "shown off" unlike some participants but enjoyed being a part of things and has made a small role her own. She's active now in footlights and applying for accountancy grad schemes

Her drama group with which she was involved from 5 to 18 and still in touch with was the glue that kept her going through some dicey teenage years due to her MH.

On balance, however, I think the school stuff had far too much focus and the music teacher did a great deal of damage. It was made more than just fun.

And the Wednesday night letter demanding x costume by Friday morning!

At preschool it was done entirely by age.
Oldest girl was Mary, next was the star, then angels, then lambs
Oldest Boy was Joseph, next was innkeeper, then shepherds, then kings.
It was done in mime with the teachers telling the story, then they sang several songs at the end. I never heard any complaints about casting over all 7 years my dc were involved.

Reception was similar. All in mime with a year 2 narrator, lots of songs. Each child had something individual to do like hold up a picture in a song. Again no complaints.

Year 1 was done by asking the children if they wanted a speaking part or non-speaking part. Speaking parts were either narrators (good readers) or single lines. There was always one child who didn't want to be on stage at all, and often they'd find something like banging coconuts together to be the donkey's hooves. There was usually 1-2 parents upset that their child didn't have lines, often though more upset that their dc had said that they didn't want them!

Year 2 every child was asked what they wanted to be and if there were multiple people for one part it was drawn out of a hat. They did 2 shows with different casts. In ds' year the non-speaking donkey was the most popular part (ds got one of them!) followed by the angels (who sang). So it wasn't always the obvious parts that are popular.
Again never heard complaints.

Juniors was a different kettle of fish. Huge juniors: they did one performance for each year.
They officially auditioned... and then seemed to ignore that. We had the meant to be emotional Mary, acting with all the woodenness of Pinocchio, the inaudible Gabriel (even with the microphone), and that was just one year. The odd thing was, having happened to be in the school when they were auditioning, you could absolutely have predicted that, and were several children who auditioned better. Neither of the children enjoyed doing it, you could tell.
Add to that they normally only had about 15 parts, the other 140 children would be sitting in school uniform with a couple of songs to sing. One year there were more like 30 parts... so they doubled them up, so 15 children got 2 parts. Never understood that. If I had over 150 children, I'd be splitting as much as possible.
140 bored children (and they were clearly bored) in school uniform does not make a good performance.
I remember one of mine (who didn't want a part) commenting in year 6 that all the parts that year allocated came from one form. Guess who did the auditions-that form teacher.
And the performances were generally absolutely dire. The scripts were written by a parent. I think she thought they were terribly funny. The entire scripts revolved round the huge joke "they didn't have X (insert phones/cars/sat nav etc) in the year zero". It wasn't funny the first time. She wrote new scripts for each year ever year, so not sure why she didn't get bored with this. That was the other bit the "chorus children" had to do.
Joseph would say something like "I don't know how to get to Bethlehem, shall I set the sat nav" and the chorus would say "No, they didn't have sat navs in Biblical times." Oh so funny!
Surprisingly the parents tended to gush over this. "Better than a West End show" was said at least once. The only excuse for saying this was if they watched the Play that Went Wrong and thought it was serious.

There were complaints over parts, especially in year 6 when the same children got the parts in the Christmas performance also got them in the summer. I pointed out one year (to the school) that there were only (over the two plays) enough parts for 25% of the girls to have a part at all if they didn't double any. So why were all except one part given to the same children again? Apparently children enjoy more being part of a chorus was the response, and it was so hard on those given parts not to have that experience. 🤨

I used to sit there in awe as how dreadful the performances were. How was it possible for to make such a dreadful performance with the number of rehearsals they had? Truly amazing.

In year 2 there was a mum who liked her kids to be the centre of attention. Her dd was in the orchestra/band in front of the stage and the mum was annoyed she "didn't get a chance to shine." She said there was no reason for her dd to be in front of the stage and not on it so the next performance the band were moved up onto the stage. I was surprised the school went along with it

That is a very weak school. I would want my DC there.

Mine aren't there either any more (if you mean you wouldn't want them there?) They did get a decent education there though, so not all bad!

It did seem to always be the same kids, my dd was picked for the biggest singing part often, or got a separate role singing as she was unusually young to have a good voice and could remember words (and everyone else's too). They did modern comic versions of the nativity at her school. Once she got older (around 10) she would be the accompanist as she played piano well by then and didn't like standing on stage

@camelfinger

Dd is spring and got the lead in year 1 having skipped reception (we were travelling) she was super confident for her age despite being autistic and could sing well. In year 2 she got a smaller speaking part but had the main solo singing part, in fact I wonder if they tweaked the bought in script for her as it was as if the role was made for her. She was so quiet in class and shy but on stage came alive which her teachers encouraged

My DC school often asked who wanted speaking part (both my DC are shy and have never wanted main parts although once DS said he didn't want a speaking role ....and got a singing part...which I thought would be 100 x more nerve wracking than a 4- word speaking part!) but honestly with both kids I could predict out who (in their year group) would be Mary and Joseph (or lead character if not trad nativity) . Same few kids, year in year out. One of the chosen ones went to a private school last year, so I was looking forward to seeing if there was a new lead but there wasnt a show of any sort this year.

I get that teachers want someone who will learn/remember lines etc but it also could become self fulfilling - we know x can do a good job, because they did it last year.

My youngest was given a role in every play that involved a large speaking role. They said it was because he could project his voice well. They meant he is really loud and everyone in the hall, in the offices, all the other classes would hear him.

@Nunoftheother, yep, that year’s Nativity play featured dancing penguins and hula dancers from Hawaii. Someone was travelling around the world, but I can’t remember if it was Mary and Joseph or Father Christmas and his wife.