Unfairness in school play

[Seren2013]

My year 3 DS was given one line in the upcoming school play and it wouldn't be a problem if that was more or less what everyone got, but everyone else got paragraphs and paragraphs of lines. Don't know why my DS was singled out for the tiny part or why there was even such a tiny part to begin with! He was really excited to show me his script but when he saw he had almost no lines, he was nearly in tears.

Any suggestions what to do?

Everyone else has paragraphs and paragraphs of lines and he's the only one with 1 line?

If that is accurate, all you can do is either explain to him that these things cannot always be fair and help him deal with his disappointment or have a chat with his teacher.
Maybe there is another aspect to the role? My daughter didn't have any lines in her Christmas play, although she would have been perfectly able to deliver them, but she did have a solo to sing. It didn't cross my mind to complain about the lack of lines, there will be plenty more opportunities.

When you say everyone else has paragraphs do you know it's literally everyone else in the class? It would be unusual for a play to have 30 major roles. Is it possible that there are some children who have no lines at all so aren't in the script?

Its the nature of school plays. Ds is yr 7, they're doing a musical. He was asked to audition for a specific part by the performing arts teacher, then the assistant teacher gave that part to someone who didn't even audition but always has a main part in everything and the main teacher apparently couldn't reverse the decision. Ds has had to accept chorus and has learnt all the partswhilst the other boy messes aroundannoying people. We just have to teach them to take it on the chin.

As someone else said, it may be that all the other speaking parts have more lines but are there really large speaking parts for every child? Also it's not unusual to have only one line.
In lots of schools there are 60 (or more) children per year group, the performances would go on for hours if they all had to have a big part.

This happened to my DD1 in the year 6 play athough she was the only one with no lines at all. She was distraught as she likes drama and had auditioned for a medium/bug part.

I went in to school and spoke to her teacher (I was a bit over emotional to be honest). Anyway she apologised and said there had been a mistake (not sure there had been) and got DD really involved in directing and other backstage stuff.

One of the other children who had a main part then changed her mind and DD ended up swapping parts and it all worked out very well.

I had not been in to school and complained about anything before, but I felt very strongly about this and am glad I made a fuss. Maybe you could have a word with the teacher?

Do nothing. Or do you want the school to give your child someone else's part and give that child the one line?

It's a disappointment but not unfair - it's how the play was written.

I have never seen a school play with long speeches for 29 children and 3 lines for one single child. Are you sure it is not the case that 6 or 7 children get longer speeches, and that the rest get to be in the chorus and don't appear in the script for that reason?

There are two possible lines of action you could pursue here:

you could either go in and make a big fuss in the hope that the teacher will take one of the other children's speeches away from them and give it to your ds

or

you could explain to your ds that casting is about all sorts of things, that not everybody can have lots of lines but that it's everybody pulling together that makes the play special, that he can do a lot with three lines if he works really hard, and that if he does that he may well get a better part in the next play

(you can tell that I'm the mother of an aspiring actress, can't you? I've got rather good at these speeches over the years- dd never had any good parts in primary school, but that didn't stop her: she is about to audition for the National Youth Theatre and is being encouraged to think of the stage as a career choice)

school plays are always full of stuff like this...generally parents need to calm down...it is a school play

my D was the narrator, as she was last year. She hates this role and wanted to be the donkey. desperately wanted to be the donkey.
The mother of the boy who was the donkey complained to the school that casting him in this role was 'making a fool out of him'

D still didn't get to be the donkey

He'll hopefully have a different role next year.

29 lots of "paragraphs and paragraphs" from year 3 will be really tedious.
Even assuming they only get to talk for 1-2 minutes you're looking at 45 minutes, assuming no songs etc.

It may be much more than that one line as well. Dd2 got upset when she got her part in year 2. She had nothing to say in the script... turned out she was the only one to be on stage for almost the entire time and had a duet to sing, probably the most complicated part.

And if he has only got one line, encourage him to say it loudly, clearly and with some emotion, which will help him in future.

Ronald ds was the donkey this year. He was thrilled. I asked whether he was chosen because he was a "little donkey", or whether he was being a "prize ass". He chose "prize ass" and asked for a rosette.

I used to say things like, "Maybe you'll have a bigger part next year, 'cos they only have so many to share."

However after the second or third year of watching the same children in the main parts you tend to give up.

Hello OP, I think some things like this are normal disappointments our dc need to learn to cope with. It is a shame though when you know they could have coped with more responsibility.

As an aside if he likes drama and to encourage him, could you look at a local drama group where parts are probably given more fairly.
We had similar with dd and singing, she turned out to be a natural and now sings in a famous choir.

One door closes, another one opens.

Often the parts with few or no lines can be the best parts! Wall-E doesn't really speak and he is the lead in his film.

Unless it's a radio play, lines are just a tiny bit of acting. It's what you do the whole time you are on stage/on camera that is most important and makes you believable and engaging to watch.

Agree with PP to do the line brilliantly and a drama group is a great idea.

richmal Wed 22-Jan-14 13:56:09
"I used to say things like, "Maybe you'll have a bigger part next year, 'cos they only have so many to share."

However after the second or third year of watching the same children in the main parts you tend to give up."

I don't know, I thought of it more as a learning experience and a chance to show dd how she could be part of something good even if she didn't get exactly what she wanted. I think it's stood her in good stead and been a useful life lesson. Now that she is getting serious about drama having learnt to cope with disappointment seems a pretty essential part of her skills set.

It is interesting though, Cory, that no-one recognised the talent your DD has! This worries me.

With my own DDs, throughout senior school it was obvious who the favourites were as you could write the cast list for the main parts before anyone ever auditioned! Not much to do with talent quite often. It is a hard lesson to learn but in acting if your face fits, you get chosen. Everyone else gets the crumbs.

In the same way I could predict who would be in school sports teams. Teachers pick their teams in sport and drama in order to produce the best result.

Same in our schools - the same children get picked for sports each term, and for the plays. But it does tend to be the best children to be fair!!!

Important lesson - you can't be good at everything or picked for everything.

I have never in my years of watching school plays seen one where each child has a long part. Most of our kids simply do a dance and say very little!!!!!

I think you should encourage him to just accept it and do his line brilliantly and he may get a bigger part next time!!! Perhaps he actually isn't very confident (or any good!) and they think that a slowly slowly approach would be best.

Thankless task being a teacher sorting out the school play!

DS is delighted that this year (year 3) he has 4 lines after last year when he only had 1 line. He also told me that "Fred" has only got 1 line this year. I reminded him that "fred" had LOTS of lines last year when "fred" & "mabel" anchored the whole play and every one else had 1 or 2 lines.

Now I'm pretty sure that fred and mabel were given big roles last year because they were capable of learning them and mabels role included a solo song which I'm not sure many of them could have carried off. DS was given his 1 line role last year because one the trio he was in needed to be a reliable child who would make sure all 3 of them got to the right place in the right order with the right props, remember the dance routine & and remind the other 2 of their forgotten lines.

Its a school play, normally they all get to learn a lot of songs and afew dance routines, forget their own line and pick their nose. its not eh west end and he won;t be scarred for life by being a bit bored in rehearsals.

Same as Cory - dd is now at full time performing arts school but never got solos.

However I also agree sometimes the parts with less lines are really good parts. A drama teacher I know said to a group of 7-8 year old kids that if they carried on counting lines they wouldn't get any. It's how you act & react.

Think yourself lucky! My DS got completely overlooked and didn't even get a part. They had to hastily make him a cloud! Guess how pleased he was that he got to stand behind a piece of white cardboard for a couple of scenes!

Paragraphs & paragraphs from 29x7-8 yr old? Thank Fudge I don't have to go to that play.

You've got to get over it. School is rarely fair IME. At least he got a line. I don't think mine's ever had a line. Been a variety of standing about things over the years - stars, flames, trees. Has done a few dances though. It really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

There is no such thing as a small part, only a small actor. How many times have I heard that one! They should substitute parent for actor....

DD is a drama queen but she is dyslexic and dyspraxic so not the obvious one to pick for a Primary School teacher. So she didn't get the big parts in school plays unless it was a "character part" eg Tigga who knew he was at the Nativity? So she did Drama outside school, lots of great opportunities including a west end part.

In any case even in stage and television, casting is as much about the look as talent and teachers, especially Primary teachers, tend to go for the confident ones who look right and will reliably learn and recite their lines even if they do it like cardboard cut outs. They also don't tend to understand that drama might be a separate meritocracy to the academic one and that those that have talent might actually deserve the best parts. Even in Senior School there is still an element of all that.

I still think I should have gone on the warpath when the obvious "character" part in the Year 6 production went to the girl whose parents threatened that they would not allow the school to publicise her scholarship if she didn't get a big part, and DD got two lines. Then DD had to help her when she was getting anxiety attacks about being on stage so much and they ended up with DD singing the main song as a sort of soundtrack from the side because the main lovers sounded so awful.

It has actually all talked her a lot about resilience and how these things can work unfairly, and ultimately the importance of using charm and networking to get the opportunities.

And she showed them with her prize winning Bottom in the schools Shakespeare festival

I agree with the others about picking your battles and just going with it.

I have picked many battles over the years but not this one. Maybe because it didn't feel that important, albeit rather irritating at times. In fairness my children got big parts, no parts and medium parts in the years. There didn't seem to be any favourites particularly.

I did feel a little bit annoyed one year as my DD1 got asked to go and "rehearse" in the evenings when she didn't have a single line in this particular play. This was in the middle of her ballet show rehearsals so we told the school she wouldn't attend neither the rehearsals nor the play (also on during an evening!). They were fine about it.

in DD1's play we were only given the page her lines were on so other than the others who had lines on that page we had no way of knowing how many lines others had. she was furious, she didn't like her role and said she didn't get to say much nor did she have and acting part and she had wanted a different role which she claimed said more. in the real world she said at least as much as the role she claimed said more so her view was very distorted. I can see she wanted an acting rather than narrating role but we just said perhaps next year and that she had obviously been picked for her part because she had the right qualities for it. (and I secretly jumped for joy because it didn't involve a costume or learning too many lines and cues).

She is now about to start a drama group outside of school so perhaps next year really will be a chance for her to do a different role but if not then she can do them in drama and hopefully not even think about it.