School Play - Question for Teachers

[FuntoLearn]

Hi to all the Teachers out there,

How do you choose pupils for parts in a school play = ie actor (speaking part), narration, percussion, non speaking part etc.

My DD had a background part recently (just did some chorus with the rest of the class)and was dissapointed she didnt get a chance to do something more, also the same pupils got the same "big" parts as last year.

Interested to know how they are selected (she is in YR2 btw)

She wants to do something more next time - but I dont want her to annoy the teacher by asking. It donesnt matter too much to me

Thanks all...

The ones who are capable of learning lines and who speak clearly and with expression and are fairly confident get the main parts.

Agree with what elpha said

Gosh she's keen! In year 2 most kids are kind of oblivious to all that...if you think she would benefit then pop her ito one of those kids drama clubs at the weekends....Stagecoach or Theatrethrain would get her confidence up.

I start off by asking them who would like to do:

speaking part/acting
narration
dancing

and so on...

Then I might get the narrators to all read a passage to the class for instance for instance. The best person gets the job tbh.

There are always a few who don't want to say anything. But if they want to say something then I will find something for them to say iyswim.

Does that make sense?

Ive noticed that its always the same kids every year that get the best parts.

And not to forget the teachers' children who also feature as main stars.

Sarcasm apart, the children tend to be the more confident ones, and despite many of our kids being confident at home and outside environments, they dont all show their true potential at school. .... And the teachers can only work on what they see. They need to chose reliable children who wont let the side down.

When dcs were that age, the children who got the parts were the reliable performers, and several of them actually had genuine acting ability. Dd was often quite upset, I pointed out to her that if she wanted better parts she would have to learn what it takes and be as good as the best ones I went through the characteristics required and offered to teach them to her, but warned her that this is not an automatic guarantee of a part next time.

This is the same approach I take to my ds when he complains that he is in lower sets for maths and literacy: very well, if you want to go into higher sets, these are the skills you need to learn (primarily a better command of the times tables, in his case). Moaning at the teacher will get you nowhere.

When people mention choosing children because of their acting ability and confidence etc, are they expecting to watch a west-end standard production?. I think not, it's a school nativity FGS, let different children have a go.

To be fair, lovecheese, only parents have talked about acting ability, not teachers.

It may not be a west end standard production, but it is a proper, actual play. So it seems fair enough to me that the children who have a flair for drama get the chance to have a proper go at it. And the audience gets the opportunity to hear what is being said and have some clue what the play is meant to be about.

I'd still expect every child to be able to take part on some level. But I can't see the problem with the decent actors getting the decent parts - just as I can't see the problem with those who are good at maths being in the top set and those who are good with a ball being on the football team. Let them use their gifts.

But the majority of the children see the same minority getting the big roles year after year, and this is honestly the case at my DCs school, from reception up; The upshot of this then is that the kids see not much point in auditioning because they know that it is going to be X, Y and Z getting the parts, like last year. Cue apathy and disgruntlement from the kids. It's just not fair.

And if these same kids do have a flair for acting then good for them, join a theatre group, but let others have a go at school. Sorry for ranting, but this is something that has been going on for a long time at my kids school, and a lot of the other parent's feel the same as me.

It sounds like it's being handled pretty badly at your school, Lovecheese. Certainly the parts should be spread around fairly and plays should be chosen so that lots of people get the chance to do something interesting.

But my personal bugbear is that there is very, very little space for performing arts in the primary school curriculum. So the school play is practically the only chance that a child with talent in drama, dance, music etc gets the chance to practice their skill.

And yes, they could join a theatre club. But you could say the same about sports. However, no-one seems to question the idea that the children who are best at sports get to represent the school in matches. It's the same principle - let everyone have a go, but give those who have real talent the chance to take it a bit further by joining the football team/having lots of words to say in the school play/singing a solo ...

Just thinking back to last year's school production.

There were about 12 big speaking parts, plus lots more with a line or two. Three very talented singers and dancers got a song and dance routine which brought the house down. There were also two or three other big songs with dances, and different groups of children did each one. Plus lots of crowd scenes.

I'll put my hands up and admit that my older daughter had a big part in her play. She is good at acting, despite being rather quiet and reserved in "real life". So it was exciting to watch her get her moment of fame!

My other daughter couldn't have handled a bit part. She got to dress up in a costume and sing a song along with the rest of the class. She was as happy as larry, enjoyed the whole buzz of the thing and had just as much fuss made over her at home.

I honestly didn't detect any resentment about the allocation of parts among the parents. But it's a big school and they do large-scale plays, so maybe everyone really did feel they'd had a decent shot.

I choose kids who I know aren't likely to get panicked, forget their lines and cry on the day. I also choose ones who I know will actually learn their lines (after the year where I "gave someone a chance" and we were on play day and he was still being licked into shape by the innkeepers wives to learn his one line). Basically the kids who can cope with it.

Would you rather I pick a kid who worried themselves to sleep over it for weeks, got really upset and wanted to run off the stage on the day?

Most schools also do speaking roles going through the higher year group in the production first thing - means that for things like a whole-KS1 nativity, over the time in the infants everyone gets a line or two to say.

I see we're now deep into nativity part crying though. The average bought-in play comes with about 10 speaking parts. We already chop them into two or three to try to double the people who get to say something, we add in pages to the kings so more kids get to dress up as different characters, we add in "orchestras" to increase the numbers actively participating, we contrive all sorts of additional parts so everyone gets to dress up and do stuff (a colleague's finest achievement was getting a Macdonald's drive through man worked into a nativity story). We send home multiple copies of words, song CDs (even though we shouldn't) and bend over backwards to help with the learning of stuff. In some schools we make all the costumes ourselves (I worked in one place that had the staff sat over sewing machines every lunch break making angel dresses) - yet STILL it's not enough. Ultimately - until someone writes the nativity where 15 children get to be Mary, 15 get to be Joseph and they all get exactly the same number of lines to say, with no one getting the first, last or middle lines that might be seen as being more significant - someone isn't going to get the part they want... and we're going to get it in the neck. Oh and then if it's not traditional we get hammered for that, if it's not funny we get hammered for that, if the songs aren't catchy we get wrong for that, if they're not traditional we get wrong for that, if it's a play the school's done before we get wrong for that.

Like someone said - we don't get this about the school football team - but we get it every year for plays.

Sats/teaching/really extreme behaviour - piece of cake... the politics of sodding Christmas plays - nightmare.

"lovecheese Mon 18-Oct-10 09:11:49
When people mention choosing children because of their acting ability and confidence etc, are they expecting to watch a west-end standard production?. I think not, it's a school nativity FGS, let different children have a go."

Whilst I agree to a certain extent it would be cruel to give a major part to a child who can not handle it.

I have had complaints in the past from a parent when I gave a lead role to an autistic boy who had gernuine acting ability onthe basis that I was making fun of him by making him perform in front of people. He LOVED it.

elpha - all credit to you for spotting talent and giving him a chance to shine.

I still well up thinking about the lad from our school's speech and language unit who got a big part in a recent school production. He was brilliant - confident, enthusiastic and with a genuine sense of comic timing that took everyone's breath away. No-one knew he had it in him.

So no, it's not the West End, but it can be a life-enhancing opportunity for children who suddenly discover they've got a gift that they never knew they had. And I'm so grateful for teachers that take the time to spot those gifts and nurture them - and STILL move heaven and earth so that everyone can take part. You are heroes!

The mum who complianed had a dd who was a little diva - thought she was wonderful (and she probably could have been quite good.) However she never listened during class or rehearsals and had a real I am wonderful attitude. Was only interested in herself and not in working as part of a team

Hence no main part.

Gosh - facinating. Didnt expect so many posts. Really interesting. Thank you all :)

It would be lovely though for all children during their infant/primary school education to be able to play a reasonable part in a play - minor speaking part and so on....

Just so they get a chance to do it.

Regardless of how well they do it. :)

Not all kids want to though. Some kids get really stressed out and anxious about the thought of saying something in front of all those people - and most DO get the chance, maybe not in reception or Y1, but in most schools I go in (and I go in a LOT)... all the y2s who WANT a speaking part get something to say. They're often given a choice and you'd be surprised a lot of them ask NOT to have one.

Teachers will choose the children who are not shy,talk well in class and are usually well behaved and never get in trouble. The important thing is your child is happy with or without a part.

This is one of the big taboos of school life isn't it and there have been some excellent posts.
I had a little stab of pain when my dd didn't get a speaking part in the pre-school nativity but not because I felt she should have been the one to play Mary or have a speaking part but because with SEN around speech and language it is just not something she is capable of doing, I did however watch her as an Angel and seeing her sing as part of the 'pack' was an amazing moment 6 months before she had less then 15 words.
Last year was her reception year and the school handled the whole thing very well on the whole, even though they had parts there were no speaking parts, a couple of children from Y6 did a narration and the reception children did songs, dd was a star in lots of ways (the only beef was with the lack of thought on positioning, had all the littlest children (including dd) on the back row behind two rows of big tall Shepards, I didn't get to see dd sing and that was upsetting, I didn't intend to say anything to her teachers about it but one of them stopped to speak to me at the wrong moment after the show and to my shame I started crying, explained that even in the second row I didn't get to see dd sing and how much that means to us given her SEN, they were very apologetic, just hadn't realised, when they did a song from the play in the church service that eve they arranged it so the smallest children were at the front, head teacher even called me to apologise which I found a little bit to be honest, never intended to make a big deal out of it!
This year she will be part of the whole school play (not a nativity but Christmas themed), KS1 sing and then the speaking/solos/dancing parts are given out through KS2. If is a small school and this seems to work well, they do two plays a year and through there time at the school everyone who wants to gets a chance, I have never heard a parent complaining so fingers crossed!

I do know of one parent who took it to an art form.

She disagreed with the choice of parts and refused to speak to any of the nursery staff (was a nursery/reception joint nativity) for the rest of her child's entire time at the school.