School play....why do auditions???

[Schoolmum2468]

It's school play season AGAIN...and again the same old story happening again. (3x DC...always the same story)

I told DH weeks ago when we found out the play who would be given which parts. And low and behold....I was correct.

And my DC has come home in tears because they weren't given any of the parts they auditioned for. Even the extra part the teacher asked them to audition for

The child who told mine not to bother going for part A because it was their part...yup got the part

The pushy parents child got the main part (AGAIN!!!)

"Shy" children who have now come out of their shells now they're the eldest in the school.... literally background scenery.

My DC's friend is also upset because they wanted a speaking part and got 1 short line "no way" type of thing

My DC wanted an acting part and got narrator (again). They've been told in the past that it's because they're a good reader....but now in yr6 after years of being narrator (both in end of year plays and Xmas nativities) they thought for the last play in primary they would try really hard to get an acting part.

So what is the point of asking children which part they want and going through auditions if teachers are going to ignore all that and just chose who they want.

And why not give other children a little bit of a chance in the spotlight if they want it. Chances are the shyer ones are going to be even more lost in secondary and this may be their last chance. It's a school play....why not add lines for children who want them. It's primary school not a theatre production!!!

If any teachers can explain why they do this year upon year....please enlighten me.

And actually, dd's primary school used to have pre sports day trials to decide which events they would participate in. So not that different from auditions, really.

Really? Presumably they all got to take part equally though - so they all had an opportunity to take part in the actual event? .

And the major difference, of course, is the winning the race is open to all - the teacher doesn’t decide who wins in advance.

Not equally, no.

They all got to participate in at least one event, but some of them participated in multiple events. This was decided through the pre sports day qualifying races.

In the same way, most children get to perform in some capacity in the school production.

And frankly, some children are never actually going to win a race at sports day, so unless you are going to advocate that the medals should not be given to the winning child but shared around so that they don't go to the same children each year, I honestly can't see the difference.

RE choosing a play, it's actually quite hard. You buy it in from a company and don't see the script beforehand, just a scription of how many parts, ideal cast size etc. No school has the money to buy one and discard it if it's no good. You can't use the same one too often or half the parents will have seen it before, and if it's a multi-year group play the children will have been in it before! Editing it is of course possible but massively time consuming.

Editing a bought-in play can have copyright implications, too.

Yeah, but you do realise that, as a teacher, you have no right to a life of your own, and you should of course be willing to give up the weekends and evenings when you're not already doing marking or planning etc, so that little Johhny will be able to have a proper speaking part in the play, even if you're pretty sure that he won't actually bother learning the lines. After all, it's only fair.

However, those quieter children can come into their own at secondary and beyond and if supported well by parents at home these will be the children with bags of resilience and grit.

I hope so! I've actually been dead impressed with the way DS1 has dealt with disappointment after disappointment, picked himself up, tried to take the good from it (proud of himself for putting himself out there, proud of the speech he gave for a competition for a certain job, etc etc) and got on with the next thing. It's obviously helped that recently he's been absolutely flying in clubs outside of school both in performing arts and sport which has countered his impression that school thinks he's just a bit rubbish.

Clearly in primary his teachers having apparently no idea that he was gutted hasn't been a plus, I suspect you're right that it will be a real benefit in secondary.

That sounds like a miserable way to run a primary school sports day @MrsBennetsPoorNerves I'm glad ours were fun events with equal participation for all, and the the great thing about having a range of activities was that it gave all children an opportunity to shine at something - winning wasn't a foregone conclusion, unlike the non-auditions the OP is referring to.

Tbh, as a not-very-sporty child, dd was never that bothered about doing loads at sports day in any case... she rather enjoyed being able to stand on the sidelines and cheer the other kids on. Her time to shine came from other opportunities such as the school production.

That’s good for her - not good for the ones who actually wanted to take part but didn’t get through the first heats. Perhaps if our primaries had been more about the competition and less about taking part and having fun mine would have felt the same (our elder 2 certainly, the youngest is very sporty) but it was a whole school event with lots of different activities, so they enjoyed the days.

If your DD shone at the school production was she given lead or main roles on a regular basis?

There will of course be nice/hard working children who get main parts, there is no debating of that. But the 3 main roles been given this time 1) nice, hard working, friendly, well behaved child. 2) mean child who regularly says horrible things and gets sent to the head teacher (e.g making fun of child whose parent had died) and 3) child of pushy parent who does NOT take no for an answer (e.g...no room in the after-school club....sends DC anyway and says they have to make room)

Or is this just my school?

I have worked in schools (year 1 so younger) and the "audition" was to put hand up who wanted some lines. And singing in a group to gauge confidence in front of people. Teachers know which DC are confident and probably won't freeze. They know which DC will see their parents and start crying. So that was enough.

The problems I see is.... Yes child 2 above may be confident, but should they be given a main part when others are as confident as them and have not been in trouble as much are given a smaller part?

And the asking the children to say which parts they wanted (only allowed 3 choices, weren't allowed to put "any speaking/acting part") if they cannot accommodate that.

Surely to ask a child, (I think a lot of people are forgetting these are children and not adults) if they would like a speaking part/big or small part, and then do a general audition would be a better system???

I don't think it's just your school. I think it's just you. You sound like you have an issue with child 2, and the parent of child 3. And the play is just today's reason for venting those issues.

Are you a teacher? Because education is also about giving children what they need, not just what some adults think is deserved. Perhaps the teacher was trying to modify the behaviour of child 2 by providing an opportunity for them to shine. Perhaps that child had mistakenly seen the attention being given to the bereaved child as something desirable, and the teacher felt that providing an opportunity for attention for positive reasons was in the best interests of that child and the whole class? And I'm not at all sure why the behaviour of child 3's pushy parent should result in opportunities being denied to that child. Maybe they also deserved the opportunity?

The proof will be in the pudding. When's the play? I really want to know if it turns out to be any good. Will you tell us?

Pushy parents, we found parents in primary counting lines vs kid’s friends and asking for more speaking parts. Better looking costumes requests. Dance sequence to be put in place since their kid like dancing. We are talking London primary for 7 years old not some selective acting school. Also, singing roles but a few solo lines and the rest to back up their kid. I really felt sorry for the teachers.

When's the play? I really want to know if it turns out to be any good

Why do you want to know if the school play that some children you don't know are putting on is good?

I don't want to know - so if you want want to know if the OP will tell you then use 'me' and not 'us'.

Yes, pretty much, as I said above. Not every single year, but she did generally get good parts.

I think there were various reasons for the fact that she so often got chosen. Firstly, she had an aptitude for performing, whether it was acting, singing or dancing. Secondly, she was confident and capable of projecting her voice. Thirdly, she was a quick learner and could be relied upon to remember her lines. She also tended to remember everyone else's lines as well, so she could improvise a prompt quite easily if someone else forgot their lines. She had good attendance so was always at rehearsals. She was extremely good at following directions, so very easy for the teacher to direct. And she was a team player, worked well with the other kids, helped others to learn their lines/practise their songs/go through the dances etc.

By late secondary, the teachers were pretty much relying on dd and another girl to run a lot of the rehearsals with the younger kids. While they were both undoubtedly talented, I'm pretty sure that their attitude and commitment off stage was as much a reason for them getting picked so regularly as their performance on stage.

Yes, I thought that was probably the case and explains your stance on this.

I have been quite open about that in my posts. I just don't understand the level of resentment that is often directed towards kids who often get picked for stuff like this. It really isn't always because they have pushy parents etc, despite what MNers like to think, and it's really fucking annoying when people try to downplay the talents of kids who do well in this area while being perfectly happy to cheer for those who are good at sport.

For me, it is no different.

Oh man ! I didn’t appreciate how good my dcs’ primary school was when they were there.

Everyone had at least one line and the main parts were swapped between children so the max lines they had was about four.

there was dancing and singing. My shy dc was given a job as stage hand as he didn’t want to join in. Some children did the background visuals.

It is possible to be fair. But it is probably a lot more work !

The resentment (if you can call it that - I'd say it's more frustration) isn't directed at the kids - it's directed at the teachers and the 'audition' process which means that the children who really want to take part and have more than a tree role never get picked because the teachers have decided in advance who will get the main parts time and time again.

I remember my eldest's primary productions - Duncan and Ewan in the lead parts, every year, for 7 years. The other kids knew in advance the boys would get the parts, the parents knew they'd be watching the Duncan and Ewan show again, and it made for a boring night. The best productions were at my DD's school where all the pupils were more involved - it might not have been as polished as my DS1's but it was far more enjoyable to watch (including the things that went wrong) and the parents got a chance to see their own star shine on the stage.

You say that the resentment isn't directed at the individual children, but I have seen loads of posts about this issue on here over the years, and it really is directed at children and/or their parents. Posters determined to tear holes in the children who have been picked, posters determined that the kids can only have been chosen because the parents are pushy, or because they're school governors or whatever. So many of these posts just reek of petty jealousies and resentment.

It was always the same kids picked for sports teams at my dc's school. I didn't resent that in the slightest... the kids in question were obviously talented and had earned their place. Would my dd have developed her sporting abilities more if she had been given the opportunity to play in the school team instead? Yes, probably, but I accepted that the selection was on merit and didn't jump to the conclusion that the teacher had favourites or that the parents of the sporty kids were pushier than the rest.

My dd was also very academic. She was regularly given harder work to push her. Why shouldn't kids who are talented at sport be pushed and stretched by being on a team? And why shouldn't kids who are talented at performing arts be pushed and stretched by having more challenging roles in a play?

I disagree - the resentment is directed more at the process, not the children per se. It’s not petty jealousy, although I understand it’s easy to dismiss it as such, but frustration at the narrow approach some (not all, thankfully) schools take.

Anyway, we’ll have have to disagree on this one.

So if the resentment is directed purely at the process, and not at individuals, then why do we get so many unnecessary nasty comments about the kids and their pushy parents etc?

We will indeed have to agree to disagree.

Because the process enables these children.

Indeed we will.

But how is that the fault of the children or the parents in question? If the process is at fault, then people should focus on that process rather than on bitching about the kids who got picked. The fact that there is so much nastiness directed towards the kids is clear proof that people do resent them for it.

I have never heard people bitch about sports teams but drama seems to bring out the worst in parents.