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.

It's has been the same with kids.... In fact it hasn't changed at all I fear. When I was at school my Mum had a difficult parents evening because the PE teacher got cross. She embarassed because my Mum had told her that I swam for the county... Which I did. The PE teacher took no responsibility for the fact that just maybe she should noticed that I was clearly a good swimmer. She had put me in he bottom group based on my performance in other sports!

Giving everyone a part when you have 50+ kids audition is unmanageable. If some of those kids are given parts and so nervously quiet on stage, the production is tiresome. If some of those kids are unreliable and stall rehearsals, they end up being nagged repeatedly until it borders on bullying, or they have to be taken off the role, which is humiliating.
Just like some kids are tall and athletic and so obvious choices for Goal Shooter in netball, some kids have poise and projection and timing - those are just facts. Take your child to one of those places where you write a cheque out and then you can be sure they'll have a role more commensurate with your expectations.
The teachers I know hate doing plays because of the parents.

It's good they audition the children. I was very pleasantly surprised when my highly dyslexic, disorganised and unreliable DS got the main role in the school play in primary. His teacher actually rang me to ask if I thought he could manage it. She said he blew them all away in the auditions. There were so many lines to learn but he worked his socks off and was AMAZING! I was very grateful that his teacher had taken a leap of faith. It would have been safer to give the part to someone more academic and reliable. It was a massively significant event for him. He got into acting for a few years and built up some much needed self esteem.

My son was a sprinter for the county, but has (I'm sorry to say) the team spirit of a cornered cat. Hated contact sports. Because athletics was only done in the summer term, it made sense that he wasn't in the spotlight for the other two terms.

Yep, it was the same in one of my DDs year. Got very tedious seeing the same kids - although the kids were very good.
But as parents, we didn’t expect a super slick performance, so if someone fluffs their lines a bit, so what! Give other children a chance!

Those same children were also chosen to read at the leaving assembly. At this point I couldn’t stop my eyes rolling.

No, that is not why op is disgruntled. You're instructing her on what to do when you haven't even grasped her issue. Do stop it 🙄

I am not instructing anybody. I am making a suggestion. If she is that disgruntled, she can do something about it. No not going to stop posting thankyou.

My DS was overlooked at Junior school, I believe it was because he had SEN and wasn't as popular as the others, but when he went to Secondary school, things changed, he was very popular, found a lovely friendship group and his confidence shone, increased. He took drama A level and was often the lead in quite hard hitting performances, I can only remember him in one performance at junior school when he played one of the many soldier ants that were invented so they could all walk on and off stage, at some point. It is sad as I believe his drama and acting is what has made him successful in his career as he has the confidence to chair large meetings, if his situation had remained at Secondary as it had in junior school I believe he wouldn't have had the confidence he has now.

My eldest son, hated being in the spotlight and when he was 6 was given the role of the snowman in a school play version of the west end performance, he had to hold hands with his friend and dance in an inflated costume and hated it and still hates all the photos of him in the costume, I think this was the school trying to boost him.

I do agree though, there were 3 children who without doubt were chosen without fail for the main parts on successive years and their parents were often involved in the PGM

I agree that the audition process sounds unnecessarily cruel.
My children’s primary school was the same. The same few loud confident kids got the main roles every time. IMO the teachers should be trying to offer the opportunity to a range of different pupils each year and not just trying to put on the ‘best play’. I mean let’s face it primary School plays are never actually any good if you didn’t know the students in it.

Favouritism shouldn't play apart I agree,

Equal access should happen with auditions if everyone is eligible to take part in those.

As for who gets the 'best' part - is it done one merit? Is the person who keeps getting the starring role the best one for the role?

Should every child be chosen to be in the football team? Or in the orchestra? On the swimming team? In the spelling bee? Or is only those who get into the team in merit>

Yanbu. I'm not remotely a pushy parent but by the time my daughter finished primary school I felt like I'd sat through seven years of 'The Evie and Lola Show'.

The fact that these were the only two girls in the class who were BOTH blonde AND native English speakers, and both of whom had dads who were parent governors, was of course a huge coincidence.

Plenty of other funny, articulate, confident, talented kids who performed their (smaller) parts just as well as the Queen bees, if not better. But I guess dark hair or skin or a slightly 'wrong' accent or parents who don't have a position of power in the school rules you out from day 1.

Always happens doesn’t it in every school. You can guarantee who gets it. My shy DD auditioned in yr 6 much to my surprise. She did get a part but very small. It would have done her confidence the world of good had she got a bigger part. I’m sure there must be plays out there with more roles as the main character in ours had so many lines. It’s all very unfair I feel what can you do!

I can relate to your comment about sitting through 7 years of the Evie and Lola show, as the only names I remember from my DCs school days are the same ones chosen for all the major roles each year.

Its like a hierachy within the school, some of the DC become mini celebs and then it increases and they get the same each performance, its expected of them and their parents.

We don't do the bigger productions now but used to, even though ours are much younger. We did auditions which everyone could take part in, and everyone in the year group watched. The auction 'panel' had at least 4 staff members and they then came together to talk and discuss and allocate parts.

We held auditions as you don't always know who will stand out. You might have a reasonable idea from classroom experience, but you also have those who attend clubs outside of school or have a particular interest. They can then really stand out in the audition and change what you thought might happen.

We tried to be as fair as possible. But you can't risk having someone in the key parts who may not learn the lines, might get stage fright, won't speak up, etc. you need to have someone confident and clear in key roles to keep the production going.

We did ensure every child had a part and all got their chance to be in stage. And we shared main parts by having split roles - main cast changing mid show with a short interval.

Stage fright can happened to anyone at any time regardless of level of ability

Sad to say, some children will speak their lines in a completely expressionless mumble. So I can see the point of auditions, but it’s all wrong IMO for the pushiest parents’ kids to get the best parts year after year.

Although going back to my own school days many years ago (I am 58) I was chosen to be Mary both at school and at Sunday school the same year, and weirdly the same lad was chosen to be Jesus, I wasn't popular at all, and no auditions, I dont think I spoke either, but I have a very sharp memory of it, and things leading up to it, I can remember getting ready in the class room before the performance and one of the more popular girls combing my hair, and looking astonished saying, "Jenna looks pretty with her hair brushed!" - I imagine I normally looked like a bush! I also decided in my head that I was Mary and ended up going to bed wearing lots of extra knickers on Christmas Eve as thought I was going to give birth to Jesus, but thats another thread :) Just goes to show the impact on being allowed to take part in something though as I dont remember any other plays through the rest of my childhood.

I think this thread goes to show a lack of appreciation and respect for the arts.
Parts should only be allocated based on performance.

Should say same lad chosen to be Joseph not Jesus, he was too small to have a part :)

We did always canvas the children first too.
Do you want a part involving singing, dancing, narrating, speaking, musician, behind the scenes type role?
Do you want to be doing something in a small group or a big group?
We never asked who wanted a solo - that was decided by staff and the individual children spoken to, to check they'd want to do it.

What we did have to work round most years was some parents wanting their child to have a larger part then the child wanted to have.

We did adapt plays to reduce the 'larger' parts down to make them a little more equal. And often would big up the 'smaller' parts to make them more than they would have been.

It's a huge balancing act though when you've 60-90 children to find parts for in a show lasting less than an hour in a small confined space.

Our main focus was to ensure that every child got their chance to be on stage and visible to their parents/careers for at least some part of the show, in some way. And to take into account the wants, but also the needs, of our pupils.

They didn’t even audition for my Y6 musical! The teachers decided what it would be and who was going to be what, all in one go.

I’d never acted in anything before - my prior form was reading a four line poem at the carol service, and the back row of choir.

I got the lead part though, and was later told it was because I had long hair and they thought I was more likely to learn the lines than the others….

Not a lot of science goes into this.

It's cheeky. Same old crawler parents in with the teacher whose kids get favoured.

Really? It didn't for my dd.

As I've said above, she was one of the kids who did tend to get picked for everything, but she also happens to be mixed race, bilingual and I refrained from offering my services as a school governor until after she had left the school because I knew that people would make this kind of allegation if I volunteered while she was still a pupil. I wasn't even remotely a pushy parent and think I only spoke to the teachers once outside of parents' evenings in the whole time that dc was at primary school, and once when she was at secondary. So if dd was picked for stuff, it had nothing to do with how she looked and nothing to do with us as parents.

So maybe Evie and Lola were picked because they were both blonde and had parents who were governors, or maybe they were picked on merit and it really was just a coincidence.

Both our dds have played Mary. Dd1 was still very little, at nursery, but dd2 was in her last year of primary - at a Catholic school, and we weren’t Catholic*, so had never expected any favours.

Though I say it myself, she did it very well - zero fidgeting, and a perfectly serene, Mary-ish expression. But I was still amazed at the end, when the headmistress, a nun, came up to her and said in the most enthusiastic tones, ‘You were a beautiful Our Lady!’ And for the very first time, dd did get a prize at the end of year prize giving that year.

*In case anyone’s wondering, when we’d returned from many years abroad it was the only school that had places for both dds.