Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Teen Heavy Shows During Regular Season

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imamember
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Topic: Teen Heavy Shows During Regular Season
Posted: 2/06/09 at 11:42am

So I, like many many others have an opinion.

I don't like having a lot of teen/child heavy shows during the regular season.

We generally have 2 to 3 youth shows a season but the age limit is 9th grade. We also do a summer musical for mainly teens and college kids home for the summer.

This year we had a truncated mainstage season that was cut in half from 4 to 2 shows. Anne of Green Gables and Holes. Both shows are fairly dependent on younger kids and teens and we really felt it with sports, after school jobs, school band and choir concerts among other other typical teenage obligations.

Do other theatres do this typically? Have a lot of kids as the main characters?

It seems like a lot of rehearsals never have full cast due to one or more of the aforementioned activities. Isn't this why Summer Theatre exists???

I'm a grown-up. I'd like to do a grown up show occasionally.

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Nanette
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Posted: 2/06/09 at 1:14pm

My theatre is totally for the youth of the area (ages 8-19). I ask for their schedules at the auditions and, to the best of my ability, work my rehearsal schedules around their activities. If they haven't given me their schedule ahead of time, too bad. They are responsible for getting any missed notes, and can only miss 3 rehearsals without being (possibly) recast. This is stated in the code of conduct they and their parents sign. Of course, during hell week they are expected to be there; no matter what!!! I've had no problems with this since I've starting asking for conflicts ahead of time.

In a world of margarine, be butter!

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KEB54
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Posted: 2/06/09 at 1:38pm

We do like you, Ima -- summer musical heavy with kids. During the regular season, practically no kids. They have too much going on. In fact, one of our area high schools now does their musical in the summer! Show Choir is now so popular, and lasts the entire school year, they can't field a cast for the musical otherwise.

KEB

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greenphoenix
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Posted: 2/07/09 at 3:31am

Our theatre does "summer workshop" classes for ages 6-17 annually. In addition, one of our season shows generally has some type of kid/family emphasis (perhaps a child as the central character, or an adaptation of a popular children's book).

It really depends on your theatre's audience. The advantage of using kids is that they will bring parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles to see their child onstage. Our biggest seller last year had a number of young characters, and we will be repeating the show.

The obvious challenge is that, when working with children, the director often has to act as a teacher/director.

Maybe you can compromise with a commercial show like Alice in Wonderland or Hansel and Gretel, using a few children and supplementing the cast with strong adult actors.

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imamember
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Posted: 2/07/09 at 8:30am

greenphoenix you're absolutely right.

In the past this is how it's worked but starting a couple years ago we had this massive influx of older kids and teenagers. It was the summer we did High School Musical and then the first show of the season was Cheaper By The Dozen so we ended up with this massive group of young people which is great and all, but at the time the board tried to capitalize on this and started planning seasons around them since we had so many.

What ended up happening is we lost a lot of our adult players since there were fewer roles and then it got worse when they started casting kids as adults so that essentially told the adults, why bother, they're only going to cast kids in a role I'd have.

It's a vicious circle.

I'm trying to pull the group back the other way without totally alienating the group of kids we see at auditions but ultimately it's difficult.

I'm really hoping we do M.A.S.H. next season as the opener because I think that'll bring back a lot of the adult crowd.

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dramacorrect
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Posted: 3/10/09 at 9:59pm

We do some shows that need some kids during mainstage. Anne of Green Gables though, we did do a little later in the year, but limited the number of kids involved.

When we've done shows like Grease, we cast it with adults. (Young ish looking adults). But for me, if I want to see a bunch of kids performing Grease, I'll go to a high school show. When we do a show like Oz, we put a cap on how many kids can be involved. We have a pretty big CT program too in the summer though, so lots of kids have that opportunity each year.

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MartyW
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Posted: 3/12/09 at 12:02pm

There is quite a bit of younger youth theater in our area. Our theater no longer does a special "kids show"... In stead, every so often, we will do a show that has some kids in it.. For instance, last year the closest thing we had to kids were the no necked monsters in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof... And a couple thrown into Urinetwon for window dressing.. Next year how ever we have The Wizard of Oz (with opportunites for many munchkin size people) and Fiddler with its compliment of kids..

Marty W

"Till next we trod the boards.."

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Topic: Teen Heavy Shows During Regular Season( Topic Closed)

Author	Message
imamember Celebrity Joined: 8/18/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 121	Topic: Teen Heavy Shows During Regular Season Posted: 2/06/09 at 11:42am
	So I, like many many others have an opinion. I don't like having a lot of teen/child heavy shows during the regular season. We generally have 2 to 3 youth shows a season but the age limit is 9th grade. We also do a summer musical for mainly teens and college kids home for the summer. This year we had a truncated mainstage season that was cut in half from 4 to 2 shows. Anne of Green Gables and Holes. Both shows are fairly dependent on younger kids and teens and we really felt it with sports, after school jobs, school band and choir concerts among other other typical teenage obligations. Do other theatres do this typically? Have a lot of kids as the main characters? It seems like a lot of rehearsals never have full cast due to one or more of the aforementioned activities. Isn't this why Summer Theatre exists??? I'm a grown-up. I'd like to do a grown up show occasionally.

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Nanette Celebrity Joined: 8/01/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 399	Posted: 2/06/09 at 1:14pm
	My theatre is totally for the youth of the area (ages 8-19). I ask for their schedules at the auditions and, to the best of my ability, work my rehearsal schedules around their activities. If they haven't given me their schedule ahead of time, too bad. They are responsible for getting any missed notes, and can only miss 3 rehearsals without being (possibly) recast. This is stated in the code of conduct they and their parents sign. Of course, during hell week they are expected to be there; no matter what!!! I've had no problems with this since I've starting asking for conflicts ahead of time.
	In a world of margarine, be butter!
	IP Logged

KEB54 Celebrity Joined: 7/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 227	Posted: 2/06/09 at 1:38pm
	We do like you, Ima -- summer musical heavy with kids. During the regular season, practically no kids. They have too much going on. In fact, one of our area high schools now does their musical in the summer! Show Choir is now so popular, and lasts the entire school year, they can't field a cast for the musical otherwise.
	KEB
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greenphoenix Star Joined: 1/21/09 Online Status: Offline Posts: 52	Posted: 2/07/09 at 3:31am
	Our theatre does "summer workshop" classes for ages 6-17 annually. In addition, one of our season shows generally has some type of kid/family emphasis (perhaps a child as the central character, or an adaptation of a popular children's book). It really depends on your theatre's audience. The advantage of using kids is that they will bring parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles to see their child onstage. Our biggest seller last year had a number of young characters, and we will be repeating the show. The obvious challenge is that, when working with children, the director often has to act as a teacher/director. Maybe you can compromise with a commercial show like Alice in Wonderland or Hansel and Gretel, using a few children and supplementing the cast with strong adult actors.
	IP Logged

imamember Celebrity Joined: 8/18/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 121	Posted: 2/07/09 at 8:30am
	greenphoenix you're absolutely right. In the past this is how it's worked but starting a couple years ago we had this massive influx of older kids and teenagers. It was the summer we did High School Musical and then the first show of the season was Cheaper By The Dozen so we ended up with this massive group of young people which is great and all, but at the time the board tried to capitalize on this and started planning seasons around them since we had so many. What ended up happening is we lost a lot of our adult players since there were fewer roles and then it got worse when they started casting kids as adults so that essentially told the adults, why bother, they're only going to cast kids in a role I'd have. It's a vicious circle. I'm trying to pull the group back the other way without totally alienating the group of kids we see at auditions but ultimately it's difficult. I'm really hoping we do M.A.S.H. next season as the opener because I think that'll bring back a lot of the adult crowd.
	IP Logged

dramacorrect Lead Joined: 3/09/09 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 33	Posted: 3/10/09 at 9:59pm
	We do some shows that need some kids during mainstage. Anne of Green Gables though, we did do a little later in the year, but limited the number of kids involved. When we've done shows like Grease, we cast it with adults. (Young ish looking adults). But for me, if I want to see a bunch of kids performing Grease, I'll go to a high school show. When we do a show like Oz, we put a cap on how many kids can be involved. We have a pretty big CT program too in the summer though, so lots of kids have that opportunity each year.
	Theatre Articles Web Apps to Save Money Community Theatre Fundraising
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MartyW Celebrity Joined: 2/02/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 555	Posted: 3/12/09 at 12:02pm
	There is quite a bit of younger youth theater in our area. Our theater no longer does a special "kids show"... In stead, every so often, we will do a show that has some kids in it.. For instance, last year the closest thing we had to kids were the no necked monsters in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof... And a couple thrown into Urinetwon for window dressing.. Next year how ever we have The Wizard of Oz (with opportunites for many munchkin size people) and Fiddler with its compliment of kids..
	Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.."
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