I am casting Peter Pan for my small community theater, and I made the decision to double cast Peter and Wendy. Just so some child gets to be Peter/Wendy in their life. The mother of one of the girls that is one of the Wendy’s called to let me know that her daughter runs track. She will miss one performance for sure and possible five if she qualifies for state. It has been my police to cut anyone who can't make a performance, but I feel badly and tell her she can be an Indian. The mom is not taking no for an answer and called my producer (who is on the board) and tried to get her to change my mind. Am I being to hard nosed about this? Ahhh…the drama!

Even if you give in on this, if this Mom is going over your head to your producer before you've even started rehearsing there's a good chance she could cause you other problems down the pike. And if you do give in, you'd be setting a precedent for all the other kids and all the other Moms and just setting yourself up for all kinds of unneccesary grief.

It was her/mom's responsibility to make these conflicts known before casting was done.  You are in every right to cut her completely from the show.  You are being more than generous letting her be an indian.