I am currently getting prepared to direct the next children's show at our local theater. It is a little tense becuase their last director was pretty awful with the kids. We lost a lot after her auditions and more during her show. So, I have extra eyes on me, which is okay becuase I have been working with all the kids shows in some form with the exception of the last one so I am firmiliar with what is expected.

 

 However, they are expecting me to make up for this bad director and bring kids back to the theater and it is making me very stressed out. We are doing "Meet me at the fair, in St. Louis" and we only do kids aduitions by appointment which is nice. Last week we had only 42 signed up which was okay since it's a cast of 17 and the most I think I could get away with is a cast of 30. As of yesterday I heard the count has jumped up to 70 and still growing. I have been reminded we still have 8 days left for them to sign up. This is a lot of kids to turn away and I am being asked to possibly do a curtian warmmer with some of the smaller kids that we don't cast in the production. This would be extra work that I am not sure I can handle as I also have a 9 month old son. (my first) I love kids though and understand the need so I would be willing to try I guess.

 

Has anyone else ever done something like this? If so any sugestions? I tried looking for like a 10 minute nursey rhyme type song with a few speking lines in it with no luck.

 

Thank you in advance for listening to my situation and your suggestions are appreciated.

if you want to do a short one-act at the beginning of the show, or at the intermission of the show, try http://playscripts.com - playscripts.com . i'm not sure if they have anything related to "meet me in st louis", but a lot of the casts are expandable, there are shows as short as 10 minutes. There are usually excerpts you can read as well, to get a feel for the story. Be aware, though, some of the shows on there can be very strange.

 

anyways, the director at the middle school where i'm a "student director" (a group of HS students come back and help out) is always trying to add in parts for more kids. If you know how long your theater has been around for, you can do a retrospective of the history of the theater. IE have one or two kids assigned to each year, and have them prepare a 1-2 minute speech (they can be longer if its a newer theater group) about the show performed in that year, maybe some social context, etc. We did it as a preshow onstage, and kids could tell their families to show up however many minutes before the show to watch them. If your group has been around long enough that such a program would get tedious, you could try having the kids do a similar thing in the lobby of the theater, so as the audience enters they can stop by and watch a few presentations without being forced to sit through an hour or more of the presentations. 

 

other ways to include more kids is to have some dress up in costume and usher, or have an expanded ensemble which only participates in 1 or 2 songs, which could dance in the aisle. you wouldn't need to call them to as many rehearsals, and if your music director and choreographer are up for it, that could add a bunch of kids to your cast.

 

anyways, sorry that was so long, and good luck with the show!!