School auditions with color requirements

[Anonymous]

Gotta know more. If it's Hairspray, I get it. Otherwise, even in Texas, this can't fly.

[Anonymous]

No. Especially not if the school is very diverse. Highly doubt that anyone would even care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:umm it worked pretty well (with other color requirements) for Lin Manuel Mirnda??

This is why I am never paying to see Hamilton. I might go if I get a super cheap ticket or watch the stream some day, but I am not in a rush

Maybe it isn’t for you at all? You seem to miss the whole concept. Just listen to the sound track and imagine everyone Caucasian.

Yeah maybe it’s not for me. But why can’t the school play be something similar and therefore call for a specific race in a specific role?

Yeah, none of this is true about Hamilton, as you can see from the current Broadway cast: https://hamiltonmusical.com/new-york/cast/. Many of the characters are played by actors of different races than the original Broadway cast.

?? nearly everyone (other than king george) would appear to be a visually identifiable POC (which includes Asians these days) or a person with a latinx name (many latinx individuals consider themselves POC). I'm not inclined to view the world this way, but the anti-racism training i recently participated in makes it pop to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:umm it worked pretty well (with other color requirements) for Lin Manuel Mirnda??

This is why I am never paying to see Hamilton. I might go if I get a super cheap ticket or watch the stream some day, but I am not in a rush

Maybe it isn’t for you at all? You seem to miss the whole concept. Just listen to the sound track and imagine everyone Caucasian.

Yeah maybe it’s not for me. But why can’t the school play be something similar and therefore call for a specific race in a specific role?

Because public school theater programs are different from Broadway productions.

[Anonymous]

This story doesn't seem true.

[Anonymous]

There are productions available for high school use that do have specific race and ethnic group casting requirements because of the specific nature of the show. As someone else mentioned -- Hairspray is a good example as would be West Side Story. Nice high school shows, but you need a good mixed race cast to do them. (And, for hairspray you need a strong female lead with some weight.) There are others of course. And, there are standards that have now been placed on the back burner, because of race/ethnic issues with characters. Anything Goes is an example of that.

My kids have all done high school theater and the oldest even has down a few years of musical direction as he was a high school choral teacher. The process is pretty standard. You take a look at the kids you know will be involved based on prior years' involvement and who is in the music classes. Look at who is returning as an incoming Senior and Junior (getting the main rules). Who likely will be back as a Sophomore and how many Freshman can you fit into minor roles. It is pretty wide open this year as covid likely prevented lots of performances last year and even choirs, so there will be lots of unknowns.

You look at who is likely coming out and the numbers. Who can sing? Who can dance? If you have 8 girls who are likely trying out for major roles and 6 guys going for male leads -- you come up with what you can find that works. Most of the time you have lots more girls than guys who can do lead roles and shows are selected to accommodate those numbers. That is why you don't see Guys and Dolls that often. Not enough good female roles. On the other hand -- shows like Beauty and the Beast are popular, because characters can be any race and most importantly you can put tons of kids on stage. Got 20 freshman? They can be in the bar singing with Gaston, selling flowers in street scenes, play a fork. etc. . . Lots of choruses and lots of stage time even if no lines.

The whole point is to get kids on stage. Our old high school even took to having dance scenes as it was in an area where lots of girls took dance lessons so choreographing a couple big dance numbers was pretty routine. Again -- the whole point is to get kids on stage. And no -- no matter how talented your kid is as a freshman, they really will not get a lead, because that is not how high school productions work. After your kid pays their dues. Sings in the chorus. Dances in the back. Has fun with the cast and crew a couple of years, they will get a lead.


So -- to the original poster -- if you do not know why a particular show was picked for your kid's school; get involved. This stuff does not come out of the blue. Shows require tons of volunteers. Moms help sew and fit costumes, parents sell tickets, take tickets, police hallways, act as study room overseers during rehearsal nights, pick up, drop off food, clean up cafeterias, help with staging, scenery, electronics. Then you will know. You will know the kids, the budgets, the process. If you do not get involved, that works, but understand it does have an impact on your kid.

[Anonymous]

Love this, 14:00! I have a theater kid (and I was a theater kid). I hope more schools can get back to doing full shows this year, one way or another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are productions available for high school use that do have specific race and ethnic group casting requirements because of the specific nature of the show. As someone else mentioned -- Hairspray is a good example as would be West Side Story. Nice high school shows, but you need a good mixed race cast to do them. (And, for hairspray you need a strong female lead with some weight.) There are others of course. And, there are standards that have now been placed on the back burner, because of race/ethnic issues with characters. Anything Goes is an example of that.

My kids have all done high school theater and the oldest even has down a few years of musical direction as he was a high school choral teacher. The process is pretty standard. You take a look at the kids you know will be involved based on prior years' involvement and who is in the music classes. Look at who is returning as an incoming Senior and Junior (getting the main rules). Who likely will be back as a Sophomore and how many Freshman can you fit into minor roles. It is pretty wide open this year as covid likely prevented lots of performances last year and even choirs, so there will be lots of unknowns.

You look at who is likely coming out and the numbers. Who can sing? Who can dance? If you have 8 girls who are likely trying out for major roles and 6 guys going for male leads -- you come up with what you can find that works. Most of the time you have lots more girls than guys who can do lead roles and shows are selected to accommodate those numbers. That is why you don't see Guys and Dolls that often. Not enough good female roles. On the other hand -- shows like Beauty and the Beast are popular, because characters can be any race and most importantly you can put tons of kids on stage. Got 20 freshman? They can be in the bar singing with Gaston, selling flowers in street scenes, play a fork. etc. . . Lots of choruses and lots of stage time even if no lines.

The whole point is to get kids on stage. Our old high school even took to having dance scenes as it was in an area where lots of girls took dance lessons so choreographing a couple big dance numbers was pretty routine. Again -- the whole point is to get kids on stage. And no -- no matter how talented your kid is as a freshman, they really will not get a lead, because that is not how high school productions work. After your kid pays their dues. Sings in the chorus. Dances in the back. Has fun with the cast and crew a couple of years, they will get a lead.


So -- to the original poster -- if you do not know why a particular show was picked for your kid's school; get involved. This stuff does not come out of the blue. Shows require tons of volunteers. Moms help sew and fit costumes, parents sell tickets, take tickets, police hallways, act as study room overseers during rehearsal nights, pick up, drop off food, clean up cafeterias, help with staging, scenery, electronics. Then you will know. You will know the kids, the budgets, the process. If you do not get involved, that works, but understand it does have an impact on your kid.

those sound like really valid reasons. I'd still hate to be the faculty sponsor explaining how theater isn't an exception to the 'no discrimination for any reason' policy that every county has for schools when a kid doesn't get a role because it has an assigned race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are productions available for high school use that do have specific race and ethnic group casting requirements because of the specific nature of the show. As someone else mentioned -- Hairspray is a good example as would be West Side Story. Nice high school shows, but you need a good mixed race cast to do them. (And, for hairspray you need a strong female lead with some weight.) There are others of course. And, there are standards that have now been placed on the back burner, because of race/ethnic issues with characters. Anything Goes is an example of that.

My kids have all done high school theater and the oldest even has down a few years of musical direction as he was a high school choral teacher. The process is pretty standard. You take a look at the kids you know will be involved based on prior years' involvement and who is in the music classes. Look at who is returning as an incoming Senior and Junior (getting the main rules). Who likely will be back as a Sophomore and how many Freshman can you fit into minor roles. It is pretty wide open this year as covid likely prevented lots of performances last year and even choirs, so there will be lots of unknowns.

You look at who is likely coming out and the numbers. Who can sing? Who can dance? If you have 8 girls who are likely trying out for major roles and 6 guys going for male leads -- you come up with what you can find that works. Most of the time you have lots more girls than guys who can do lead roles and shows are selected to accommodate those numbers. That is why you don't see Guys and Dolls that often. Not enough good female roles. On the other hand -- shows like Beauty and the Beast are popular, because characters can be any race and most importantly you can put tons of kids on stage. Got 20 freshman? They can be in the bar singing with Gaston, selling flowers in street scenes, play a fork. etc. . . Lots of choruses and lots of stage time even if no lines.

The whole point is to get kids on stage. Our old high school even took to having dance scenes as it was in an area where lots of girls took dance lessons so choreographing a couple big dance numbers was pretty routine. Again -- the whole point is to get kids on stage. And no -- no matter how talented your kid is as a freshman, they really will not get a lead, because that is not how high school productions work. After your kid pays their dues. Sings in the chorus. Dances in the back. Has fun with the cast and crew a couple of years, they will get a lead.


So -- to the original poster -- if you do not know why a particular show was picked for your kid's school; get involved. This stuff does not come out of the blue. Shows require tons of volunteers. Moms help sew and fit costumes, parents sell tickets, take tickets, police hallways, act as study room overseers during rehearsal nights, pick up, drop off food, clean up cafeterias, help with staging, scenery, electronics. Then you will know. You will know the kids, the budgets, the process. If you do not get involved, that works, but understand it does have an impact on your kid.

those sound like really valid reasons. I'd still hate to be the faculty sponsor explaining how theater isn't an exception to the 'no discrimination for any reason' policy that every county has for schools when a kid doesn't get a role because it has an assigned race.

Agreed. If these shows come with such restrictions, they shouldn’t be done in a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your school has roles ( not specific historical figures like George Washington ) that have color requirements, how would you feel? This is for a school play btw and the role calls for white students when it can easily be color agnostic. DS who is highly talented is disappointed. We are brown, if you didn’t guess that already.

Honest question: are you in Arkansas or Tennessee?? I can't imagine a color requirement in any school with a higher literacy rate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:umm it worked pretty well (with other color requirements) for Lin Manuel Mirnda??

This is why I am never paying to see Hamilton. I might go if I get a super cheap ticket or watch the stream some day, but I am not in a rush

Maybe it isn’t for you at all? You seem to miss the whole concept. Just listen to the sound track and imagine everyone Caucasian.

Yeah maybe it’s not for me. But why can’t the school play be something similar and therefore call for a specific race in a specific role?

Yeah, none of this is true about Hamilton, as you can see from the current Broadway cast: https://hamiltonmusical.com/new-york/cast/. Many of the characters are played by actors of different races than the original Broadway cast.

?? nearly everyone (other than king george) would appear to be a visually identifiable POC (which includes Asians these days) or a person with a latinx name (many latinx individuals consider themselves POC). I'm not inclined to view the world this way, but the anti-racism training i recently participated in makes it pop to me.

You’re so full of sh*t. The cast of Hamilton represents many races. Considering that actors playing the same character are of different races, it’s clear that there’s no race-specificity in casting.

If you’re just upset that there aren’t a lot of white people in the cast, I don’t know what to tell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are productions available for high school use that do have specific race and ethnic group casting requirements because of the specific nature of the show. As someone else mentioned -- Hairspray is a good example as would be West Side Story. Nice high school shows, but you need a good mixed race cast to do them. (And, for hairspray you need a strong female lead with some weight.) There are others of course. And, there are standards that have now been placed on the back burner, because of race/ethnic issues with characters. Anything Goes is an example of that.

My kids have all done high school theater and the oldest even has down a few years of musical direction as he was a high school choral teacher. The process is pretty standard. You take a look at the kids you know will be involved based on prior years' involvement and who is in the music classes. Look at who is returning as an incoming Senior and Junior (getting the main rules). Who likely will be back as a Sophomore and how many Freshman can you fit into minor roles. It is pretty wide open this year as covid likely prevented lots of performances last year and even choirs, so there will be lots of unknowns.

You look at who is likely coming out and the numbers. Who can sing? Who can dance? If you have 8 girls who are likely trying out for major roles and 6 guys going for male leads -- you come up with what you can find that works. Most of the time you have lots more girls than guys who can do lead roles and shows are selected to accommodate those numbers. That is why you don't see Guys and Dolls that often. Not enough good female roles. On the other hand -- shows like Beauty and the Beast are popular, because characters can be any race and most importantly you can put tons of kids on stage. Got 20 freshman? They can be in the bar singing with Gaston, selling flowers in street scenes, play a fork. etc. . . Lots of choruses and lots of stage time even if no lines.

The whole point is to get kids on stage. Our old high school even took to having dance scenes as it was in an area where lots of girls took dance lessons so choreographing a couple big dance numbers was pretty routine. Again -- the whole point is to get kids on stage. And no -- no matter how talented your kid is as a freshman, they really will not get a lead, because that is not how high school productions work. After your kid pays their dues. Sings in the chorus. Dances in the back. Has fun with the cast and crew a couple of years, they will get a lead.


So -- to the original poster -- if you do not know why a particular show was picked for your kid's school; get involved. This stuff does not come out of the blue. Shows require tons of volunteers. Moms help sew and fit costumes, parents sell tickets, take tickets, police hallways, act as study room overseers during rehearsal nights, pick up, drop off food, clean up cafeterias, help with staging, scenery, electronics. Then you will know. You will know the kids, the budgets, the process. If you do not get involved, that works, but understand it does have an impact on your kid.

those sound like really valid reasons. I'd still hate to be the faculty sponsor explaining how theater isn't an exception to the 'no discrimination for any reason' policy that every county has for schools when a kid doesn't get a role because it has an assigned race.

Agreed. If these shows come with such restrictions, they shouldn’t be done in a public school.

Not even Hairspray?

[Anonymous]

Unless there is a bona fide educational reason for this, then no, there is a huge problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are productions available for high school use that do have specific race and ethnic group casting requirements because of the specific nature of the show. As someone else mentioned -- Hairspray is a good example as would be West Side Story. Nice high school shows, but you need a good mixed race cast to do them. (And, for hairspray you need a strong female lead with some weight.) There are others of course. And, there are standards that have now been placed on the back burner, because of race/ethnic issues with characters. Anything Goes is an example of that.

My kids have all done high school theater and the oldest even has down a few years of musical direction as he was a high school choral teacher. The process is pretty standard. You take a look at the kids you know will be involved based on prior years' involvement and who is in the music classes. Look at who is returning as an incoming Senior and Junior (getting the main rules). Who likely will be back as a Sophomore and how many Freshman can you fit into minor roles. It is pretty wide open this year as covid likely prevented lots of performances last year and even choirs, so there will be lots of unknowns.

You look at who is likely coming out and the numbers. Who can sing? Who can dance? If you have 8 girls who are likely trying out for major roles and 6 guys going for male leads -- you come up with what you can find that works. Most of the time you have lots more girls than guys who can do lead roles and shows are selected to accommodate those numbers. That is why you don't see Guys and Dolls that often. Not enough good female roles. On the other hand -- shows like Beauty and the Beast are popular, because characters can be any race and most importantly you can put tons of kids on stage. Got 20 freshman? They can be in the bar singing with Gaston, selling flowers in street scenes, play a fork. etc. . . Lots of choruses and lots of stage time even if no lines.

The whole point is to get kids on stage. Our old high school even took to having dance scenes as it was in an area where lots of girls took dance lessons so choreographing a couple big dance numbers was pretty routine. Again -- the whole point is to get kids on stage. And no -- no matter how talented your kid is as a freshman, they really will not get a lead, because that is not how high school productions work. After your kid pays their dues. Sings in the chorus. Dances in the back. Has fun with the cast and crew a couple of years, they will get a lead.


So -- to the original poster -- if you do not know why a particular show was picked for your kid's school; get involved. This stuff does not come out of the blue. Shows require tons of volunteers. Moms help sew and fit costumes, parents sell tickets, take tickets, police hallways, act as study room overseers during rehearsal nights, pick up, drop off food, clean up cafeterias, help with staging, scenery, electronics. Then you will know. You will know the kids, the budgets, the process. If you do not get involved, that works, but understand it does have an impact on your kid.

those sound like really valid reasons. I'd still hate to be the faculty sponsor explaining how theater isn't an exception to the 'no discrimination for any reason' policy that every county has for schools when a kid doesn't get a role because it has an assigned race.

Agreed. If these shows come with such restrictions, they shouldn’t be done in a public school.

Not even Hairspray?

No. Not even hairspray. Good message for everyone BUT the actors.
That being said there is totally a place for hairspray etc for classroom study. Just maybe not a public high school production - these days.

[Anonymous]

The purpose of high school theater is to develop skill, not put on the best show, that’s a side benefit.

A production that gives some kids more opportunity than others, even if it’s a great show with great messages isn’t OK.

Similar issues with gender, unless a school is single sex or open to gender blind casting, something like Newsies which has far more roles if one gender isn’t ok.