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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree public schools are best bet.

GDS for private.[/quote]

I disagree that public is a better as a general rule. Ours does 1-2 shows a year, and while the quality is awesome, that's a handful of good roles a year for a school with 1000+ kids – and no guarantee that you get any role at all, especially if you're not a singer. GDS may do twice as many shows for a school that's half the size. (Don't have a kid there, so rough guess based on the website) Point being, if you love theater, you want to actually be able to do it. I wouldn't make a judgement call on which school has the absolute best musical.[/quote]
Most kids are not into theater. Even in our large HS, they don't have that many kids trying out for parts.  However, there are several people in ensemble roles.

If you have a tiny cast, that will limit what type of show you can put on. Our large public put on a show that had a good size ensemble cast and the dance numbers were fantastic.  Having only 10 kids in a dance ensemble is not visually as entertaining as having 20 kids on the stage.  It also makes it more fun to have a large ensemble cast for the kids.  There is also a less likely chance of having really great performers in a smaller school.  If you don't care about the quality of the production, then I guess the quality of the performers doesn't really matter.

My kid loves the theater and does both school and outside of school theater. [/quote]

There may be a reason fewer kids try out in the bigger schools -- they know they won't get a chance. If you want to see or be in a show with pre-professional talent, there are programs for that around here. I think school programs should be about educating everyone, letting kids try and encouraging reluctant kids to step outside of their comfort zones.

As for size, where there is a will, there is a way. SAAS, one of the tiniest private boys' schools in the area (like 30 boys per grade), had a cast of 85 students for "Newsies" this year. They have an open summer stock program that helps build a community of actors to fill out the roles.

I am all for theater as an inclusive experience, not having only the best and most talented children on stage. In our public school, no way would my kids get roles -- some really talented friends got cut and stopped doing theater entirely. I think that is awful. But in a more inclusive program, my less talented kid did get roles and so had a chance to be trained, improved every year, and now is doing theater in college. That opportunity would have been lost in a bigger program or in one focused exclusively on putting the best talent forward.

That said, I do love to see a great high school show! So much talent around here. Let's keep supporting the arts!
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