 |
 |
|
|
|
|||
|
School
& Youth Theatre
|
|||
|
|
An Approach to The Wizard of Oz (3)The casting of the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man was obvious: a Year 11 girl as the Scarecrow, a Year 10 girl as the Lion and a Year 10 boy as the Tin Man. The Wicked Witch of the West was obvious too (a Year 10 girl), as was the Sorceress of the North (a Year 11 girl), but, as for the rest, I had no idea. I didn't fancy a formal audition. I hate them as it can set kid against kid, but something was necessary. What I eventually decided to do was not to give out the parts which I had already decided upon, but let them think I was still considering who would play what, and I then held a full first reading, constantly swapping the parts around everyone. We then learned one of the songs and asked each kid who wanted a solo part to sing a verse. There were two surprises: we discovered that a very quiet Year 8 girl had a superb singing voice and read very intelligently. She'd been in the Chorus the previous year but had never really show up as being anything other than a chorus member. She was marked down for a bigger part than she would otherwise have had. The rest of the Year 8s and above performed exactly as expected, but the second surprise was one of the Year 7 girls who proved to a reasonably good singing voice but an exceptional acting talent. Now there was a problem. I had used a Year 7 in a fairly major part some years ago (she's now in her final year at university, so it was seven years ago at least), but here I was considering one for the lead! Freda (the MD) and I talked it over exhaustively and finally decided that we'd risk it. Even if she didn't turn out to be as good as she seemed, she was, if the worst came to the worst, at least good enough to mimic my performance. We needn't have worried. I rarely had to show her anything: she only needed to be tld what I wanted and that's what I got. It was like working with someone who had years of experience behind her. The wonderful thing about school theatre is that you are constantly surprised and constantly learning. I'd been involved in school theatre - man and boy! - for 45 years, and only now had I realised that an eleven year old could take on a very major role like Dorothy and acquit herself like a pro! You learn something new from every production you do. Sometimes it's hard to quantify what you've learned, but The Wizard of Oz certainly taught me a very important lesson!
|
||
|
|