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Ever audition for a show and get stuck with just chours? Ever have it happen nine time (yup, that's me) I've always tried to make the best out of it and support whoever got the role I wanted. I found out today that a girl who I think of as a little sister got the role I wanted in Neil Simmon's "Fools" and I really am proud of her, but I'm not sure how I can possibly cope with being in another chorus role. How do you all deal with it?

I know how you feel. In my hometown the school district has this summer program called SPA (Summer Performing Arts Company). Every year (or at least, when I was in it. They've since bastardized the program) they did a big musical for the upperclassmen, a smaller musical for the underclassmen, a play for the less musically inclined, and pretty much all the kids that didn't get cast in a show got put into the review. It's always been suspected that SPA is a bit political, i.e., all the roles went to the favorites (the kiss-asses who went to Red River HS, where all the SPA teachers taught during the school year) and the kids who's parents donated to SPA. Unfortuantely, I was neither of these, so the first 4 years of the 6 that I was in SPA, I got stuck in the review. When auditions came around for the fourth year, I told myself that if I got put in the review again, I'd quit and just not do SPA that year. What happened? I got put in the review. Did I quit? No. That year actually turned out to be one of the funnest shows I did with SPA. The directors basically pulled everything out of their a** and made stuff up as they went along, and the costumes for that show are to this day among my favorite costumes ever.
Also, being in the chorus does have it's perks. When you're in the chorus, you have to learn music and choreography. When you're a lead you have tons of lines to learn, plus music, blocking, and choreography for what is usually a bigger portion of the show than what the chorus has to learn. My sophomore year we did Charlotte's Web, and I was cast as Charlotte, and when I was up in my barn, I would be working on a scene, or something, and I'd see my friends off stage chatting and having fun, and I realized that, as much as I loved having a lead role, I didn't get to spend as much time with my friends as I would have if I had just been in the chorus. Yes, having the lead is fun, and a fantastic opportunity, but the chorus is just as good!

"There are no small roles. Just small actors."

Cookies to whomever knows who said that ^_^


If these are all school shows, or at least with the same company, talk to the director. Ask him/her what you should do to strengthen your skills - voice lessons? Dance/movement lessons? Acting lessons? Take every opportunity to improve.

And in the mean time, be glad you got cast. That's something I learned the hard way - I kept wanting and expecting better roles, and my auditions got worse because I took it for granted. Appreciate your role, and prove to the director that you can take on a bigger role by doing the best you can in a chorus role.

Hmmm....thanks guys! I usually make the best out of every play. Actually, I was in King and I a few years ago and I got stuck being a princess when the youngest wife was born three months after me and I look much older, and I was the oldest by two years (not counting Prince Chululonghorn, who is three years older then me) but even though I hated it, I was very mature about it and ended up getting complimented a lot. Everyone told me how proud they were of me for taking my role so appropiately and such. Acutally, the other kids loved me. They listened to me more then anyone else.

Oh, I know. I loved being in the chorus of some shows. Jospeh was amazing, I couldn't have wanted a better part in Honk!, Fiddler was so much fun, being a nun rocked (except for the whole costume thing. Damn habits!), etc, but sometimes I, it's not as much fun as other shows were: i.e.: shows where you're hardly in it at all and you never seem to rehearse. You never get to be with your cast.

That's what kept happening to me. I just figured that I wasn't good enough. when I tried out for into the woods, I watched some of the other auditions and was like, forget it, you wont get in, but I did! The director said that she was dubious because of my height, but I had my songs well prepared and I was really nice and showed that I put a lot of energy into my monologue, even though I thought it was bad.
So bassically sometimes other things affect what part you get, other than your talent. Your looks, your height, your preparation, etc. So the ones you have controll over you should work hard on, and the for the others, you'll just have to accept the fact that directors have to find people that fit the part, even if you are good enough. Besides, chorus is less work to do, so you can go on Gaia more often xd