Is Your Child Feeling Cast Aside?
How You Can Support Your Young Actor When They Are Disheartened by Casting
At Innovative Arts we reinforce the idea that not being cast in your ideal role is a part of the learning process, it does not reflect your talent or skill level, or how much the team likes having you as part of the community. Disappointment is normal in any program - sports, academics, art - however in a niche and subjective program like Musical Theatre is can be additionally prominent and difficult to navigate. There are often one or two exceptionally coveted roles per show and not every student will be cast in their ideal roles. The Casting process manages and juggles multiple different needs at once, figuring out what to prioritize at any given point, knowing that those priorities often shift in a children's theatre context. Disappointment is common and normal, and we see it each season. Here are some tips for how to support your performer at home, when casting doesn’t pan out how they had hoped.
Often parents are very involved in the casting process which is wonderful when it comes in the form of support and guidance. Here are HELPFUL things parents can do regarding communicating with their performer when there is disappointment around casting:
1. Understand the Content:
Watch the musical (not the movie!), ask about the differences in Junior programming, understand the wide variety of roles and how Innovative will be casting students. Identify their role / track in the entire story - Do Not Count Lines.
2. Identify and Assist with Your Childs Goals:
Facilitating conversations around casting, identifying goals, desires and expectations and discussing what needs to be done to achieve these goals. Facilitating goals with actionable steps outside of the casting process. (Coaching, Vocal Lessons etc) This is important to be done in a timely manner, as dramatic growth for goal achievement is not going to be developed within 1 or 2 sessions.
3. Conversations Around Unrealistic Goals:
Often students set large goals for themselves, and these can be outside of their skill level. Being in communication with your student, the Innovative Staff and other specialists such as Vocal teachers, Drama teachers, and industry professionals can help inform appropriate casting goals and developmental milestones to help identify and celebrate growth and skill development.
4. Conversations Around Expectations and Disappointment:
Preparing your child for disappointment and creating a safe environment to help them process their casting can be a huge factor that aids a student in a positive experience. Listening to them, and validating their feelings without casting blame on the student, their level of ability commitment to casting, or the casting team itself can ensure your child transitions through their disappointment healthily.
5. Support to Continue Even When Discuraged:
Encouraging students to continue with the program even when they didn’t experience their ideal outcome usually results in students finding joy in other, potentially more valuable, elements of the arts. Building community, supporting others, finding challenges in their role, building confidence, developing a work ethic and responsible practices, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing what they need to do to achieve their goals in the future are all potential outcomes of dedication to the show and their cast.
Here are things that are UNHELPFUL for parents to do surrounding casting:
1. Showcase dissatisfaction with the team:
We understand that there is a desire to voice your disappointment with the casting team, and we always welcome parent and student feedback, however, we recommend taking time to process the disappointment as a family before connecting with us. It is never our desire to upset our students, and unfortunately is a normal part of the casting process. We aks that all conversations around us as a casting team and a studio be respectful to provide positive relationships with the student and the team during the rehearsal process and beyond.
2. Showcase dissatisfaction with your child:
We often hear students identify that their parents were more disappointed in their roles than they were and this is always heartbreaking. We understand the desire to see growth and development from your child, but role selection is often so much more nuanced than it appears and it is always so disappointing to see students discouraged in rehearsals because of the support they are receiving at home.
3. Demand changes:
Casting is final, demanding changes is not appropriate. Sometimes we can make offers to change casting but these are often due to other unrelated factors and should not be expected.
4. Dropping out:
Casting is based on all students in the program in relation to each other and a student dropping out is a negative experience for everyone involved. We understand that sometimes this is unavoidable, however we make note that there is no financial compensation for leaving the program. The expectation when signing up for the show is to take part in the program no matter what the role is, and often continuing on in the program teaches students valuable lessons about community, self worth and acceptance,, and often allows them to be surprised about what they learn to love about their role.
5. Expecting a better outcome with the next show without identifying the factors that might be preventing their student from achieving their desired casting:
If you have goals for your students please don’t hesitate to ask us how we can help support your child to achieve them. However, an unfortunate pattern we see among disappointed families is that they stick out of the program for the year, and expect a change in the following show without discussing whether these expectations are realistic based on their student's skill level. This can lead to bigger disappointment later on. If you have specific goals for your student, you are always welcome to connect with us before casting so we can help navigate these desires.
6. Not being supportive of other students:
We understand that it can be difficult to see other students take on the role your child desired, especially if this has happened on multiple occasions. However, it is never appropriate to speak poorly of other students in the cast. Our values at Innovative Arts is to create a safe and supportive environment for students to learn and grow. Unkind behaviour will not be tolerated.
We have noticed that disappointment around casting can be especially common among students in their 3rd show or season when the expectation to see growth and development in the form of leading and title characters seems to be much higher than in previous years. This measurement of success and development is not one that we perpetuate for our students, especially within an art form that doesn’t promise or prioritize linear progressions, provide objective milestones, or allow for goals set for students to be achievable with a certain level of dedication or hard work.
We have written a few blog posts for our students to help with Casting, Auditions and Disapointment but we also have some for Parents including - What Not to Say to a Musical Theatre Kid. If you’d like to receive feedback for your student, or a conversation around how to help them set and achieve goals in musical theatre you can most definitely connect with our team!
Musical Theatre is about art and storytelling and we would love your help to continue to prioritiize this focus! We want all our performers to feel challenged, showcased and successful and are dedicated to creating a positive, supportive and empowering environment here at Innovative Arts and hope that all our Innovative Families can continue to facilitate this culture at home as well!
