High school theatre sucks

My school is doing the wizard of Oz, an absolutely horrible show for the cast we have. We have amazing singers and actors and are barely using half of them because there aren’t enough roles. The directors wanted to use the big budget we had built over the years on a lot of big props, so they reimagined the show to be modern and take place in a city, weird I know. So they reimagined the characters too, and the Scarecrow was reimagined to be hippie-like. I have been described as a hippie by multiple people because of the way I like to dress. I’m also a senior, this show doesn’t rely on gender, and I have an unconventional body shape, I’m a 17 year old girl and I’m 6 feet tall, which is an issue that would prevent me from being a lead in almost every other show, BUT NOT THIS ONE. So the character dresses the way I do, the songs are in my range, my body type isn’t an issue, and I’ve been loyal to this program for 6 years. You’d think I’d get the part, the directors love me, it’s a bigger part than I’d had before but I could do it, they had a cast list before auditions even started. BUT NO the role goes to A FRESHMAN and while she is so sweet and I love her dearly, she has 4 more years to be a lead, this is it for me, I’m done after high school. And I wasn’t the only one who thought I’d get the scarecrow, EVERYBODY DID, some people didn’t audition for it because they thought I’d get it anyways, and then I didn’t.
Not only this though. I ended up as auntie em, a couple scenes, no singing, a side part. The guy who played the Lion had maybe 6 lines in the show we did last year, and he said if he didn’t get a lead this year he would quit, and he got a lead. BUT HERES THE THING he plays basketball too and isn’t very good but priorities SPORTS. So he gets a lead and then misses 80% of rehearsals where I read his lines. At a music rehearsal where I did his parts in some songs I was told that I might understudy for him if attendance was a problem, this sent me OVER THE MOON I was so happy about it so I just kept trying to be better and learn some of his part without looking desperate. Time and time again he would miss rehearsal, but I’d always be there. Now we’re far past the point where I would have been swapped out. His basketball season is over.
So now the show is next Thursday, it’s Monday, Leads have to get microphones so they come early, and the guy playing the lion is late. We hadn’t started yet, but he’s still late, and now he has no excuse. It sucks because he doesn’t take it seriously AT ALL, we’re supposed to be off book and he didn’t know his lines after being off from school all last week for February break, HES NOT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY WHEN THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT THAT ROLE MORE THAN HE DOES.
At this point I’m not even mad at other people in the program, I’m mad at the directors for giving me false hope TWICE and the fact that I believed it. They gave me hope that I would actually have a good senior show but now I just hate it and this show is so bad for our cast and I’m on my fucking period this week which doesn’t help because I’m crying at 12:15 in the morning and I have to wake up again at 5:30 and do makeup because we have cast pictures tomorrow so someone kill me when I see them in those costumes I SHOUKD BE WEARING

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anonymous School February 25, 2025 at 12:15 am 0 0