We did Footloose this year and had the same problem. It was our school's first musical in 10 years so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was still surprised that a title like Footloose didn't draw in more students. We had a lot of wonderfully talented females, and we did have a few good men, but we definitely did not have enough of them to cover all the parts needed and, worst of all, we did not have a good clear choice for the main character, Ren. I was definitely feeling panicked. Changing the musical was not really an option for us, It was Footloose or cancel completely.So, my choreographer and I made a game plan.
First, we posted the cast list from our first auditions, but we did not list any roles for anyone. It was simply a list of who was going to be offered a role. I've never done that before but we decided it was necessary under the circumstances. We didn't want to keep them all completely hanging while we figured out what to do, but we also didn't want to cast some roles but not others. Then we held a cast meeting and explained what was going on. We decided we were going to hold a second "boys only" audition. We encouraged those who had been cast to go out and find fellow students who might be interested and encourage them to audition. They knew that if we couldn't find more men we would have to give up on the show. It was a great motivator. We also (with permission from our principal) extended an offer to the other high schools in our district and local homeschooling programs that if there were any interested young men, they were welcome to come and audition. And finally, I personally invited several students from my lower level theatre classes. I told every boy in my Intermediate theatre class that they had a part if they would just come to the audition and commit to the rehearsal schedule.(I only had one take me up on it but he was amazing!)
For our "Boys Only" audition we did not make them prepare something ahead of time, which is what they would have had to do at the normal audition. We treated it more like a callback (all in the same room together, learning music from the show, a shorter dance section, etc). We did not have huge numbers of boys come to the second audition, but it was enough so that we could carry on and do the show. We were so incredibly lucky that one of them was the perfect Ren! We also cast our Chuck from this second round group as well, and several members of the ensemble. I think there were boys who wanted to audition the first time but lacked the initial courage, and so by the time we had the second audition (which was about a week later), they had built up the courage and were determined to not let this second chance pass them by.
It's not a perfect way to do things and there are a lot of risks involved, but it worked for us and we were able to do our show, which is the important thing. We had only about 10 boys total and so nearly all of them were double (or sometimes triple) cast, but those boys were all incredibly dedicated and wonderful. They had the time of their lives.
I don't know the specifics of your program and students, but maybe something similar would work for you? If you (and the other students who already auditioned) had your hearts set on Legally Blonde, I think it's worth a try.
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Emily Olson
Theatre Arts Teacher and Director
Port St. Lucie, FL
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