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Too Many Actors, Not Enough Parts?

Adding Roles That Matter to Your Play 

By Edith Weiss 

Edith Weiss is the author of several published children’s plays, including six with Pioneer Drama Service.  A lot of Edith’s writing time goes into her stand-up comedy routine, which has taken her all over the country and on three overseas military tours.  Besides writing, she also acts and directs in both children’s and adult theatre. 

You’ve got 22 students, all of whom would love to be in your play, but the play you’ve selected only has 20 parts.  Is there anything you can do to cast everyone without making them “spear carrier stage left”?  Yes!  (In most cases at least.)  There are actually two strategies for adding parts, and depending on how many parts you wish to add, you might use either one of them...  or both!

To add in a few parts with lines, find a decent size role that you could divide in two, creating two smaller speaking parts.  For instance, in my Hyronomous A. Frog (and its larger cast version, The Frog Prince of Spamalot), Sir Lancelot Pancelot could have two (or three!)  attendants instead of one, with the lines divided appropriately.  You can also add additional speaking parts by finding places in the play where there are two or three actors playing similar secondary roles, such as waitresses in a dinette or students who are friends to a main character.  Take these two or three roles and grow them into three or four or five by simply redistributing the lines.

The other option is to add non-speaking parts who are more than just extras.  They don’t just stand there like a spear carrier because they are reacting to everything going on onstage and have other stage business to conduct as well.  Are the characters in the play wealthy enough to have servants?  These actors can be given much to do onstage, such as dusting, serving tea, etc.  They can even make set changes in character and appear in other scenes to add a richness to the background.  Look carefully at the play you’ve selected.  Chances are there’s someplace to add in reporters, neighbors, students, etc.

Since I know my own plays the best, let me use them for illustration.  In Cinderella, Cinderella you can fill the street scenes with neighbors.  These same neighbors can attend the ball.  Give them a dance number.  Do you have any students with special skills such as juggling or gymnastics?  Feature them in the ball scene as well.

To give an actor a good challenge, I sometimes add in a character with a distinct personality and story, but no lines.  In Dress Rehearsal for Murder, the retired actress Bettye could have a stylist — someone who follows her around with a makeup brush, massages her shoulders and takes notes on her choreography.  In No Body to Murder, the gardener Garth could have a friend who doesn’t say a word but follows Garth everywhere.

Even in you’re adding a larger number of non-speaking characters, make sure each character has a “life” that defines that character’s relationship to the others onstage.  If she is a maid, is she a good one?  Does she like the people she works for?  If there are two maids, do they like each other or are they in competition with each other?

Make sure all of your actors, especially your non-speaking roles, are reacting to what is happening onstage.  Remind all your actors:  acting is reacting.  If they react to what is going on onstage and the other actors react to them, then they are part of the scene, not just spear carriers.  It isn’t about the number of lines a character has.  This is probably the hardest thing for a young actor to understand, but when they get it, it’s a breakthrough.

Try to add in extra characters whenever you have a chance — the benefits are ample!  You can develop next year’s cast by giving new or unsure actors their first stage experience.  You can include strong actors in your cast who might have a scheduling conflict and can’t make every rehearsal.  And most important, you’re guaranteed to increase the size of your audience by adding to the size of your cast!