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The Case for Double Casting and Using Understudies Effectively
By Brian D. Taylor, Project Editor, Pioneer Drama Service
Brian D. Taylor is the project editor for Pioneer Drama Service, a published playwright and a former drama teacher. Working with K-12, college and community theatre groups, he has a wide theatrical background with experience in directing, acting and technical theatre.
Let’s face it. Most of us have a ton of kids wanting to be in the play. But with limited roles to go around, how do you give everyone their moment in the spotlight? Using understudies is a great way to solve this problem. Simply cast an understudy for each of the major roles! A lot of directors use understudies in this way, thinking of it more like a secondary cast or double-casting with plans to let the understudies go on for one of the performances.
Double casting has the obvious benefit of covering all the parts in case someone is unable to perform, but there are several other advantages as well. It is an excellent way to get more students involved in your program and develop younger actors to be your stars in future years. Also, double casting is an easy way to grow your audience. Remember, there’s a huge correlation between the number of performers involved in the show and the size of your crowd.
What’s really cool is that it’s also like getting two shows for the price of one as the second cast will add unique touches to the performance. In addition, actors can learn a lot from one another, both by working together to create their shared roles and by watching how someone else creates and performs the very same role in their own unique way. The benefits are many!
Having multiple performances for your production is key to motivating your understudies. When I cast understudies, I always liked to allow those actors to perform the role they’ve worked so hard on for at least one of the shows. No one enjoys doing all the work of memorizing lines and blocking if they might never get to play the part. Promise your understudies at least one show, and they’ll be very motivated to put in the work.
What happens, though, when you don’t have an army of kids at tryouts? Or you can only have a limited run or single performance production? Understudies are still important in this case. I know you don’t like to, but imagine that your leading lady gets a stomach bug the night before the show and cannot go on. It’s a sad fact that many times, a show will be cancelled completely due to such unforeseen circumstances. This is a huge shame, especially after all the hard work put in by so many people. Having understudies helps prevent this from happening.
If you can’t double cast your show but still want to have understudies at least for the major roles, the best practice is to have the actors who you’ve cast in smaller roles be understudies for the larger roles. If the lead suddenly can’t go on, an understudy can take over the role and a crew member or someone new can jump into the smaller role. It’s not ideal, but it works as the smaller roles are almost always easier to jump into than the leading roles.
This happened to me once. Luckily, I had an understudy for my lead who rocked the performance. This kid was originally cast in a smaller role, so we brought in a student who had not been a part of the cast or crew before to play that smaller role. I put a script in her hand and walked her through the most important blocking. An announcement was made to the audience prior to the show to let them know the special circumstances as to why the girl would be working from a script and didn’t appear in the program. It all went off just fine, and we didn’t have to cancel the performance or make major changes to work around a walk-on in a major role.
So... how do you motivate understudies in that situation and get them to commit to the extra work when they might not get to perform? Here’s how I see it: For once, the drama department should take a cue from the sports teams. Athletics coaches do this all the time, with a sideline full of highly-motivated players on the bench just waiting for the coach to call their name. Every football team has a backup quarterback who may or may not ever get to play. Still, that person shows up to every practice, learns the entire playbook and suits up, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Ever hear a backup quarterback complaining? Ever see a backup who wasn’t motivated, prepared and ready to go out there and do his best to lead the team to victory? Not too often, because they know that their role as a backup is important to the team. Besides, it’s preparing them to win the starting job next year. And there’s still always the chance for them to get in the game. The same is true in theatre. If understudies show up, do the work and prove they can be counted on as part of the team, it’s like an extended audition for the next show. So encourage your understudies with the importance of their role to the team and how it’s also good practice for them individually to work towards a leading role in the future.
Now, you may be thinking, “Sure, I’d love to have understudies. But, seriously, what director has extra rehearsal time to get the understudies ready?” That’s a good question, but really what it comes down to is that double casting doesn’t have to require extra rehearsal time. What I always did was simply require both of the actors cast for a certain role to be at every rehearsal of the scenes in which that character appears. This is great, because while one actor is working through the blocking you’re giving them, the other can be writing down the blocking notes, actually saving you rehearsal time because you don’t have to stop so often for your actors to pencil in their notes. Later, as we ran the scene a few more times to set it, the actors would swap so both had a chance to practice the blocking. And here’s the real bonus... Since you have understudies, you’ll never have to postpone or cancel a rehearsal because a lead actor gets sick or can’t make it. The understudy will be there, so the rehearsal will go on! Just make sure the rehearsal notes are passed along to the absent party.
Last thought. If you don’t have an understudy and the show must go on, YOU can be in the play. Of course, many directors would never think about this, wouldn’t dare to step into the spotlight themselves. But you know the blocking... You know the character... If you haven’t memorized the lines, don’t be afraid to step on stage and read the lines. Both the audience and the kids will love it and the show will go on.

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