The Duchess of Mint
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Super creepy instances of (musical) theatre favoritism!Dear Musicals.Net Posters,
Have you ever witnessed any type of (musical) theatre favoritism which was truly creepy (Ie: The director always cast a certain actor in lead roles, all the while seeming to favor that actor romantically; the director favored someone who was clearly doing drugs; the director favored various people based upon a fetish for a certain hair color/ a certain height/ a certain whatever)?
Thanks in advance for your replies.
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Flitterbug
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Actually... yes. I knew a Drill-seargeant director. She was quite scary. If you didn't toady to her and obey your every whim she would gain this cold, calculating look in her eye and a stern tone of voice. Nobody spoke when she was speaking, ever, or so help you, you'd be given the lecture of your life - this included during times when she had no authority to do so.
If you wanted to leave, even if it was after practise, games, or meetings, you had to say goodbye to her first. Or else.
If you wanted to voice an opinion and it wasn't her opinion, it just didn't count. At all. Not even if it was a sensible suggestion. (ie; carrying the entire box of coke cans to the eski instead of moving them two at a time. That was wrong. You just dont do that, because she's been doing this for thirty years and her way is the right one.)
She also liked to point things out in nasty ways. For example, if you missed your cue during rehearsals she would tell you in the loudest, bluntest, meanest way possible and often wouldn't suggest ways to fix the problem. You could just see whoever she was talking to literally cringe and look as if they felt about three inches high. I was constantly surprised she didn't carry around a ruler for corporal punnishment when mistakes were made.
Suffice to day, I didn't stick around very long at all. And thank-you, by the way, to Drill-sergeant Alice for completely putting me off community theatre companies.
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AllThatJazzHands
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That's how one of my high school directors was. It wasn't a surprise that we dubbed her "Satan in a bottle". Well, that was my name. There were more! I hate it when directors don't offer suggestions when you screw up or can't quite figure out what to do with a line, scene, etc.
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broadwayxdoll
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nothing really creepy but ive had many-a-director that favored their young children.
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Kiwi
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My brother had a teacher who was clearly a pedophile. He would always put his arm around him and give him this really weird look, and he wasn't the only one he did it to. He ended up getting fired, though, which is good.
We've had our share of creepy teachers at Youth Theatre, but most of them are really nice and really fair when it comes to casting and whatnot.
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Luc
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Idk if this counts... but my friend was played the title role in Evita in HS, and her Chem teacher (late 40's) played Peron. She was 16 at the time. That was creepy. He looked the part, though. They looked really weird together.
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shakalakababy
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During Urinetown we had the meanest choreographer. I mean he knew what he was doing and he was quite a good dancer but he should've never been allowed to work with kids. He seemed to only agree to do the show because he wanted to get with our director (he was gay, so was our director but i was clear that our director had no interest in this guy. kind of sad). Anyways every time we worked with him we would scream at kids who were getting it wrong to that point that they were in tears. And these were teenagers. So we tried to get him fired, no one listened to us. It wasn't until he actually physically grabbed the guy playing lockstock and pushed him across the room that he got fired. And that was a week before opening night. 
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Beagle On Stage
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| musikal_geek wrote: | | Idk if this counts... but my friend was played the title role in Evita in HS, and her Chem teacher (late 40's) played Peron. She was 16 at the time. That was creepy. He looked the part, though. They looked really weird together. |
So did the real ones, lol. 
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blue wind
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| musikal_geek wrote: | | Idk if this counts... but my friend was played the title role in Evita in HS, and her Chem teacher (late 40's) played Peron. She was 16 at the time. That was creepy. He looked the part, though. They looked really weird together. |
ew seriously? why would a school do that??
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Cake_in_Song
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I heard a rumour that the girl who got the part of Eliza in my school's MFL was high at her callback. Which is funny, because I was the only other one there at the callback, and I had no idea. So it could have just been people trying to stir up trouble.
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jackissensational
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There's always the director's pet. Always get the leads.
Yeah, the president of my hs's drama club is deffinately butt-buddies with the director. And he gets the leads.
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Beagle On Stage
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| jackissensational wrote: | | Yeah, the president of my hs's drama club is deffinately butt-buddies with the director. And he gets the leads. |
Damn. I was the president both junior and senior years, and while I had a great friendship with the director, it always took the form of "Indie, can you please do me a huge favor and take this crappy part and carry the scenes it's in? If I cast 'Tom' or 'Dick,' they won't be able to save it"...or "I know you're be the best one for this lead, but this supporting part has the hardest song and no one else can carry it, so I really need you to cover it for me"...Which I wouldn't have minded once or twice, but I always ended up being fallen back on to save something no one else could do, while they themselves did mediocre but "good enough" jobs in the better roles I would have dominated. But she bought me roses every time and is always front row center when I get what I deserve in other venues, so all is forgiven. I give her all kinds of crap about it though, and she takes it with the right attitude.
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Luc
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| jackissensational wrote: | There's always the director's pet. Always get the leads.
Yeah, the president of my hs's drama club is deffinately butt-buddies with the director. And he gets the leads. |
I agree with that to an extent.
This is going to be really hard to word without coming across as arrogant or cocky, but I'm very good friends with my director at school. She's like a grandma to me... like, we go see movies and stuff together. But it's fun, so why not? And yes, I do get the leads in school shows, but that is honestly talent-based. If I didn't have the ability to play Joseph, she wouldn't have cast me as Joseph. Simple as that. Every school is obviously different, but just try to take things into perspective- if this guy had no talent, would he still get all the leads? The answer may be yes, because I don't know anything about your school, or the people in it.
Idk... just my two cents. 
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Joshua
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| musikal_geek wrote: | | jackissensational wrote: | There's always the director's pet. Always get the leads.
Yeah, the president of my hs's drama club is deffinately butt-buddies with the director. And he gets the leads. |
I agree with that to an extent.
This is going to be really hard to word without coming across as arrogant or cocky, but I'm very good friends with my director at school. She's like a grandma to me... like, we go see movies and stuff together. But it's fun, so why not? And yes, I do get the leads in school shows, but that is honestly talent-based. If I didn't have the ability to play Joseph, she wouldn't have cast me as Joseph. Simple as that. Every school is obviously different, but just try to take things into perspective- if this guy had no talent, would he still get all the leads? The answer may be yes, because I don't know anything about your school, or the people in it.
Idk... just my two cents. |
For me it's like a combo of you and Beagle's story. She's like my grandma, but I always get cast as the carrier roles because they need someone who can do it well. And I'm always in charge of the technical aspects of the shows. So I do lighting, set, sound, and I'm in the show so it's reasonable.
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Lepitot
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People always complained that the previous director cast her favorites in the roles. And, true, she had her favorites. But, her favorites were the people who honestly cared and would work hard. She knew she could trust them to pull through, where as the people who got mad and bitched were people who may have been talented but weren't right for the part, and wouldn't have cared enough to do the role justice.
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