[Millie1986]

I am choreographing a school production of Annie, with 11 - 15 year olds, boys and girls. Obviously the older children will be the adult principal parts, and servants, etc, and the younger girls will be the orphans, but I am at a bit of a loss for what to do with the younger boys. What have other school productions done? The director is intending to have both boys and girls as orphans, but I am not sure if this will work, as there are several references to it being girls, not least the song Little Girls. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[what_the_heck013]

In my production, some of the younger boys also played adults, which looked rather lame. Remember in the 1982 movie how they had a bunch of boys running around, causing mischief (especially in the scenes before "Sandy")? Perhaps you could have them do something like that, without changing lines to the script, of course.

[StarDreamer]

our young boys and extra girls were 'children' in the new york area. they were involved in the nyc street scenes.

[Luc]

Well, considering that you will have kids playing adults, it wouldn't look that silly if they were servants, too.

In our production, the age range was exactly the same as yours. The boys were in Hooverville (I doubled as Warbucks for Act I), they were servants, and of course, there's the radio scene which consists of Bert Healy, McCracken, Wacky (which is hilarious when played by a person), Jimmy Johnson and the SFX person.

There's always Sandy, too, if you're not having a real dog play the part.

So right there is eight speaking boy parts that are commonly looked over. You can have an endless amount of servants - I say the more the merrier! Same with Hooverville!

Hope this helped.

[musical4eva]

The younger boys in our have been cast as cabinet members, in cluding my little brother.

[what_the_heck013]

[The Drama Queen]

When I was in Annie Jr., at the beginning of the Apple Seller scene we had this adorable little 5-year-old boy with a paper bag screaming "Extwa Extwa! Wead all about it!!!" at the top of his lungs. It was the most adorable thing ever You can always put the boys in the NYC and Hooverville scenes.

[momsterv]

When my daughter did it with a youth theater that put tons of kids on stage, the little boys were dog catchers (lots of stuffed dogs), servants passing piles of sheets, towels, etc., I think a few may have been in Hooverville and the radio show, and NYC. They put in extra "guest" at the Christmas party at the end.

[klutzyk8ie]

When I did it, they had the boys as street urchins... they were tormenting Sandy before Hooverville. They were also in the very last scene, as reindeer during the "New Deal for Christmas" song.

[lucy-lu]

What about those guys that are harrassing Sandy?? They could be those kids!

[Theaterfan101]

When I did the show, our director added in a couple of scence with the boys. One funny one, right after Annie ran away, before she met Sandy, a group of boys were arm wrestling. They saw her and said things like, "Is that a girl?" "Looks like a girl." "Talks like a girl." "Smells like a girl." "It is a girl." "Let's get her!" Then they all attacked her, and Annie beat them up. She then put her fist up and all but one boy ran away. Annie says "boo" and he ran screaming.
Also, we had the boys as little servants. When Grace says "The swiming pool is to the left," in I thing I am going to like it here, All of the little boys ran across the stage with pool floaties. It was adorible.

[Msterope]

Our school is doing a production... and I went to see my cousin's production of Annie done.
The younger boys did alot of different things...
They played servants, were extras in Hooverville and they also were just running about doing various things as scenes were going on.
The younger boys didn't really have much to do, so they really just did something at random, it seemed.
They did have alot to do in the NYC scene, but they also helped with lighting and changing sets.

[Luc]

Msterope, do you think you could make your signature a lot smaller? It's really big.

[Msterope]

sorry!
i can't make it smaller..
so i'll just take it off... LoL
oopsy!

[Luc]

Actually, if you PM it to Quique, he will resize it for you, if you like! Quique is the master of re-sizing. Tell him that I sent you.

[musical4eva]

All the boys in our Annie Jr. are in the cabinet, they're all under the age of 12 and as a 15 year old playing Frances Perkins it has become my job to tell them what to do backstage, when to come on etc. Our show starts on Monday and half of then dont know what they're doing!!!! Sorry this really has nothing to do with the subject but i've just come back from a rehearsal and almost killed one of the little brats! God I hope our director kicks him out tomorrow. Sorry again for wasting your time with my useless rantitng,

[Msterope]