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Writing for a Male or a Female Protagonist?

3/24/2021

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Writing Children's Theater (for ages 5-12) from classic fairy tales, folk tales or fables AND keeping recognizable characters and plot lines, can be challenging.  Many of these traditional tales involve having male protagonists. In other words, the story revolves around a male main character who goes out on a QUEST or a hero's journey, or has bad things happen to him that he must overcome  --- Sinbad, Hercules, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  Some stories are generic enough that a female can be substituted in the protagonist role, but then the title has to change because it carries a male name. Unfortunately, with that change, the production loses the valuable advantage of NAME RECOGNITION.

When a female is the protagonist in Children's Theater and has famous name recognition --- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel -- as a director, you have a hard time getting boys to join the cast.  Young boys usually stay far away from any play that even hints of a love story.
So, what does a writer/director of Children's Theater do? ​
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Well, first I look for stories that have a recognizable title with NO gender name in it ---  The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, The Empty Pot, (A Successor to the Throne), The Musicians of Bremen, Stone Soup, The Tale of Chicken Licken, and The Ants and the Grasshopper. 
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These stories are the easiest to reimagine with a FLEXIBLE CAST.  That means that the protagonist and other characters do not necessarily need to be a particular gender.       

(These are good for the casts that have many more girls than boys, which seems to be the norm in Children's Theater.)
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Since I ALWAYS want to attract boys as well as girls to my shows, I may use a story with a male name in the title, but make sure it has NO LOVE STORY and plenty of good roles for BOTH GENDERS. I have found that creating good female roles for a show that has a male protagonist is easier to sell to boy participants than the other way around  --- Momotaro, The Adventures of Dick Whittington, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, (Never Cry Wolf), The Three Billy Goats Gruff ​
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An exception, has been Parizade's Quest - a tale from the Arabian Nights.  This show has a definite female protagonist in the title, but also has four other strong lead roles for girls, as well as many important secondary female roles.  (In fact, Parizade is not the actual main female lead.) It also has five strong male lead roles, and many strong secondary roles for boys.  It has NO ROMANTIC LOVE STORY but does have a REUNITING of a FAMILY LOVE STORY.  (The boys were okay with that.)

I actually wrote this show for a group of kids I knew pretty well at a local elementary school.  Of the 45 kids in the cast, we had about equal numbers of boys and girls --- VERY UNUSUAL FOR CHILDREN'S THEATER!
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Flexible Casting

7/17/2019

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PictureThe Bluebirds Trio
Probably the most intimidating part of writing a new show or mounting a production is choosing the CAST.  Many of the children who sign up to do a Children's Theater Show (ages 5-12) have never been in a show before.  They don't even know what they can do.  When writing a show for kids to perform, the author must take that fact into account.  And as a director, you have to use your best intuition to look for talents that may not have surfaced yet.  Sometimes, the casting choices are very obvious from the selection available.  Other times, the talent pool that shows up may not provide the best options to satisfy all of the roles.  So you do the best you can and hope things will work out.  Creating or choosing a show that has FLEXIBLE CASTING is so important!  That ensures there are built-in adaptations possible.

        In Children's Theater, there are usually at least five girls who sign up for every boy who comes out for the play.  And yet, I have noticed that a great majority of the stories feature a boy as the lead character.  And most of the stories that the young girls like feature a princess who becomes a love interest to a youth who is out on a quest.  In reality though, the young boys HATE being cast in a "love" story.  They prefer battle scenes and comic situations, while the girls love to dance and wear pretty costumes.  So, when designing a new production, the author must keep these things in mind.  If you want to attract boys to your cast, you better NOT do a "love" story.  And if you want girls to be in the show, you better have a lot of dancing and colorful costumes.

       Another problem that comes about in Children's Theater is that the kids like what they know.  They are very distrusting of anything else.  So they will get excited about titles of shows they have seen or heard of before.  With the availability of so many movies that have been made into Children's Theater shows, kids assume that the stage play will be the same as the movie.  But a junior stage production cannot be like the animated movie.  In a community production with a limited budget, characters cannot fly or swim, fight with real weapons on horseback through an avalanche, ride in a parade of dinosaurs, disappear in a puff of smoke or pixie dust, or many other magical effects that can only happen in animation or computer generated film making. And even if the show has the same songs, they usually have to be shortened and modified to fit the ranges of young children.  (At least, they really should be!)  So, kids tend to be disillusioned when they are cast in a production that they think they know, but then everything is very different. 
PictureHenny Penny, Chicken Licken, Sister Chicks, and Mister Rooster
In my own writing, I have had the most success with stories that are adapted from famous sources (Aesop or 1001 Arabian Nights), or folktales that have been retold in many ways.  Since these stories have been presented in so many different and existing iterations, one more version must seem perfectly acceptable.  One possible exception was my telling of "The Tale of Chicken Licken."  Some of the kids thought they were auditioning to do a stage play of the Disney animated version of "Chicken Little."  At first disappointed, once they got  acquainted with this new production, they were fine and really enjoyed themselves. 

        Looking to create or produce shows that have opportunities for FLEXIBLE CASTING is the KEY to your success.  (This means that the lead characters could be played by either a male or a female.)  There should be enough featured characters to make it seem that every role is equal and very important. Action, comedy, dancing, colorful costumes, and NO LOVE story are also very important.  The songs should be short and in vocal ranges suitable for young voices.  And, the entire production should stay under 60 minutes from start to finish.
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The Empty Pot

8/22/2018

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Sometimes you write a piece and it sits for a while and you wonder what you will do with it.  "The Empty Pot" was written in anticipation of using it for a school production.  Then, the opportunity fizzled.  Then later in the summer, it was produced by another community theater group and directed by a different group of directors.  So, I was not the director for it's premiere performance.  

It had been advertised as having flexible casting, but when I went to see it, I was really surprised that the main character was a girl -- not a boy.  Other than that substitution, the production was very well done.  I just had a hard time adjusting my mind to the concept of that very important character being performed by a girl.  I suppose it worked, but the lyrics were problematic.  I couldn't tell if they were having her play the character as male or not.  They did nothing to disguise her to look like a little boy.  If they had, I probably would have accepted it better.

The next summer, I had the chance to produce and direct "The Empty Pot" for my first time.  We had a very large cast of 45 children ages 5-14.  Some of the older kids were very talented, so, of course, they needed some more challenging material.  Obviously, I needed to add some expanded scenes, songs and new characters.  The new show also got a new title "A Successor to the Throne."  

Directing that production was a very satisfying!  It was all volunteer for a church summer theater camp.  So many talented parents came out of the woodwork willing to share their skills.  We had wonderful parent Group Leaders, Choreographers, Hair Dressers, Seamstresses, Photographers, Make-up Artists and the list goes on.  The children were great, too.  Even the young children did their best to learn the dances and every word to the songs!

So I guess, technically, I still have yet to direct "The Empty Pot."  But I have directed "A Successor to the Throne" multiple times.
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All Good Fun!

4/24/2018

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My sisters treated me to a night out at the theater.  We saw a production of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" at Hale Center Theater in Orem Utah.  That stage is extremely small and the show was presented "in the round."  I am consistently amazed at the creative staging employed by this wonderful theatrical company.

The cast was small and those few actors played multiple roles.  And some minor roles were even played by several different actors in different scenes.  For example, the wife of Sir John Middleton is written with very few words and even less personality.  So several of the other actors (female as well as male) donned her tiara and shawl to say her lines.  Another character, Mrs. Ferrars (mother of Fanny, Edward and Robert) was portrayed by a puppet.  These silly interpretations were fun and endearing and allowed otherwise underutilized actors opportunities to show off their acting chops.  This acting company of very few, did a bang up job bringing out the humor of this beloved tale.  But when pathos was called for, they could turn that on as well!

One of the innovative set ideas they employed was to use movable chairs, tables and beds on rolling wheels.  The main actors were moved around by secondary players who carried green handkerchieves when they were playing "stage crew" or "Narrators" called "the Gossips."  So within the space of seconds, scenes could change from a parlor set to dining table to bed chamber to carriage complete with prancing horses (also played by actors). The effect was delightful!

One of my favorite parts was when the actress who played both Mrs. Fanny Ferrars as well as Miss Lucy Steele had a scene in which those two characters had a knock down drag out fight.  She played them both!  She fought herself!  It was so funny.  Other actors helped her in and out of a "robe" costume change as other actors moved around a chaise lounge and other furniture to heighten the action.  Well done!

I think that it helped that most of the audience members were well acquainted with the book and other movie adaptations. They knew the plot and characters so well, that it didn't really matter who did the acting -- male or female.  It was all good fun!
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Advantages to Limiting the Cast Size

7/5/2017

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Summer Theater Camp 2017 presenting "The Adventures of Dick Whittington" in my backyard this year was rather exhausting.  It could have been because of the extremes in the weather -- wind, rain, heat, cold -- or possibly needing to quickly rearrange directing assignments when we lost our music lady, or maybe I am getting too old for this, but most likely it was because I did not limit the size of my cast like I had planned to.

        The show I had chosen was written last year (2016) for a cast of young actors ranging in ages from 9-12.  I knew I had parts that could work for younger children, so I stated that my age limits would be for 6-12 year olds.  As the enrollments started coming in, I learned that the younger siblings of previous participants were so disappointed.  They told their mothers that they had been "waiting their whole lives for this!"  In fact, some mothers told me that they would not be able to send their older child if the younger sibling couldn't come, too.  What was I to do?  In order to get enough older kids to fill the lead roles, I needed to open the enrollment to the five year old siblings as well.

         My next thought was to limit the size of the cast.  I happen to know that 30 children fill up my back patio stage to capacity.  So, I thought I would cap enrollment at 30 participants.  But, in order to get the older kids I needed, I ended up with 43 kids in the show. ​
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We practiced together for 3 hours a day for 10 days -- that's a mere 30 hours to teach, learn and polish for a 45 minute show. The lead characters did a fine job with their lines, songs, choreography and many costume changes.  As expected, the littlest kids put their cute factor to use and stole the show.                                            
​The 19 boys in our play probably would have preferred if we had run a sports camp, but in the end, they came through and even learned their choreography.  
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        We had a group of 7 seven-year-old girls that really had to rise to the occasion.  They had three big dance numbers plus some other scenes where they played different characters.  In all, they had five costume changes.  Sometimes they only changed a hat or scarf, but they also had to work with specific props. The Narrators had the busiest schedule of all.  They provided the continuity during the show, sang most of the songs, danced, used props, and ended up being the stage crew changing the scenery and bringing on the set pieces.  I was quite pleased with my little Thespians.

      Fortunately, the show came together and the performance was well enjoyed by the audience.  They even sang along when encouraged!
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Pearls So Rare

12/27/2014

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          Over the past few weeks I have been working on the script and songs for my newest Musical, "Parizade's Quest - A Tale from the Arabian Nights." The story, as it was told in the version I was working from, had a lot of backstory explained at the very beginning.  This wallowing through information really slows down the plot.  I had to find some way to include the necessary information, but keep the momentum going.  I decided to cloak much of the backstory in mystery and only reveal a little at a time.  The other problem was to create a satisfying culmination for the finale song.  One of my daughters read my first draft and suggested that I use the symbol of the precious pearls as a unifying element.  So I went back and tried to include "precious pearls" in the plot at important junctures so that when I used it at the end, the message of "Pearls So Rare" would tie the whole story together.

          Another problem of creating a piece of theater is to decide which characters need to meet the audience through their own theme music.  I decided that the Weeping Queen definitely needed her own beautiful theme song "By Morning's Light" to help the audience become more sympathetic towards her.  Nobody likes to be hit with sadness right at the beginning of a supposedly happy musical.  Yet, for the plot development, the Queen's sadness plays a pivotal role.  It worked out that her musical theme could also be used for the "Sultan's March" music by adding martial drumming.  That was appropriate in order to establish that her loss was also the Sultan's loss.  

         What age range is my target cast?  That is an important question to keep in mind while writing the script and songs.   Fortunately, I am writing for a school cast with about equal ratios of boys to girls.  I also know these kids pretty well because I have directed three plays at this particular school already. I have not pre-cast the show, but I have kept the particular skills of these kids in mind as I have developed characters.  Besides, I had made a promise to give them a show this spring featuring lead roles for as many girls as possible! So, by writing the show based on this story, I have provided good roles for Parizade the lost princess, Jamileh the Storyteller, Shazelle the Speaking (and tap-dancing) Bird, Kazhira the Weeping Queen, Beheshteh and Chaman Banoo the jealous sisters of the Queen, Mona and Nadia the Gypsy dancers, Rasma the Housekeeper, and assorted Maids and Servants and Dancers.  I am hoping that some talented dancers audition for "Parizade's Quest" so that the dance numbers can be mounted close to how I have imagined them.  

          My goal in writing for Children's Theater has been to tell stories that have meaningful messages.  Titles include stories about Bravery, Integrity, Sincerity, Cooperation, Work, Honesty, Loyal Pets dealing with Fears and Change and Yearnings, and now the paramount importance of FAMILY.  The "Pearls So Rare" as presented in "Parizade's Quest" have to do with precious and loving Family relationships.  This Musical is turning out to be a wonderful adventure story filled with memorable characters and singable songs and most of all --- a reminder of the importance of FAMILY!
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The Musicians of Bremen

11/6/2014

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        If there is a universal truth in doing Children's Theater, it is that Directors must be ready at all times to be FLEXIBLE.  You never know the make up and abilities of a cast until the children show up.  And even then, you do not know if these young children will grow and demonstrate untapped talents or retreat into stage fright. Often, you must choose a piece to perform before you see the children.  This play must do the job of advertising and enticing the children (or parents) to want to sign up.  And yet, you cannot be certain if you will have the actors with the right qualities to mount the production.  You cannot know even the ratio of boys to girls that will ultimately be involved.  So, your best course is to find a piece with parts that can be played by either boys or girls, with or with out much developed talent.  Being FLEXIBLE is key!
​
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          My latest project has been an after-school Theater Skills Club at a local Elementary School.  This class was a new option offered to kids who usually stay after school because they need a place to stay until their parents come home from work.  This school offers many classes for the children to choose from including cooking, art, music lessons on violin or piano, recreational sports, building with Legos, or help with homework.  Adding a Drama Class was new to the rotation.  So, we did not know how many children to expect.  I was told only that there could be between 10-20 1st-4th graders signing up.  I also needed to pick a play that could be FLEXIBLE enough to work for a group of that size and be mounted in just 10 hours of rehearsal time (including a performance) over the space of 10 weeks. 

          Obviously, I needed a small show since I would need to teach other rudimentary skills to these few children.  I decided to try out one of my new Mini-Musicals.  I chose "The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen" because it could be done with a FLEXIBLE cast.  That turned out to be a good decision because we ended up with just 3 boys and 8 girls.  Having three boys was just enough to cast the Farmer, the Rooster, and one of the Robbers who were definitely Male characters.  The other characters could be either gender.  Most of these children are very young with no experience in acting, singing or dancing.  So, everything was new for them.  They have been working hard and will be performing their show in a couple of weeks.  The biggest problem has been that they could only practice once a week, so they have had six days to forget all they worked on in the last rehearsal.  Excitement is mounting, though.  We have tried on the costumes and will soon get to work on the stage with the sets and props and lights and mics.  I just hope that they can remember all of their parts without prompting when the performance comes!
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          This little Mini-Musical will be presented as just the first part of an evening of Musical Theater.  Twenty-six of the 2nd Graders in the school have been working on a production of their own.  They are doing "The Tale of Chicken Licken."  Together, these two shows should add up to a fun hour of entertainment for the children's parents and friends.  This was another good choice for me, since I could use the same set for both shows.  Score another big one for FLEXIBILITY!
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Testing New Material

6/23/2014

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          The last two weeks were quite a whirlwind.  Twenty one children ranging in age from 4 1/2 to 11 participated in my Neighborhood Summer Theater Camp held in my backyard.  It was truly a summer INTENSIVE!  We worked very hard to learn acting skills, songs and dances, and all of the lines and blocking to put on a production of my new Children's Musical "The Tale of Chicken Licken" all in just over 20 hours of teaching time.  Whew!  The children accomplished it and looked very cute in the process.  I am proud of their hard work.
          When I begin to write a new show, I generally use the formula that my cast will be made up of a few boys, but mostly girls.  So I keep that in mind when creating songs and populating the landscape.  But as the registrations came in for this camp, we had many more boys than originally expected.  This posed a bit of a challenge since I had already started making the costumes.  I thought that making little girls look like barnyard fowl would be a cinch -- just put them in a T-shirt and shorts with a tutu in whatever color most suited the bird.  Well, that idea had to be revamped with fully half of the cast being boys.  So, with the help of one of my talented daughters, we came up with designs that would work better for the boys in the cast.  Additionally, I quickly wrote a couple more songs that enhanced the storyline more because I was able to add lines and situations with these male characters in mind. 
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         Testing out and proofing new material is a scary proposition.  You never know exactly how a new show or song will be received.  I am happy to report that what went well went very well and the few costume malfunctions and flubbed lines were forgiven.  It would have been nice to have a little more time to work with the mics and costumes before the performance, though.  But, when the kids remembered to speak and sing into the mics, they were heard very well.  In doing this camp, I learned just what appealed to the young cast, and what may have been a little too sophisticated for them.  Perhaps there are a few places in the script that I may rewrite for a younger, more homogenized cast, say K-3rd graders, and make many parts flexible enough to be cast as either male or female.  But all in all, I am pleased with this new creation and I think "The Tale of Chicken Licken" definitely has a future for other Children's Theater productions.
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Endowing Characters with Unique Traits

5/7/2014

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    One of the most enjoyable parts of expanding and retelling a story through Musical Theater is endowing the characters with fun and unique traits.  As I was thinking about how to expand the cast for my new show "The Tale of Chicken Licken," I pondered how to add length and meaningful parts for a larger cast, say 20 to 30 children.  The story itself only calls for six characters: Chicken Licken, Henny Penny, Loosey Goosey, Ducky Lucky, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Loxy.  (I decided not to use Cocky Locky because I had something else in mind for Mr. Rooster.)  In order to get a performance out of young children, they really need to have their characters brushed with broad strokes.  That is to say that any drama or comedy has to be easily understood and modeled from some performance they would have acquaintance with. It helps to be able to relate their actions, vocal inflections, and attitudes to characters they already know or are familiar with.  Then you can help them dig deeper to bring out even more through their own gifts.  I decided to give each of these main characters alter egos from classic movies and TV characters - Lucy (Lucille Ball known for her physical comedy), Mae West (wise-cracking blonde bomb shell), Maverick (Western movie character), the Scarlet Pimpernel (English literary character), Sam Spade (savvy detective) and the Keystone Cops (hilarious physical comedians). Many of the mannerisms of these characters are much imitated in cartoons, and thus familiar when modeled for the children. The children would not know these characters by name, but the director should and thus have a starting point upon which to base the coaching.

         The other difficulty with children's theater is creating a flexible cast with many parts that could fit either gender. Often, the girls outnumber the boys by a ratio of at least 2 to 1.  But occasionally, the boys will not only outnumber the girls, but outshine them, too, in talent and ability.  Since you never know exactly what the make-up of the cast will be for any given show, it is best to have a certain portion of characters that could be played by any age or either gender.  So, I decided that the population of this cast would consist of the common fowl found in the typical English barnyard - chickens, ducks and geese with their chicks, ducklings and goslings.  By using families of parents and children, that sets up familiar situation comedy to tap into.

          In the youngest age group there will always be the children who want to be in a show because they love to sing and dance, but do not necessarily understand how frightening it can be to be up in front of an audience.  Before actually casting a show for this population, I like to spend time doing acting games.  Through observation of the childrens' improvisation, movement and interaction with each other I can usually tell which children will ultimately be too shy to actually perform and which ones are good candidates to actually come through with a performance.  Then I can cast with confidence the main characters and put others into groups where they can feel more secure.
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        I think my favorite new characters for this show are The Bluebirds - Dotty, Betty and Patty - loosely based on the trio singers of the 1940's such as the Andrews Sisters.  They have the songs that move the story along and provide the narration for the story within the story.  They always stand wing to wing.  They move together, sway together, sing together and finish each other's sentences.  They are jazzy and sophisticated and besides they are my favorite color.  
I guess they are really based on my mother and her sisters (The Thompson Sisters), and me and my sisters (The Lee Sisters).  If there are any characters that I happen to know well, it would be the Bluebirds!  It has been a delight writing for them!
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    Author

    My name is Betsy Bailey.  I have sung, written and taught music all of my life.  I enjoy writing and directing Children's Theater shows.  This blog will be directed to topics on creating the magic of Children's Theater.  I would love to hear your comments!

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