Drama Club Policies

ATTENDANCE

Regular attendance at rehearsals is a requirement for participation in the performance, and each student is allowed only 3 unexcused absences. Unexcused absences beyond that will result in your child being removed from the cast. Illness is considered an excused absence and will not be held against your child.

We typically rehearse Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8 am to 9 am, and Wednesday afternoon from dismissal to 5:30. Depending on the rehearsal needs, we may schedule no more than 1 Saturday rehearsal per month. The Saturday rehearsals go from 9 am to 12 am but the whole cast is not usually called for the entire rehearsal. Most students are typically called for 1 to 2 morning rehearsals per week, but if your child receives a leading role, he or she will be called frequently for rehearsals. The child cast in the title role, for example, will be called for rehearsal almost every day. All rehearsals will be listed on the calendar at the start of our rehearsal process, so you can plan ahead for your child to be there.

Because the rehearsal period is very intensive, Drama Club may limit your child's availability to participate in other clubs. Please keep this in mind. For example, Odyssey of the Mind often practices at the same time as Drama, and sometimes the Odyssey competition date is in conflict with the Drama Club performances. Like Drama Club, Odyssey is also a very time consuming, intensive experience. For this reason, we ask that students choose either Drama Club or Odyssey of the Mind if they are selected for both.

Our rehearsal period is from the middle of October to our closing performance on February 11th. This is a long time to commit to, so please take that into consideration. The performances are on February 10th, (morning performance for the school and evening performance at 7pm) February 11th at 2:00 pm and a snow date on February 12th at 2:00 pm in the event that one of our other performances is canceled due to inclement weather.

Note: NO unexcused absences are permitted during production week, which is from February 4th through February 11th. It is vital that all cast members are present during this final week of rehearsals and performances. We do schedule rehearsals after school during this week, and if you child is cast, they will be expected to be present. Please check your calendar for conflicts including vacations, concert tickets, baseball games, etc. If your child is absent from a production week rehearsal for any reason other than sickness or bereavement, we reserve the right to remove your child from the performance.

PHOTO PERMISSION

Every year, the Drama Club produces a DVD photo slide show, which is available for purchase. We do this since we are unable to videotape the performances due to a licensing agreement. In order to produce this slide show, we need permission for students and volunteers to be photographed (no names will be used in the slide show.) We will also be using cast photos for publicity purposes.

CAST SIZE/CASTING

Please note that we are not able to cast every child who auditions for Drama Club. Additionally, being cast in last year's production does not automatically guarantee you a spot in the cast this year. Equal weight is placed on all auditions.

This is very difficult for us, because we know all of the children at Central Valley and would love to include everyone. However, this would be impossible. In the past, we have had over 200 students audition for Drama Club and cast as many as 95. Most shows are only meant to have a cast of about 30. We do our best to cast as many students as possible but the limitations of the show and the performance space must be taken into consideration.

It is difficult it is to face the possibility of not being cast, and I encourage you to talk to your child about this scenario. Sometimes children aren’t ready for the experience, and 'freeze up' at the audition. Some children sing so quietly at auditions that we can’t hear them, or appear visibly nervous/uncomfortable. I know that this is probably in stark contrast to the confident performers they may be in the comfort of your living room, with Mom and Dad as an audience. Unfortunately, the audition is based on a ‘snapshot’ of one day. It is the only way to be completely fair.

It is disappointing for students who are not cast, and that you as parents have to deal with the immediate aftermath of your child not being selected, but I encourage you to use the experience as a ‘teaching moment’ if you find yourself in that situation. I know what it is like to not be cast- I have been auditioning for shows since I was a child, and I have been cast in many of them, but not all. It hurts for a little while, but life does go on. Additionally, the auditions for the play are early enough in the school year that there are still many other clubs and activities that students may participate in if they are not selected for Drama Club.

Please know that we try to approach this with the utmost sensitivity and we really do care about all of the students who try out.