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PEOPLE: How to keep kids *quietly* busy at rehearsal?

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PencilQueen:
I'm SM-ing a community theatre production where all but one of the 14 actors are kids (age 11-17 yrs, with most around 12-13 yrs).  We've done the best we can to call specific actors *only* when they'll be needed, but by necessity this still means we often have actors waiting off stage during rehearsal.  Keeping them occupied but quiet has been a challenge, especially since our rehearsal space has horrible acoustics, so echoes are a big issue.  Does anyone have ideas for quiet activities to engage kids while they wait...preferrably something they could easily leave and rejoin.  I've heard of one children's group teaching all the actors to knit, but this was a much younger group and I'm not sure my teens would go for it.  Ideas anyone?  Pleeeeease. : ^)  

lydiaelaine:
Maybe bring a deck of cards or crossword puzzles? I've never actually been in that situation, but I imagine that could possibly take their minds off the talking.

Hope that works!

nmno:
Cards can lead to noisy games as well.  Knitting is a pretty hot this to do right now and I would think you could get this age group engaged, but I wonder about the time to teach them, the cost of materials, etc.  I've not tried it so I don't know.  Magazines? Books?

My suggestion would be to talk to a few of the parents, lord knows they've had to keep their kids quietly entertained from time to time, and they might have suggestions.  Mom and dad might be interested to know that there is some down time at rehearsal, a perfect time to get a little homework done.  Not that the kids will be excited about it but now it's Mom and Dad pushing them to be productive with that time.  Obviously not a time to try to write a paper, but good for doing that vocab worksheet.

Rebbe:
I had a show with a group of 8 kids ages 7-12, who were only needed occasionally, but had to sit quietly in a relatively small room while we rehearsed other scenes.

While my group was a bit younger than yours, most of them brought in gameboys (I don’t know if they’re still called that, but they’re the hand held video game things  :)), and as long as they muted the sound effects on them or wore headphones, they could be happily and quietly absorbed.

I second nmno’s suggestion of getting the parents involved.  Let them know the situation, so they realize it’s OK for the kids to bring in ipods, books, magazines, games, laptops, anything quiet.

Make sure you have a frank, unpatronizing discussion with the teens as well; tell them that you know it’s boring, but waiting and watching are as much a part of theater as actually being onstage.  Tell them that you really appreciate their patience, and know the set-up of the hall makes it even harder to stay quiet.  Spell out the fact that noises are distracting to the people trying to rehearse on stage, so keeping their voices down is the considerate thing to do for their fellow performers.  Ask them for their own ideas on what they can do quietly, what the challenges are to staying quiet, and how they can help each other overcome them.   

If you have an ASM (or can recruit a rotation of parents, since it’s community theater), maybe you can have someone act as kid wrangler, so at least you don’t have to personally walk backstage every time the noise level goes up.  Any chance they could go into a different room for a while, if you had an extra person?

Good luck!

j-la:
My 1st Community theatre experience was a production of Annie. One hundred & fifty  auditionees later- we had a cast of 12 kids aged 5-13. We required as a condition of auditioning/casting- a commitment by the parents to sign up as BSP's- Backstage Parents. As this was community theatre- we had the parents sign the agreement at auditions- it layed out what we were requiring from the parents. It worked very well. Most parents were more than willing to be involved. They were the BSP's. They reported to the ASM. I think giving them a 'title' helped.
We used books, video games, 'homework', cards and 'quiet games' such as chess & checkers. However- we still needed to have an occasions 'chat' to remind the cast (as a whole) about the 'quiet during rehearsal & backstage' etiquette.

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