Author Topic: Double casting  (Read 5014 times)

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PSMKay

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Double casting
« on: Jul 11, 2013, 10:39 pm »
A recent post brought to my attention that we've never really discussed double casting. We've talked about the professional version of it - swings and understudies - many times, but double casting is really its own beast and pretty much restricted to high school environments.

We should fix this right away!

So how do you handle double casting at your school? How do you make sure both casts get the same amount of attention? How do you ensure that the production remains consistent regardless of who's playing a role? Do you schedule everyone to attend each rehearsal? What if someone is absent, do you sub in their double even if it means they're working with the "wrong" company? How do you deal with keeping the costumes straight?

Jessie_K

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #1 on: Jul 12, 2013, 12:51 am »
Most of the time I've dealt with strict doubling casting, it's been with children.  I'll use a Christmas Carol as an example.

The children were divided into two casts.  (Adults were not double cast)  We called one group "Holly" and the other group "Ivy" in order to avoid #1 and #2 or A and B (no bruised egos).

During rehearsals, both casts were called.  And then the run-throughs and performances were divided equally.  All of this was decided in advance and published in a letter to the cast members/parents.

Ensuring equal coverage was a priority because we were dealing with children and wanted to both avoid bruised egos and be mindful of overworking.

In absences, we certainly would sub in roles with the "wrong" cast.  A quick rehearsal of key moments or songs and on they go.

Caroline Naveen

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #2 on: Jul 12, 2013, 08:04 am »
My double casting experiences have been the same as Jessie_K's. Both casts are called to the rehearsal and one cast starts and the 2nd cast takes notes in their script and then they switch so that both casts get an even amount of rehearsal time. Then we come up with who does the run through's and performances and send this schedule out to the parents. We have one put in rehearsal on the day where the casts switch so that they can get used to the tech and things during the run, and normally everyone is called to tech and they take turns during the tech process.

Sarah.E

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #3 on: Jul 12, 2013, 08:22 am »
Surprisingly, my high-school followed the same logic! When we did a large, all school musical (the school is k-12), the high-schoolers were single cast, but the little ones were double cast (it varied for the middle schoolers). Everyone came to rehearsals, even run throughs, until the final week of rehearsal. The little ones parents provided their base costumes, and special pieces were assigned to pairs across the casts with similar measurements.

ejsmith3130

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #4 on: Jul 12, 2013, 12:22 pm »
As a side job, I work as a technical director for a local Catholic high school and they practice double casting in the musical, but it is handled as 'understudies'. The understudies are for the leading roles and tend to be filled by freshman and sophomores. They attend all of the rehearsals for their understudied roles and there were a few understudy rehearsals strictly for them.

The really unique thing about this was that the Saturday matinee was specifically the understudy performance. I think it was a great opportunity, because they did actually perform in 1 out of the 4 shows, giving them a solid goal so they really learned their parts, and it grooms the underclassmen very well to be able to step up into larger roles after senior classes graduate.

This worked really well for this school, even though it isn't traditional 'double casting'.

MatthewShiner

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #5 on: Jul 12, 2013, 12:48 pm »
I have done double casting for kids all the time.

I have had unique situations where a star was hired with some significant conflicts, and we hired a true cover (not just an understudy) - but this principal never wanted the cover in rehearsal - so we did double room rehearsals . . . where we would call the cover in for a "shortened" rehearsal time with the rest of the cast to have him ready.  Then the first two day of US rehearsal was dedicated to him and him alone with the rest of the cast, before we moved on to the rest of the understudies.

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dallas10086

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Double casts
« Reply #6 on: Jul 22, 2013, 10:22 pm »
I'm coming up on Tarzan: The Stage Musical in just a few short weeks with my first student double cast, 8 in each cast, aged 8-18. Any ideas on how to make my life easier during this process? I've done shows with adult double casts but as most of us know students are a different matter altogether.

BayAreaSM

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Re: Double casting
« Reply #7 on: Jul 24, 2013, 12:37 am »
I was in a double-cast show when I was in 8th grade. If someone from the other cast was absent, we stepped in, and when everyone was present, the opposite cast sat in the house and watched. The director tried to alternate daily for us, though I think my cast got less rehearsal, since we were the "B" cast.

I think it's a matter of keeping the second cast together and paying attention during rehearsals. We do this quite often in ballet - and at one point I did a ballet with about 40 kids, all double cast, so 80 total. We rehearsed scenes with one cast shadowing the cast on the floor, then we'd switch casts when the scene was complete. Come tech time, we ran the show twice, though one cast didn't get the costumes. Granted, in my situation, since this was through our ballet school, I had to be kept constantly up-to-date with who was dropping out and who would either be replaced, or if the role would be become a single-person role. 8 per cast sounds a lot more manageable.