One thing always amazes me.

When I'm trying to put together the programme for the show, why is it that it's almost impossible to get short biogs out of the cast? They have no worries about getting up on stage, acting the fool, dressing in silly costumes, doing daft things...but they turn to gibbering lumps of jelly when asked to write 50 words about themselves.

Just a thought - can any of you actors out there shed any light on this one?

I to have experienced the same problem and find the best way is to create one for them, this usually upsets them enough to put together something more flattering

Hmmm, the problem with that is....they don't have the individual touch. I like them to be different from show to show. I go to see a lot of amateur shows by myself, and thus realise how important it is to have an interesting programme to read in the interval.

It particularly bugs me if they're people who are quite new to me, so I don't know much about them.

I sympathise on both counts - wanting variety and the difficulty of wringing material out of a cast. In part I have taken a compromise route: "interviewing" the cast members to pull the details out of them, then writing it up myself. It requires a bit of sub-editing skill, and a bit of imagination in asking the biographical questions, otherwise all the biogs read "This is Toni's seventeenth appearance with the company. Her first was at the age of eleven when she played a badger in Snow White..."

I managed to write a biog about myself as Co-writer understudy, but the other people in the performance had to have help doing it.

Probaly the main reason people have this trouble is when acting, they are a character, if that character does something stupid then its the character not them, when writing Biogs they have to talk about the real them. Scary

I did manage to wind my choreographer up - it was two weeks before the show and she still hadn't given me a biog. Her big brother who was also in the cast begged me to let him write her biog instead....so I let him.

The bit in the programme read something along the lines of "xxxx is nowhere near as talented as her big brother yyyyy (see elsewhere in this programme). She can dance a bit".

I think she'll write her own next time!

I do agreeit is probaly best to write your own Biog, then it is personal and it says only things you want it to say, though I think I need to really redo mine, it doesn't fit in to well with the style of the others

I do the programme for one of my groups and I have exactly the same problem. It takes months to get a few words on paper from people, but try and keep 'em quiet at rehearsals and it's a completely different matter!

Jane

Working on the basis that actors are idiots.... assume they are not writing them because they don't know where to start. So give everyone a photocopy of last year's from the programme and then also give them a word limit and a deadline. Perhaps even a form on which they can write it and return to you. If you want to encourage creativity perhaps you could offer a small prize for the best (make it in the best in YOUR judgement - no argument then!)

Our group doesn't put biogs into the programme, mainly because we have to do things on the cheap and there isn't enough space.

Personally, I'd rather not have one in case it spoils the illusion. For the duration of the performance I'd rather the audience believed totally in the character I am playing on the stage. If they knew I worked in the local plastics moulding factory and had 17 children (neither of which is true, by the way!) they might have more trouble believing I was a medieval queen or a 60 year old retired teacher or a 20-something sex siren (I wish).

And even though I write for a living, I would find it hard to come up with something original that didn't come across as completely luvvie and pretentious.

Biogs can be included without drawng away from the character, in our programme we generally just put in our past acting experience and said thanks for allowing us to build confidence, wear a cheerleading oufit and stuff like that.

I've asked for "professional" type biogs for the website, as it will be a bit of promotional work, and hopefully our professionalism will sell tickets.

I usually ask for "fun" biogs for the programme, remembering that often people go to the theatre on their own so they spend the interval being entertained! Also, if they've got as far as buying a programme then we're onto a winner....because it means we've already sold them a seat!

Was recently very entertained by biogs in one large cast show I went to see. Unfortunately the biogs were better than the show but that's another story....

But what was bizarre was that some were dead serious and straightlaced but others were obviously a big joke from start to finish! Nice to read but I perhaps would have been happier to have a consistent style - all serious or all jokey. Personally prefer all jokey... particularly if the show's cr*p!!

Must say I agree with you on that one!!!

When we wrote ours we all got together and did them so they all followed the same format