This comes across from another post on coffins and is a (semi!) serious discussion point on age and ability.

Firstly two mildly amusing personal experiences:

1. Our grandchildren, and children were most miffed at Christmas when we had one of those dance mats attached to the playstation. With no practice at all, Mrs Robin was consistantly the top scorer with muggins coming in at number two. It was only after several hours practice that our 9 year-old grandson was able to do better than I and none of our children could match us! Why?

2. Mrs Robin has only this week been told she is 'cool' by our 10 year-old granddaughter after buying her an outfit. Her own mother is definitly 'uncool'!

I've seen older actors doing a fantastic job (with make-up) of playing much younger people. I remember one 4' 6', 70+ year old playing one of the children's roles in Annie and no-one would believe she was not a child. To balance the equation, I've also seen youngsters play crinklies very convincingly as well.

Now, without wanting to set off an ageist argument, I get back to my original thought; Does age really matter? I suspect not, but if that's the case, why do so many people drop out of Amdram after about 40/45 for luvvies and 50/55 for techies? Maybe your observations don't concur with mine. However, in support of my observation I can cite one excellent actor who at the age of just 43 was taken to one side by the new 'young' chairman of a group some years ago to be told he no longer fitted in with the younger image they were trying to portray! Needless to say he hasn't walked the boards since. Before anyone asks, it wasn't in Suffolk.

Incidentally, despite my postings elsewhere and signature, I'm not sensitive about my age. I'm in my lower fifties, but that against most of the regulars here almost supports my view above.

Any thoughts, comments, humour or similar stories welcome.

Creaky Old Robin

If only some of our wrinklies would bow out gracefully......


I don't think age does matter that much.There are older people who can put me to shame when it comes to movement (and song for that matter).

What I get annoyed at is people who are so obviously over the hill who get miffed when they are not cast as the young (female) lead opposite a genuine young lead.

This has happened in at least two socieites I've been with. The latter actually resigned from the society! As you say, you can make people up to look younger,older or just about any age, what you can't change however is the fact that they SOUND old.

With regards to technology, it's a well-known fact that kids are better than adults (although you are the exception obviously) They are also much better at learning things. I put it down to the fact they have lots of unused storage.


I could definately do with a defrag!!

I think any society that is short-sighted enough to exclude older members is very very strange. There are very few productions - drama or musical - that don't require a wrinklie SOMEWHERE. Yes, an older part can be played by someone much younger (I speak as an ex-Mrs Sowerberry who had to draw on LOADS AND LOADS of wrinkles...) but it ain't always convincing.

But having said that, my musical society suffers from a back row of the chorus who really are not physically capable of doing the simplest and easiest of routines. Yes, they may be members who've been in the society for many many valuable years but it really doesn't look good to see when you're in the audience. And there's only so many ways you can cover this up before it is painfully obvious.

The saddest thing is when members who have, in earlier years, been scintillating on stage, start to forget lines and consequently start to suffer badly from stage fright. This is dreadful to see when it's someone you've respected for years. One day I'll be there too....

I suppose it really depends on the type of show you are putting on and the environment around it.

The only great example I can give is of our first 2 pantomimes in 1991/1992. At the time we had only just begun as a group so had a few older members as we had not really thought of having anyone younger that 17 in the group at that time.

the two oldest members were I believe in their late 60s and were cast in the chorus fo obvious reasons. As the show was Sinbad, we required a camel on stage for a big scene with dance number. Guess which 2 volunteered for the part. Needless to say that scene is the one that is talked about each time we review old shows and it certainly brought the house down as the dance routine involved a bit of tap in it, niether could see very well in the costume, or hear the music clearly so ended up doing their own thing. If only I could get the video clip onto my pc.

The following panto they were cast as the blackbirds and had to climb into and out of a "nest" which stood about 8 inches high. You can see where this one goes as well.

Just hope I'm that fit in some 40 years time. btw, our MD is a young 72 and no signs of retiring from the scenes yet either

Our group has quite the reverse problem - we have no one under about 45! Also, our numbers are dwindling as people decide their acting days are over - a couple of weeks ago we were unable to cast a play requiring just two men and three women.

We have also lost most of our backstage crew due to retirement, moving away and injury/ill health. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any younger people coming along to take their place. We used to have plenty of youngsters, but these were the children of the adult members and have now grown up, gone to university, moved away and got married.

We live in a small village where most of the younger population commutes to London and doesn't get home until 8pm and the non-working wives have school age children or younger and can't leave them on their own.

Rather than try to age the few actors we have up or down, we choose productions to suit the ages we have. There are plenty of good plays out there for 40- and 50-somethings. In fact, I've just found a wonderful play for one man and two women that we hope to put on in June.

If anyone has any ideas on how to attract new members from a very small catchment area with another couple of similar groups nearby, I'd love to hear from you.

We have a variable age range in our group. Youngest is 27yr old lad, oldest are the long standing members of the group when it was formed in the 60s. Husband and wife who used to act, direct, prompt etc and now they do box office/pre show sales. I'd say we have a nice mix of ages and we end up doing plays we can cast at the time, depending on who is available. Only drawback is getting typecast. We've read some really good material but if they have couples in them we find it quite hard to appropriately match people. (IE a few Ayckbourn plays we like but we haven't got the right people. It is for this reason we can't do The diary of Anne Frank or Outside Edge)
I know this happens a lot and wonder if the audience begin to notice that people are paired off the same again. It would be nice to have more people in the society so you can get changeover of some kind.

Regards to acting older or younger, it depends on the play and who you've got playing the roles. Some people do it really well, others not so convincing. They might have the costume and make-up right but neglect the physical aspect of playing older person.

Best wishes to any night owls out there.

Louise

Lots of ideas and discussions here then!

Well, we have an opera company which is basically 'dying' because, despite its well-known name and former talent, refuses flatly to give major roles to youngsters within the group because there are 'oldies' who have been with the group for years and therefore "deserve to get the roles".

There are also local groups who consistently fail to look at the age of their membership, and therefore fail to choose suitable plays age-wise.

We have a "youth group" who consistently increase their upper age level (now at 35) because they don't want to "lose" their members - as if they actually owned them!

We have a small village group, over 80 years old, with members into their 90's who still perform well in pantos, green rooms and bit parts, as they have done for 50 or more years with the same society.

I am directing a musical for a group who realised that the average membership age was late thirties, and that something needed to be done. I was given permission to put on a 'young' show (relatively young!) with a modern theme, and to hold completely open auditions. We have introduced over 20 new members into the cast, mostly under the age of 30, and all under 40. If half of these do another show with us, we will be on our way to having a greater age range.

The best way is to run a youth section, then spend several years nurturing these youngsters through teens. Those that don't go to uni can be offered decent roles, and gradually over some years you will create a younger side to your society if necessary.

Alternately, do shows everyone wants to be in, and open audition, as I do!

Our group has a lot of talented youngsters in it mainly due to the fact of being located across the road from the main secondary school. Our producer is also a teacher at the local primary school.

THe show that helped us gain more young members was the Sound of Music some 7 years ago. The girls who plaed gretl aged 5 are now 14 and still very active in the group. Another of the "children" has just turned 21 (makes me feel really old seeing them grow up with us)

It helps having a good group of young members as they can then get friends interested by getting them to come and see the shows and hopefuly join in the next one.

Like some of you we put on a children's show every year - age range 7 - 14. Had some great successes particlarly - Oliver! a couple of years ago. These children move on through the ranks, it is vital to encourage them - not only on stae but backstage too. We have keen crews of painters, props makers and lighting bods all learning the ropes.

We also have a youth section who have done their thing for the past 6 years - a variety of shows from Seven Brides to Return to the Forbidden Planet. The rapport these kid build between themselves is fantastic and their enthusiasm when performing is something us oldies need to take on board.

For the more mature members we do 2 plays, and a musical. Gosh aren't we busy!!! One other thing, to ensure the theatre is used we have regular band visits and have a 'Fringe' week which includes comedy, bands and and adult panto.

We have absolutely no trouble attracting young and youngish members, mainly now through our website as well as coming up through our youth groups, but we're not attracting the 50s-upwards members that are so important to a balanced society. Whenever we want to select a play with more than, say, two parts for older actors of either gender, we have to schmooze around other groups, none of which are particularly close so transport is essential.

Having said that, we have a handful of fantastic actors in their 60s and 70s who rub their hands with glee whenever a good older role comes up as they know they've got virtually no competition!

The society that I'm in keeps having problems in that we manage to get a few 17 or 18 year olds who are in their final year at high school. They appear to have a great time, then go off to Glasgow or Edinburgh to University. We get them for one year, then they're gone.

Which is fine if they keep coming, but often they go and no replacements come along for a few years... right now we're in the doldrums and are definitely suffering.

I'll create a new topic for this one - but you can see from the above why I'm trying to think up attention-grabbing ways of getting cheap publicity at "rehearsals starting" time of year, as well as at show time!

regards,
/alan

Our group do both plays and musicals and we have a few long-standing members aged over 70 who still like to do plays, but no longer take part in the musicals. We operate a policy of no auditions for chorus, so that anyone who wishes to be in the chorus can do so, and until a few years ago, we had an elderly member who was always in the chorus. She enjoyed taking part, but her sight was poor and she would wear her glasses whether they were in character or not. Some of the directors were not keen on her being in the show, worrying that she might fall backstage. But we all took turns, keeping an eye on her, and she was very happy taking part. Until someone realised that NODA insurance only covers members upto age 75 and upset the lady with this info.

We have a core membership of about 30 people, with others who come in for one show. There is probably a reasonable age distribution from low 20s upwards. We do get teenagers coming in as dancers, but they don't tend to stay. Also children take part in our pantomimes, but we only encourage this where a parent or other family member belongs to the group.

What we are finding currently, is that we are ending up with a very small chorus. We have our initial sing-throughs for a couple of weeks before the auditions, and think great there's loads of people here. But if they don't get the part, they don't want to be in the chorus. They just try elsewhere, as there are quite a few groups in the local vicinity.

So what we have done this time for Calamity Jane, having found again that we have a tiny chorus, is invite people in for just 1 or 2 of the chorus numbers, so they only need to attend a few rehearsals and can fit us in with other committments. This seems to be working okay, so if there is anyone else close to the Epsom, Surrey area, that this arrangement would suit, then please get in contact with us.

Claire