Should Normal Sized Actors Be Allowed To Play Dwarfs?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3956232/Panto-dwarfs-axed-Snow-White-taller-actors-charge-playing-roles-knees.html

[mikey4444]

For Gods sake DB !

Its for only a few weeks of every year !

[mikey4444]

I give up !

[weecalf]

Snow White and the regular five eight sounds alright to me

[pixie374]

Last year, they had children for dwarves here. Maybe that was why... cheaper.

[ummmm]

It says dwarfs charge £1,200 but taller actors charge £450. It then goes on to say taller actors charge £450 to £750...

[vulcan42]

\\ Dwarves for Xmas Panto must be one of the few jobs that a short actor can do without looking ridiculous. Why begrudge them a few weeks a year ! //
Yes, why begrudge them a few weeks a year work, after all according to mikey, the rest of the year they look ridiculous.

[-Talbot-]

Stick Snow White on stilts ... bargain, much cheapness.

[DTCwordfan]

economics, it's economics.... dwarves in short supply, then pay up! Dwarves in long supply, hire an Americam or Chinese basketplayer, or go short.

[Togo]

Those he commands move.  Only in command.                   
Nothing in love:    Now does he feel his title hang loose about him.
Like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief.
Angus:  Macbeth act V :))

[ummmm]

I don't think Mikey meant it like that.

[Maydup]

Most pantos budget for a couple of big names, one or two principals and usually 8 ensemble. The ensemble are dancers who can act and double up the roles of policeman, town crier etc. Ensemble are paid £450 a week. Principals maybe £750 and big names all down to the agent negotiating. These people are the ones people buy the tikets to see.

In Snow White, the budget would usually go on the Wicked Queen and the Prince, or Snow White, but the seven dwarfs are ensemble. Because they over charge they are often replaced with children or small dancers, who can play the other roles normally taken on by ensemble. Few theatres can afford 7 extra principals.

[DTCwordfan]

Maydup....it's not fair....Short people really are oppressed folk as
they’re always getting overlooked. The Tory government needs to do something about theatrical emoluments. In short, it's a scandal.

[jourdain2]

All is normal in the new P.C. madness.. Can we possibly go back to commonsense? Unfortunately, I doubt it. Fed up. :(

[Mamyalynne]

I agree with Maydup, as I stated earlier in the thread - this is more about economics than anything else.

[Peter Pedant]

// You'll be asking next if "white" skinned actors should be barred from playing Othello.//

yeah and being a caring person AOG - alive to innuendo

you will next ask that if a production of Othello was to be as acted in the 1590 then the boy who would play Ophelia ( high voice squeaky etc ) would have to be played by a young lady of maturer years ( 16 at least )

so that yeah it would have to be a girl playing a boy playing a girl

on account of modern safe guarding rules....( and Jimmy Savile etc )

[Khandro]

Pantomimes are nowadays so embarrassingly awful. I took a family group a few years ago to one and it was dreadful (and expensive), never again.
The classic pantomime was once enacted with a dramatic story element with the main protagonists playing "straight", counterbalanced by the slapstick comedy of the 'naughty' components; not unlike you find in many of Shakespeare's plays.
Now everything seems to be played relentlessly for laughs, which is to miss the whole point of the genre.

[Peter Pedant]

well I was gonna say something higher than panto talk

however here goes: In Cinderella ( the panto and not the opera ) there is a part of Count Dandini - who is a fella but is always played by a gurl. Cross dressing - vesta tilley type ( oi!)

now suppose Count Dandini was played by a man - shortage of women - think prison or somwhere - would AOG call him an Uncle Tom ?

but anyway more shakespeare
finding actors suitable for parts was always a problem even in the 1590s again
Midsummer Nights Dream - Nick Bottom weaver speaks:

An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too, I'll
speak in a monstrous little voice. 'Thisne,
Thisne;' 'Ah, Pyramus, lover dear! thy Thisby dear,
and lady dear!'

Nick Bottom is sort of big really and not really squeaky
he turns into a donkey ( they are fabulously big I am told ) half way through

[Togo]

‘Cymbeline’, Act IV. Scene 2

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, .......and ta’en thy wages;