My daughter was offered a part in a production at a regional theatre (paid, 12week run). However she was also is committed to a non-paid role in a National Tour that hits our town the same week that rehearsals begin for regional production. (National tour is only 8 shows in 5 days but regional rehearsals begin on same day as 1st performance of tour) When we told regionl about the conflicts with national tour performances we were told that they don't allow conflicts and would leave it up to us as to what we wanted to do. My daughter felt conflicted but didn't want to let the group of girls down that she is working with for the national tour however, she prefers to do the regional show. So we had to leave the regional production before rehearsals began to do the 8 shows for the national tour. My questions are: Did we make the right decision? My daughter felt committed to the tour first but preferred the regional run. We have never worked with a production that hasn't allowed for ANY conflicts during their rehearsals especially the first rehearsals. Second question is: Will this leave a bad taste in the regionals mouth or do these things happen all the time and we will be able to work with them again?

If it's a done deal, then you made the right decision and you will have to move on. These are really hard choices to make but it sounds like your dd is very responsible and has a strong work ethic to not leave the natl tour hanging. You won't know if this will affect her relationship with the regional theater until the next auditioning process comes along.

I'm curious . . . was the non-paid role in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Tour?

Personally, I would have encouraged my DD to take the regional show unless there truely was no time for the national tour to recast. I'm assuming there was time considering most regional theatres cast at the very least a month or more prior to rehearsals. That could be a wrong assumption for this company though.

I think the tour would have been the more understanding party in this scenario as really, no actor can be expected to give up 12 weeks of work for short-term unpaid gig. The regional theatres we've worked with (either myself as a stage manager or with my DD as an actor) have allowed conflicts but 5 days in the beginning of rehearsals can be pretty substantial considering some shows only rehearse 2 or 3 weeks before heading into techs.

I'm not saying you were wrong. Everyone has to do what they feel is the best choice for the situation which obviously you have more details on.

I don't know about the long term ramifications with this particular regional theatre. Some are more sensitive than others. If you were able to turn the role down immediatly they likely had an easy time filling the role with their second choice. It may be no issue at all.

Having conflicts is all part of the business. However, you as the parent should do what's best for your DD even if that might jeopardize roles for other kids. The question is how do you know what course of action is the best thing for your child?

Here's how I would look at it. I would ask myself which production would look better on my DD's resume when she goes for her next audition. To determine that you should ask yourself which is the better production. In this case it is hard to choose. On the one hand Oliver is paid but WOZ is a National Tour but is it really? Sure, it is a National Tour but your DD is not part of the paid touring cast. She is like hundreds of other kids in cities across the US that get chosen to work for FREE for WOZ in their home town. To get a better perspective on how producers (prospective employers) would look at such a show just read this article from a highly respected theatre critic from the Chicago Tribune:

http://leisureblogs.chicagotri...children-beware.html

When I put my DD's theatre work on her resume the heading reads "Professional Theatre" not simply "Theatre". Why? Because I want people to know that she got paid for this work and that paid performers are professionals whereas non-paid performers are not by definition.

I think you should have ditched WOZ and did the 12 week professional run. Regional or not she was a paid professional in that production and it will look that way on her resume.

Everyone - Please no hate mail (posts) because the article was about my DD. I'm simply using it as evidence to support my opinion, which is just that - an opinion. You can choose to disagree but please no hate mail.

No hate mail here. I've seen your dd before and she's really cute. And what you say is true. No professional production wants a reputation for treating their kid actors as after thoughts.

Well said Showbizkidparent