High School and College Directors, Why Exactly Did You Keep Casting Your Favorites?

by Chris Peterson

One of the most common complaints I hear from former high school and college theatre students is about favoritism by their directors.

Not bad casting. Not “I didn’t get the role I wanted.” Not even “I thought I was better than the person who got it,” I mean actual favoritism.

The same students getting the leads every year. The same names on every cast list. The same performers being forgiven for things other students would have been punished for. The same inner circle getting opportunities, attention, benefit of the doubt, and, sometimes, an entirely different version of the director.

And I guess my question is: why?

Because I don’t think we ask that enough. We talk about the harm it causes, which is real. We talk about the students who stop auditioning because they assume the show has already been cast before they even walk into the room. We talk about how educational theatre is supposed to be educational, not a recurring showcase for the same three people and whoever made the director laugh during rehearsal.

But I am genuinely curious why some directors keep doing it.

Is it comfort? Is it laziness? Is it fear? Is it that you know certain students will deliver, so you would rather go with the safe choice than actually teach someone new? Is it that the favorites are easier to manage because they already know how to flatter you, read your mood, and make themselves indispensable?

Because here’s the uncomfortable part: favoritism does prepare students for life. Just not in the way a theatre program should be proud of.

It teaches them that talent is not always enough. It teaches them that rooms are political. It teaches them that adults can create systems, pretend those systems are fair, and then act confused when students notice the pattern.

So yes, in that sense, my high school and college theatre experiences prepared me beautifully for adulthood.

But educational theatre should not just be a miniature version of the unfair world students are about to enter. It should be one of the places where they are challenged, seen, stretched, and surprised.

That does not mean every student deserves a lead. It does not mean casting should be random or based on whose turn it is. Sometimes the same student really is the strongest fit for a role. Sometimes experience matters. Sometimes reliability matters.

Casting is complicated, and anyone pretending otherwise has probably never had to put together a show with 47 teenagers.

But when the pattern is obvious, students know. They always know.

So directors, especially in schools, should ask themselves a hard question before posting that next cast list: Am I casting the show, or am I casting my comfort zone? Because your students are learning from the answer.