Everyone Gets a Part...(or 'A Quick Rant')

My current job title is 'Costume Rental Administrator'; I work for a theatrical supply company and my main job is to make sure that high schools and colleges get the costumes they need for their shows.

My company offers really nice costumes, however, not all schools have the budget to rent from us. For instance, when I was in high school, we had almost no theatre budget because we were a football school in Texas. That didn't matter to us though, because we were super dedicated and could make anything work, and it made us better people for it.

However, I've discovered working here, that there are many schools who seem to think that they are putting on Broadway shows and therefore need to have a HUGE production. But then it comes time to do the budget and they realize it won't work. So they call me up and whine and try to get extra discounts and free shipping and blah blah blah... Of course I want to help and support the arts and give these people the best show possible, but I'm starting to get tired of it. Especially because then I receive these orders, and I discover that these huge shows are really just 15 leading characters, and then upwards of 50 ensemble characters. What this says to me, is that these schools are following the millennial idea of 'everyone gets a part', which I think is bullshit.

My age-group straddles the line of kids who were raised normally, and these new kids who are super coddled; everyone gets a part, everyone wins a trophy, there are no losers, everyone is a unique and beautiful snowflake. And it's screwing these kids up. Once upon a time, you had to audition, and if you were awesome you were in, and if you weren't, you either worked crew or joined some decorating committee for a dance. Or, even better, you realized this wasn't for you so you figured out what you were good at and ran with it. Now, no one wants to hurt anyone's feelings, so kids get to be in the play, or they get to play in the game, or whatever, and they never realize that they aren't any good. There are kids out there who I'm sure realize this and just have fun with it, but then there are those that think they will grow up to be a superstar because no one told them to go and find something more substantial to do. So now we have all these kids who want to be rich and famous and they want everything handed to them (cause it always has been) and they're sucking the life out of our culture with reality TV and YouTube and whatnot.

Basically, it just frustrates me that these directors of shows are huge vaginas, and they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so they let everyone have a part, and then they have to provide costumes for everybody, so they come and bitch to me about it. Cowboy up people!