Not Enough Girls

[Starla]

Taking a brief break from my current self-imposed hermitage...

One of the classic plots of CD fiction is the "Not Enough Girls" scenario. A school or theater group is mounting a production, and finds that there aren't enough girls to cover all the female parts. Enter our hero(ine), a male who is coerced into essaying the role. (Of course, in the perfect world of femme fiction, the guy invariably makes a flawless girl, plays the part to perfection, and is awakened to a more permanent commitment to femininity.) :rolleyes:

Actually, though, this scenario does sometimes happen in real life. Putting aside all-male settings like boys' schools, there are also times, even in a mixed-gender theatrical troupe, that a guy has to step into a female role -- usually not a major one, though.

I heard of one such incident some years ago from the proprietress of a local wig shop. A small local theater was putting on a production with a lot of smaller secondary and tertiary roles. The females were overtaxed doubling up on these parts, so for one small non-speaking walk-on part of a female movie star, they drafted a young man to play the role in drag. The wig lady helped them not only with finding appropriate tresses, but assisted in giving him a crash course in female movement and deportment. With the bit part played straight, not camp, and the lighting/distance forgiveness of live theater, he pulled it off with no one in the audience the wiser unless they carefully scrutinized the cast listing and noted a male actor's name associated with the female character's name.

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of other such real-life situations. Maybe some of you were actually involved in such a scenario?

[katesometimes]

In most of the things I've been involved with it has usually been the other way around. Of course this was in high school in the 70's and anything not sports related was dominated by the girls and sports by the guys. Almost without exception, most of the guys in theater there were (and I assume still are) gay. Since leaving H.S. I've not found myself in most of those types of areas.

The only place I've found a shortage of girls is in the workplace. In my industry, information systems, the guys far outnumber the girls. And I generally hate it when the all-boys groups get together as there are a lot of inappropriate conversation. I also prefer having a women for a boss as they tend to be more focused on the big picture than the guys are. Always exceptions, I know, but that's been my general experience. And I think I'm in the minority among guys, so I don't see them drafting me to become one of the girls in the group.

-Tatyana

[Michelle.M]

You know, in ancient Greece and on into Shakespeare's time ALL parts were played by men. Women as actresses is a relatively modern thing.

[Eryn]

I think that this is the CDers version of every private pilot's dream, the cabin attendant on the intercom saying "The pilots are unconscious, is there anyone here who can fly a plane?"

[JohnH]

In the Sistine Chapel they did not permit women to sing the soprano and alto parts, so they had castrati sing them.

On the other hand the orphanage where the composer Vivaldi served there was an all-female choir where even the tenor and bass parts were sung by women. There is a modern group of women, informally called Vivaldi's Women, who have female tenor and bass sections along with soprano and alto. And in the bass section there are baritones and basses. They perform of course, Vivaldi's works along with an orchestra with all women. All of the voices in the choir have a feminine quality.

Johanna

[Wendy_Marie]

Lest we forget as well that even in a strong warrior culture such as the Samurai of feudal Japan...Kabuki Theater was dominated by male actors who donned female and geisha clothing for the feminine parts. Perhaps the culture knew of the strong needs for their warriors to express a softer and more feminine side and so gave them an outlet in which to do it…?

[Byron]

Even Thor put on a dress to get his hammer back from a giant. ;)

[Julogden]

I can't remember if it was the Go-Go's or the Bangles, it was one of those two, I'm pretty sure, but I remember reading that back before they hit it big, when they were short one girl, they temporarily had a band member who was a guy dressed as a girl. As an aspiring guitar player back then, that would have been heaven on earth for me.

I once temporarily filled in for a neighbor lady who was running late when my mom had the ladies over for bunco night. I didn't dress up, of course, but the ladies told me that I was one of the girls that night, and I was totally thrilled.

When I was in Cub Scouts, I remember the scout handbook having a page on how to make a female costume for a boy when putting on plays with the other scouts, but we never put on plays in my group, so I never had a chance to volunteer.

I remember seeing a movie about the Vienna Boys Choir where several of the boys were dressed very convincingly as girls and sang the girl's parts for some recital.

Carol

[Sally24]

While I was in college I was "drafted" to play a female part in our Fraternity Skit. Kind of a Vanna White character on a weird game show. I did my best with the mini dress and a quick lesson on makeup and movement from my Sorority Sisters. It was fun! One of my female friends made some comment about hitting the clubs as 2 girls.

153490

[Stephenie S]

Taking a brief break from my current self-imposed hermitage...

One of the classic plots of CD fiction is the "Not Enough Girls" scenario. A school or theater group is mounting a production, and finds that there aren't enough girls to cover all the female parts. Enter our hero(ine), a male who is coerced into essaying the role. (Of course, in the perfect world of femme fiction, the guy invariably makes a flawless girl, plays the part to perfection, and is awakened to a more permanent commitment to femininity.)

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of other such real-life situations. Maybe some of you were actually involved in such a scenario?

Well, if you can get your dirty little mind (LOL) past the erotic fantasyof this sceanerio, it can happen often.

Remember, actors are ACTORS. Professional actors are often quite comfortable doing this. However, due to the extra work involved with lighting, makeup, and costume, most directors would rather have the proper gender for the character available.

I have been involved in theater for over 40 years and have seen this often. It carries NONE of the purient aspect of popular crossdressing erotica, though. Watch Merill Streep's portrayal of an elderly Jewish rabbi in Angels in America. And I can't remember the woman's name who played the lead in Transamerica. No erotica present, thank you verey much.

The ART of acting is a fine craft, and bears little resemblance to crossdressing erotica.

Stephie

[JenniferR771]

Hijack. Sorry I cannot remember the details. I read an article based on information from Bob's Antique and Used Gay Bookstore of San Francisco: something like that. Some people say that the earliest story reveals the most. The earliest in the long tradition of crossdressing short stories was about 1849 in France. Publisher probably wrote the story himself and used a pseudonym. Title was "She made him a girl" although the original is in French, of course. A domineering mother has a son and daughter. Daughter dies. Son is coerced into wearing her clothes for an hour, but soon is forced to wear female clothes all the time. Eventually becoming a somewhat unwilling star of theater. Coerced and forced feminization has remained an important cd short story theme to this day. I know its one of my favorite fantasies.
Google translated the title as:
Elle fait de lui une fille

Can anybody find the original source?

[Stephenie S]

Nothing wrong with a little hijack now and then. That was interesting.

S

[lingerieLiz]

Well, I went to a small high school. A few years before I started a class did a play that required several women and only a few male roles. One of the guys in the class was drafted to play a female role. He was quite fem in his movements normally and everyone figured he was gay. He did a really good job of it in the play. He stole the show for those that knew, but from what I was told many of the people didn't realize it was him. They just couldn't figure who that girl was.

So it does happen. I don't know what happened to him he left town after graduation.

[insearchofme]

Sally, you were pretty "foxy" (as we used to say in the day)for dressing up for the firsttime!

[RenneB]

Oh do I remember that day. We were in scouts and I was just a youngling around 12 or so. We were to have a yearly banquet and our patrol was to put on a play. As the parts were being handed out, I said that .... well alright... I'll play the part of the woman... Everything was going well, with rehersal days before the event. However, the night of the play, I got cold feet. I suddenly realized that I would be "out" in the open. We really didn't have a costume to wear, but just the thought of me being out in the open as a woman, even just a play, scared the cra* out of me.

I told the leaders just before the play started that they needed to change the script to say man and not woman. We muddled through it, but someone inside me just refused to get out in the open...

It would be another 10 years before I would dress up and go outside.

Renne.....

[Jennifer in CO]

I was not a female character, but wore a lace dress as a nobleman's shirt for a play in elementary school. Go to Big Closet and look for "The School Play" story. Ahh...the memories....
Jenn

[bumblebee]

Yes it happens and I'm currently in a play where it's happening and I am playing a girl.

Of course, the amusing thing, this is an actual theatre and not a school production or anything of that sort.

It helps that I look like a girl even in boy mood. :)

[Paula Siemen]

Sally, you were pretty "foxy" (as we used to say in the day)for dressing up for the firsttime!

Dressing up for thr FIRST TIME?????? I bet you were all a twitter inside when your frat bros. said you had to "dress up like a girl". I'm sure you pulled it off ( the role) with professional accomplishment. LOL, I'd love such an opportunity.