Commitment!!

I am having a problem with the fact that people have no commitment, and are not teaching their children to fulfill commitments. I am in the middle of a major musical - Bugsy Malone, we perform in 2 weeks, two weeks from tonight to be exact. This is the first time I have done a full blown musical, and there is some major choreography. Some of the characters are in 3 or 4 songs and have a lot of dancing to learn. I always have problems with kids missing practices, which has always bothered me. If you commit to being in the play you need to be at rehearsal, unless of course you are sick. But missing for a birthday party or because you forgot are not good excuses. In the last two days I have had 2 kids quit, because of other conflicts, and one that didn't quit but is going to miss most of the remaining rehearsals because of a conflict with a basketball team. Come on - if you knew that you were going to be on a basketball team, why audition for the play. I have nothing against sports, I have kids that play them and it's good for them. But I don't let them miss sports practice, and I make them choose one or the other - the play or the sport. They are not allowed to do both because I don't think it's fair that they should miss so many rehearsals, and they need to have a commitment to whatever they are doing. In fact my daughter wanted to quit basketball because she realized that the play was at the same time and she wouldn't be able to do both. She had already made a commitment to the team, so I made her finish the season. She wasn't very happy with me. But in my mind if you start it you need to finish it, and you don't let your team down. And it bugs me when parents let their kids just drop out, or not show up, or whatever. But the show will go on - just 2 kids less. I'll step down off my soapbox now.