Should theatres make special arrangements to transport child

[Irishdancer]

Thinking about it some theatres mush have a lot of money as they must pay the actors who come over from America to be in pantomime a lot of money to come over or Im sure they would not do it, so if they have the money to do that then why can these company's not pay the children in the production

[bruno2]

The only way we have managed to support dd with theatre and tv is use the money she has earnt. This money goes towards all trips to london for castings, etc., She has been lucky enough to have earnt enough to keep her going for the last few years and this was her suggestion. I have suggesed to her that she buy something nice for herself but her answer is "I need my money for my jobs" !!!!! I dont feel guilty for letting her use her earnings as she is doing something that she absolutely loves and its making her happy. I am very proud of her mature attitude and off course when ever we can we will always contribute towards these expenses, but I do symphathise with parents who have children who have the passion for theatre/tv it is alot of extra expense, pressure and off course time and not all of us have these things.

[paulears]

Thinking about it some theatres mush have a lot of money as they must pay the actors who come over from America to be in pantomime a lot of money to come over or Im sure they would not do it, so if they have the money to do that then why can these company's not pay the children in the production

It's simply economics. Anyone can do the maths - will a name put bums on seats? Yes - 100% proven. Does that person have to be excellent? No, not at all. However, the number of seats is a fixed income generator, so if you pay the top turns more, there's less for everyone else.

Snow White is always a good example of a variable cost show. Most of the bigger companies pay Equity rates to their performers - if they didn't, then they'd either get fewer people willing to do it, or the quality might be less. Snow white can either have 7 adult actors playing the roles, or 7 kids. The benefits of employing real actors are that they can work proper hours, they can learn their lines and moves quickly - they can cope with last minute production changes and from the audience perspective, are 'real' people. Swapping them for kids with false heads means you cannot be so complex in your expectations, they'll make more mistakes, lack repeatability and because the can't do every show, continuity is a pain. What I mean by this is let's imagine something just gets slightly changed - maybe something happened, even maybe a line got garbled, but it produced a positive response. With an actor who does every show, it can happen again and be a built in feature. If the next show has a different group of kids, they won't automatically understand what happened so describing it might not work, and it goes wrong. It's very difficult to make changes to routines the kids have got embedded.

So 7 real actors is often seen as best - but 7 actors on Equity rates costs an awful lot. So cast are very expensive, the children are cheaper. The children cost money - but may, depending on their individual arrangements, see very little. In showbiz, everything has a proper itemised cost. Chaperones, supervisors, office staff who juggle rotas, insurance all cost the production company. So there's no fixed rule. It's possible in a pantomime to see more money go up in smoke on the pyros than on a member of cast. The dancers expand or contract depending on seating capacity. A 2000 seater might warrant 10, a 1000 seater 8 and a 750 seater 6. Look at pantomimes - the itsbehindyou web site is a great place to start, and you can look at the cast names and quantities, and do the maths for yourselves. When somebody flys in to do panto, then they're a high cost 'item' - but if they can pay for themselves, so what?

There's little doubt that having somebody in panto fresh out of the jungle puts bums on seats, while a 2 year ago big brother person can't even be recognised! The turns are just commodities - does a brand new bathroom put value on your house? The same value as insulation?

If the panto could do without me, I'm sure they would as I don't put bums on seats. If it came down to an extra top turn or me, then I'd expect to find myself replaced - if things were a bit dodgy.

It's simply economics. Remember the topic about parents paying to have their kids take part? While people are willing to do this, the kids will remain as the lowest status performers. One show we were one dwarf down for the very first scene - the replacement, replacement called in at the last minute wasn't going to make the start. I 'borrowed' a lady from the office who is rather short, and put her on. Nobody even noticed. As I mentioned - count to seven, if all is well, job done!

[mathsmum]

irishdancer - the kids who had to be driven may have been extras - we were with an extras agency, and even when ds had what i would have considered a feature part, we had to get him there ourselves

tbh there have been times we have had cars when i would rather have driven, when sharing a car or a rubbish driver meant we were back an hour later than if i'd just done it myself (tho i must add to that - we have also had the benefit of some amazing drivers who could combine shortcuts with sightseeing)