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Topic: Licenses for children going on stage (Read 780 times)

nesomja
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Licenses for children going on stage
« Thread Started on Jan 12, 2008, 3:38pm »

In several NS books it's mentioned that children in England have to have a licence to act on stage, and they can't get one until after their 12th birthday. I guess this was really true at the time, but I presume this is no longer the case as I'm sure I've seen children younger than 12 in plays. Does anyone know how and when it was changed (if indeed it was?). In The Circus is Coming it's talked about as an especially British thing, the children can work in the rest of Europe before they are 12. Does anyone know anything about the history of this law, why it was brought in and when?

« Last Edit: Jan 16, 2008, 9:08pm by nesomja »

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Myra Forum
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #1 on Jan 14, 2008, 5:25pm »

According to a quick bit of google detective work:

The laws which govern the current licensing of children in the UK are The Children and Young Persons Acts 1933 and 1963 The Children (performances) Regulations 1968.

1933 - This act provided guidance on the employment of children. I can’t find a full version of it online so I’m not sure what its specific stance was on licensing. It prohibited any children under sixteen for performing in or training for ‘performances endangering life and limb’ which would certainly be relevant in the case of The Circus is Coming. The events of Ballet Shoes themselves pre-date this act ( Pauline’s first license is issued in 1932) but as the book wasn’t written until several years later, NS might just have been not very accurate about her information ( I know later in life she was a very thorough researcher for her books, but remember that she wasn’t very interested in writing for children at the time) or there may have been pre-existing legislation which was then consolidated in the 1933 act.

1963 - This act is the main legislative basis for current law, and the one still quoted on local authority application forms for performance licenses. (You can find it on the Office of Public Sector Information website) This restricts any child under 16 from performing without a license in a professional production, either live, broadcast or recorded for broadcast. License regulations (controlling working conditions, schooling, chaperoning etc) are decided by the individual local authorities granting the license. Licenses are discouraged but not prohibited for children under 13, to be granted only with the proviso that the part can only be acted by someone of about that age. I think this must have been the point at which the age limit changed, incorporating both older and younger children to the licensing law. The age limit is still 12 in Apple Bough (published 1962) because the Forum family do not return to England until Sebastian is approaching twelve and therefore old enough to be licensed to perform for money.

I think in essence, the licensing laws still apply pretty much as they did then, but with the 12/13 age range as a suggested, rather than a strict guideline as to the minimum age. In Gemma ( published 1968) Lydia is still regarded as too young to have a license (see the last chapter where they are talking to the agent.) I have to say that even now, I don’t think I’ve seen many (if any) under twelves in professional productions. There have been several amendments to the act since 1963, but they mostly seem to be small adjustments to the form of the license.

I’d guess that the decision to set the upper range of the age limit at 16 in 1963 may have been in anticipation of the raising of the compulsory schooling age to 16 (a process which began in 1964 although it wasn’t enforced until 1973). The main concern of the law was always to protect to the child’s compulsory education form being compromised, so it seems logical that it would adjust in line with the school leavers age.

Sorry if this has been long-winded - it was a really interesting question! I hope this goes a little way towards answering it although I would love to hear from anyone who could shed some light on the issue from personal experience (as a child performer themselves or parent of such perhaps?)

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nesomja
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #2 on Jan 16, 2008, 9:14pm »

Thanks for that. I'm just reading Gemma at the moment and I wondered whether in fact NS was out of date then and that children then were allowed to perform younger. The 12 year age limit is such a feature of so many of her books!
The things which sparked off this question was that I went to see The Sound of Music last week and it definitely had several children under the age of 12 in it. I was also wondering about the children in Les Miserables although I think they could be small 12 year olds. In fact, now I think about it, I went to Billy Eliot last year and I'm pretty sure it said in the programme notes that some of the leading boys (there were 3 playing Billy on different nights) were 11. They have to be pre-pubescent so it must be difficult to get boys who can perform for a length of time. Of course, puberty was later early on this century and so maybe it was easier to get children with a 'child-like' appearance and unbroken voices who were over 12.

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Laura
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #3 on Jan 16, 2008, 10:03pm »

Does that law apply to only stage performances? Because I agree in that I really never see anyone under twelve in a play or musical stage performance, and while kids under twelve aren't used all the time in films, they are used quite a lot. Or is there a special section of that law concerning children in films?

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nesomja
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #4 on Jan 18, 2008, 4:58pm »

Okay, at the risk of sounding like I spend all my time going to musicals, last night I went to Billy Elliot and several of the children were definitely 10 and 11, it said in their write ups in the programme notes. However, all the children under about 14 seems to have at least 3 actors for each part so presumably they're not performing every night, maybe that makes a difference? Not like Pauline who appears to have appeared every night and some matinees as Alice from the age of 12.

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Myra Forum
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #5 on Jan 18, 2008, 10:55pm »

I think you are right Nesomja - I watched a documatnary a while back about Billy Elliot where they explained that there were three actors to play Billy so that they didn't get over-exhausted - not surprising as even professional adults in lead roles often don't often do every show of the week. Looking at the programme of Les Mis there are three actresses for young Eponine as well, which is really a very small part. I know in travelling productions of musicals they often use local kids for the smaller childrens parts (I'm sure thats true of the touring Sound of Music which I've seen, and I was in the touring Joseph with my kids choir when it came to my city when I was a wee thing), which means that children are only performing for a few nights in a row - even so I remember having to get bits of paper signed to show we had official permission from school to come to rehearsals.

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mrsredboots
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #6 on Jan 23, 2008, 3:00pm »

I remember seeing a stage performance of "Annie" years ago, and many, if not most of the orphans (and possibly Annie herself) were under 12; I believe there are strict limits on how many performances per week a child can be asked to do, so there were two, if not three, complete casts of youngsters. Certainly one of the young actors was only 8 at the time; there were several articles about her in the then newspapers.

I wonder if they still have to save at least half their earnings!

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Laura
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #7 on Jan 24, 2008, 8:52pm »

They only had to save one third in Ballet Shoes. It was Garnie who insisted the girls save half.

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Petrova
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #8 on Feb 5, 2008, 4:53am »

Even in television and film children are only allowed to work a certain number of hours, which is why they often try to get twins when a younger role is called for. Then they can go on for longer without having to shut it all down because the child has to stop working.

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lizzieangel
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #9 on Feb 2, 2009, 5:18pm »

Pauline starred in the "Blue Bird" when she was 10-11 ish.
In modern plays now, there are often two teams of children. If there are 8 performances in a week, thats only max. 4 a week (e.g. there are two teams: each with 8 children, each do 4 performances a week). Thats how it works now for pantomimes etc.

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nesomja
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #10 on Mar 25, 2009, 6:02pm »

But Blue Bird wasn't professional was it? It was a school performance which I presume was fine and only a one or two night affair.

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Sorrel
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Re: Licenses for children going on stage
« Reply #11 on Nov 6, 2009, 10:06am »

There is a limit on how many weeks/months a child can be in a professional show. West End musicals have to re-cast their child roles every so often. I think they can rehire the same children after so many months.

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