Image: Matilda the Musical via rad1sh.wordpress.com
W.C. Fields’ famously caustic advice about not working with children or animals has little sway today, where the agency of children as performers is increasingly recognised. From small devised works, to major commercial productions such as Matilda the Musical, which last week announced the casting of the four young actresses – Molly Barwick, Sasha Rose, Georgia Taplin and Bella Thomas – who will share the lead role in the forthcoming Australian production, children are increasingly seen on our stages in both minor and major roles.
‘I haven’t paid that much attention to that rule of no kids and no animals. I actually think that working with kids provides an amazing, different set of dynamics in a company, for many, many reasons,’ said Matilda the Musical producer Louise Withers.
Having also produced the Australian production of Billy Elliot the Musical, Withers has considerable experience of working with children in the theatre.
‘Obviously because of the child labour laws in this country we have to have multiple sets of kids. That means for the adults in the company they are always being presented with a new cast, essentially. Sometimes the groups stay intact and it’s a very steady rotation, but then suddenly someone’s sick or has to have a holiday and then that group isn’t the same it was the day before. So there’s an enjoyment in the fact that each performance is a different combination. So that’s exciting I think … because it keeps it alive and interesting on stage, and therefore it’s alive and interesting off-stage,’ Withers said.
Performer Verity Hunt-Ballard won a Helpmann Award for her titular role in Mary Poppins, in which she shared the stage with a rotating cast of children in supporting roles as the junior members of the Banks family.
‘The kids on Poppins were probably around the same age as Matilda; I think they ranged from about nine to 12, similar to the ages of the girls in Matilda. When I started, I guess I’ve always been quite maternal, so I was really looking forward to working with children. I know other people kind of shy away from working with kids,’ Hunt-Ballard laughed, ‘but I found it really fascinating and I hope I’m a patient person.
‘There was an element of respect and understanding that was needed because the kids in Poppins and especially in Matilda have such an amazing workload. It’s such a responsibility, and it’s quite an adult world, and I think [Mary Poppins co-star] Matt Lee and I tried to make it really fun and keep true to the fact that they were still children in an adult world.’
Not only did Hunt-Ballard enjoy working with children: she also learned from them.
‘Oh yes, I learned a lot from them. They have this beautiful, organic, free, uninhibited way of working. As an adult you can get caught up in this perfectionist way of working as an actor and it was good to sometimes have a laugh.
A unique stage presence
Children often bring a unique quality to a performance, according to Belvoir Resident Director Anne-Louise Sarks.
‘Kids are already very, very truthful I think, and in a way when we see a child on stage performing, it’s a strange layer of falsity – it’s strange in adults as well but it’s sort of amplified with kids … their truth is so utterly compelling,’ she explained.
Sarks, whose devised production of Medea in 2012 was created in conjunction with its two child leads, said she greatly enjoyed the experience of working in the theatre with children.
‘There were certainly times where I had to second-guess using language that we’d use as a given – language to talk about the things that we do. Or I had to teach them that language, the two boys I worked with, because they’d never performed before. But otherwise we just went through what for me is a fairly straightforward process to devising a new work,’ Sarks said.
‘The biggest thing was obviously the hours, all the restrictions around times for the kids, and breaks, that sort of stuff. But to be honest it was really amazing to work that way. I think personally what that enabled for me was a whole lot of digestion time and reflection, which you don’t normally get in a regular five week process when you’re making every day, so I adored it for that reason.’
Olivia Allen is a director, dramaturg, community artist, teacher and event coordinator working across art forms (including theatre and large scale community events such as Woodford Folk Festival). Between 2010-2014 she was Artistic Director of Riverland Youth Theatre in South Australia. Authenticity is central to her experiences of working with children, whether in devised, rehearsed, or large-scale outdoor works, Allen said.
‘I think the thing that’s interesting with some children is that notion of rehearsal – they don’t like it and it’s not something that comes naturally to them and they feel like they’ve done it before. So there’s that kind of paradox of trying to get them to do things again. But also there’s that element that when kids do it well, it is like that id quality that you try and find in any actor, when they can recreate something that’s so incredibly honest and authentic; and that’s what is really exciting,’ she said.
‘A lot of kids have that capacity because of their natural inclination to play, and I find that it is really difficult to work with children who have a concept of theatre, and who have a concept of acting … A lot of theatre professionals will tell you about experiences where they’re working with kids who as soon as they get up on stage they’re doing American accents – and you point it out to them and they don’t even realise that they’re doing it.
‘And so there’s a process of having to un-train their concepts about what they think theatre is or what they think acting is. So yeah, the kids that are really authentic and untrained are great, but inevitably the more they get exposed to theatre the more kind of trained they get, and so that’s the process that you’re trying to keep unlocking … when you’re working over a long period of time, like when a show goes on tour,’ Allen said.
It was for this reason that the majority of children cast in the shared lead role in Matilda the Musical were non-professionals, said producer Louise Withers.
‘We’ve got kids who have never done anything before, who have literally come off the footy field. We’ve got kids who’ve done a little bit of stuff; we’ve got kids who might have done a bit of TV and film but haven’t done on-stage … And that’s kind of what we were looking for. We didn’t want to have kids coming to the show with a whole lot of stage craft they might have learned from somewhere else that might not have been right for this show,’ she said.
So you want to work with children?
Verity Hunt-Ballard recommends that actors and theatremakers who have never worked with children before approach the experience with an ‘open heart and an open mind’.
‘I think patience and understanding and compassion is a big thing, because in a mechanical world like a big commercial musical, there’s so much pressure on the actors anyway, the adult actors, so I think it’s important to never take out any of that stress on the children. So whatever is going on for you professionally and personally, in your role in the show, always remember that they’re children first and foremost; they’re actors second,’ she told ArtsHub.
She also advised befriending the children as quickly as possible. ‘If they feel safe with you on stage and you’ve got a relationship, an individual relationship with each of them, they’re going to feel safe and therefore the story is going to be much more potent because … when you’re performing on stage with friends you feel safe, there’s trust; you can be brave and make bold choices and that’s going to be better everybody.’
She also recommend patience and, if necessary, firmness. ‘They might take longer to do things, or they might not – they might pick up things quicker than you,’ Hunt-Ballard laughed.
‘But also remember that you are older than them … because sometimes children are thinking in that situation, and understandably so, that they’re suddenly very special, and can sometimes let it go to their heads. So it’s important to gently remind them that they are children and they may be in an adult world for a little while but they still have to respect their superiors.’
For directors and devisers, Anne-Louise Sarks recommends taking the time to find the right children to cast.
‘I think it’s about finding the right kids for what you want to do, and searching far and wide and talking to [industry colleagues]… I worked at atyp [Australian Theatre for Young People] so I had a tutor there who really knew a lot of kids well, and could talk to me about the way they worked in workshops and stuff, which I found really useful in terms of finding boys who could improvise, who could play,’ Sarks said.
‘And I guess the other thing I’d say is, kids have so much to teach me about how easily you could let go of an idea, how kind of playful, how much you could explore inside the framework of the show. I found the process of working with them, when I was really open to it, quite exciting and full of possibility. There’s no ego whatsoever in working with kids. I guess they’re just used to creating imaginary worlds and letting them go, and it was just so wonderful to go on that ride with them, and give it to an audience as well. It’s quite a special thing to do.’
Olivia Allen’s advice is similar: ‘I think, abandon, or like almost abandon a lot of the processes you think you might have, and just listen and really be present with the kids. As much as kids have an inclination to be present in the moment, I think that you just have to listen to them at every time. Listen to their opinions about what they feel is important and what theatre should be about. Listen to what they care about, listen to what they hate, and listen when they’re not even speaking – by how they’re responding to material.
‘I think that children have an amazing authenticity and they’ll know if something’s not good. Everyone just has to trust children a lot more, I think,’ she concluded.
Matilda the Musical at Sydney Lyric Theatre from 28 July. Details at http://au.matildathemusical.com/
A new production of Belvoir’s Medea (produced in association with Australian Theatre for Young People), devised and directed by Anne-Louise Sarks opens at the Gate Theatre, London in September. More information at www.gatetheatre.co.uk.
