Running Your Theater: safe practices for adult and youth casts

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safe practices for adult and youth casts

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Theater Administration
Forum Name: Running Your Theater
Forum Discription: General questions about how to make it work
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3507
Printed Date: 11/04/25 at 2:32am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 8.05 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: safe practices for adult and youth casts

Posted By: kaygreen
Subject: safe practices for adult and youth casts
Date Posted: 10/04/08 at 2:52pm

Does anyone have guidelines about safe practices for shows that involve youth and adults, that you could either post or point to?

We would like to include them as a regular part of our information provided to new cast and directors.

If you don't have these guidelines written out, how is your CT addressing this issue?

We have background checks done on our director and board members/producer (generally they are the same people); in addition, we want to have practices in place for all the cast and other volunteers.

Thanks for your help / input.

Replies:

Posted By: Darren
Date Posted: 10/15/08 at 11:46pm

I don't have anything written, but I can offer some suggestions. It would be a good practice if a child was never left alone with one person. There should always be a stage manager or asst. stage manager around. If possible, maybe even have a parent volunteer at all rehearsals to help watch and round up the kids. In my experience, kids need to be watched right through high school anyway. I'd also have a separate dressing room for kids if possible.

If you don't have anything yet, do a search for theater's volunteer guidelines. Some should have language about all volunteers including actors, the production team, the crew, etc. being subject to background checks. This doesn't mean that you have to run a check on everyone, but it lets them know that it can be done.

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Darren Farrington
Theater Management and Production Consultant
http://darrenfarrington.com - www.darrenfarrington.com

Posted By: Debflo
Date Posted: 10/16/08 at 6:03pm

I agree with Darren. The always have 2 adults rule is a good one. I've also seen theatres where for every 6 kids there must be another adult (in addition to the 2 already) so if you had a cast of 12 you would have 4 adults. Parents are usually the best resource for this, as a lot of time they have to do the driving anyway :)

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Check out The Denver Theatre Examiner! http://www.examiner.com/x-474-Denver-Theater-Examiner

Posted By: Stageref
Date Posted: 10/31/08 at 5:23pm

Good idea Debflo. We call the extra adults kid-wranglers. :)

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http://www.stageref.com - Stageref.com
The new, free, on-line social experience of community theater productions and people

Posted By: dexter74656
Date Posted: 11/03/08 at 9:26am

I always send home a contract with all participants in our shows regardless of age - just getting their signature on something, aside from all the legal mumbo jumbo about liability, but to confirm that they know the commitment they're making to our organization.

But more importantly, for those participants under the age of 18, I require a parent signature as well in order to confirm that the parents *also* understand the commitment their children are getting into and the expectations that I/the company has of them.

I also strongly agree with never leaving a single child and a single adult alone because then it becomes one word against another's word. I had a male driver's ed teacher in HS that would not have a problem driving himself and a male student alone in the car, but would never put himself in the position of himself and a single female student. It all depends on your community and how well you know the child/families involved. With our productions, the community is small enough and the staff makes an effort to get to know the parents of our younger participants that it's never something I've been terribly worried about. But it's always better to err on the side of caution.