Anyone's child been involved in a Royal Opera House production?

[Michaelahpurple]

A choir my 12 year old is involved with has been approached to provide children for a royal opera house production. I was wondering if any of the highly knowledgable gang in this board had any experience of this sort of thing.
I am trying to decide whether the quality of the opportunity would be worth the school disruption, and how much of that there was likely to be.

Not me but my DH was as a child. One of his parents was a teacher and acted as chaperone for the whole group (they were a church choir). Disruption wasn’t massive - his teacher parent would never have gone for it otherwise! It was a great experience and we have some great photos of him in his costumes. He grew up in London so the journey home was doable, even if it did mean a late night.

Once he’d done one they got to do a few more. The working conditions are very tight for children so they have quite a few groups all doing the same show.

Some people my daughter knows did for the Royal Ballet.

My Dd has done touring opera & panto. Royal Opers is a fantastic opportunity. If your child wants to do it & you can manage the logistics I’d grab the opportunity.

Not the Royal Opera House but DS was a cast member in one of the English National Opera's productions at the Coliseum a few years ago aged 9. It was a wonderful experience, he had an amazing time and was very well looked after by the chaperones.

There are strict regulations about how many hours and days children under 16 can rehearse and perform. Because of this they will almost certainly have more than one team of chidren, and the teams will alternate performances. In my experience (DS has gone on to do other professional productions since then), rehearsals are more of a pain than performances. By law, children must attend a minimum of 15 hours' schooling per week when working under licence - ime that's a manageable amount of school to miss.

In order to obtain a performance licence, your child's school would need to write a letter giving permission for involvement, so a good idea to check that school is supportive. Another aspect to consider is that children working under licence are not allowed to travel to and from rehearsals unaccompanied, so there needs to be an adult available to ferry them back and forth (doesn't have to be a parent, anyone over 18 is fine). Parents aren't allowed backstage, and the children would be looked after by licensed chaperones while in the theatre.

I'd say go for it if it's feasible to do so - it would be a fantastic experience.

Not ROH because we live too far away but dd has been involved in other ballet productions elsewhere. It is absolutely worth the disruption and time off school, if you can manage it logistically. School don’t give permission, the local authority do, although they will consult with the school about current attendance levels before they issue the license. Enjoy, my dd would love to perform at the ROH!

My DS has at the ROH &ENO. They were fantastic experiences for him. His school often does these so has a well established routine. Lots of rehearsals at school before, only a few at the venue during school hours ( 3 or 4 from memory) and then the actual performances. These are usually evenings, and he was always transported to/ from school by school or the production by coach. Just lots of late night pick ups from the school car park. The school usually have a squad of children so they don't all do every performance. If your DS choir is as organised, I would say go for it.

The local authority approves child performance licences, but if the child's involvement requires any absences from school, a letter of support from the school's headteacher must be included in the application. Schools are not supposed to refuse to support a licence application without a valid reason (e.g. low attendance or concerns about academic progress), but unfortunately some do refuse (some schools even have an explicit blanket refusal policy). Technically, the LA can override the school's objection and issue the licence anyway, but that does risk creating an awkward and unpleasant dynamic between child/parents and school. It is much simpler if school is prepared to be supportive, especially for opportunities like ROH which are great educational experiences.