Lots of good advice here already.
A couple clarifications to things above - Not a Pushy Mum isn’t really around any longer, but there is the FB group mentioned above as well as one called Kids Casting Calls UK and another called Who Got the Job. The first does the same sort of thing as the group already mentioned but I don’t think it’s invite only. You will scroll past a heap of ‘are these pictures any good for applying?’ and ‘is xyz agency better than abc agency?’ posts but I feel they are useful for two reasons - the occasional heads up on a casting (esp if you’re starting out and not represented) and warnings of the unfortunate individuals who try to weasel their way into the industry with nefarious intention. Sometimes it takes a village to keep kids safe, and I do not want to scaremonger because almost everyone who works with the kids is brilliant, but it would be naive to say there aren’t creeps and these groups have helped me keep my DS safe in some specific instances so I scroll through the rest of the stuff a couple times a week. The ‘who got the job’ group is less necessary but it can help if you’re the type who struggles to tape and forget and will feel more closure knowing someone else has had their recall or contract and you can move on. I think that one is down to personality type!
Harry Potter open call (no agent needed) is still open till Halloween.
Spotlight fees are normal (and you pay Spotlight directly so there shouldn’t be a way for your agent to mark that up) but fees in a talent agency are definitely not the norm. I know of a few that do some sort of <£50 a year admin fee but more that don’t. I’ve never paid to be with an agency - they make their money when the kid gets the job!
AYPA is where to start if you don’t have an agency you already know through anywhere your DS trains. As it goes, we have been with two different agencies over the years through two different dance/theatre schools, and there are definitely pros and cons to taking that option for representation. On the positive, they cannot forget about you if you are always around (many children never even meet their agents in person and mine sees his an average of four days a week) and if your kid is really dedicated and working hard and making progress, the agent will then see that and believe in the child accordingly. They are very aware of their abilities so tend to apply to the right briefs. If your child has very specific goals, they should be willing to sit down and work out a training plan to give them the best shot at getting that role. However, a less than honest business might then use that as a way to just get you to sign up for more and more and more. If you feel like they are seeing pound signs more than your child’s best interests, then something is wrong. Also if a training place has a agency but no one from the agency seems to be getting work, I’d look elsewhere. Sometimes they really take on more than they can manage or they have so many children on their books from a franchised stage school that they can’t treat anyone like an individual.
Other red flags: any agent that says they need a portfolio (they don’t, and this is total scam vocabulary), any agent that tells you to only train with xyz programme, any agent who locks you into a specific and expensive photographer; any agent who tells you anyone can take the pictures for Spotlight (it’s a pretty specific brief and the average pro family photographer won’t know what’s needed), any agent who is incredibly vague (most kid parts in London are ongoing - they should be able to tell you whether they would put him up for Fagin’s Gang or a classmate in Matilda, etc), anyone who immediately suggests you go on a £200 one day course or something similarly salesy, anyone who wants to speak to your child on Zoom without you in the room. But none of the AYPA agents are going to do any of those things.
Heads up that when they get a job, you’re still paying for their training even though they will miss alternating weeks of any group lessons. But if he’s doing grades, stopping the lessons during the contract would mean falling behind a group around exam time. We end up paying for a few private lessons leading up to the exam to pick up anything problematic from all the missed classes.
At an hour and twenty from London, it will be worth your effort to go through with Citymapper or similar and work out your best travel times to get to all the major theatres. The hour door to door concept is often thought of a sanity measure for kids getting home after a show, but once you’re on a contract that hour is about how quickly you can get to the theatre in an emergency. You’re basically on call any day there is a show and the cast call time will be maybe 90 minutes before the show starts (less if there’s not much in the way of costume and make up) and kids are kids, so sometimes you take them to the door all fine and dandy, they go in, and ten minutes later they turn green and are in no state to perform. There will then be a second kid already there as the standby on most shows, but they will immediately call another kid to come in as the standby because starting the show with no back up plan is asking for a trouble - that’s when someone falls off the scenery or the thing that sent the first kid home is contagious or whatever. So you need to be within that hour so you can get there if called. Not being able to make it is a deal breaker. You’ll be able to fudge a few minutes but if in reality it would take you an hour and forty from emergency call to the door, you’re really going to want luck on your side. (Plus your kid will be shattered when they get home at midnight and still have to be in school on time the next day. They don’t get to sleep late to recover like the adult cast!)
Yes to considering how flexible you can be, because I do not know how people manage this with traditional jobs. I work freelance and basically spend a huge amount of time in libraries and coffee shops with an iPad, and my clients have no idea. If I had a 9-5 job this week, I would only have had Monday without a conflict where I needed to usher my kid from school to theatre, and I just don’t know how I could do that. Even freelance I reduced the amount of jobs I agreed to because I lose the work hours of the commute, standing outside a theatre, running lines, or recording tapes.
It really changes a family dynamic and you need to be sure that’s okay with all of you. My DH leaves early for the office so he’s asleep when we get home after a show and we are ships passing in the night. We have dinner as a family on the day the theatre is closed rather than most nights. If there are siblings, make sure they don’t feel ignored. We’ve only had Christmas Day itself off for the last few years in terms of leaving London. But admittedly that is West End theatre and screen work is very, very different in terms of the timing, as it might be intense for six weeks and then you’re mostly done and you wait ages for the show or movie to finish production.
If all of that still sounds worthwhile, then follow advice above and take still photos and a video with introduction, monologue/poem, and a song, and send in to the AYPA agencies and/or continue your discussion with Seaside. Confident boys who can sing and/or dance as well as act will get representation without problem. The West End currently skews boy heavy with Oliver opening, and there are always fewer boys in the running than girls. You’ll find a good agent and don’t need to look anywhere iffy! Two biggest things people overlook when taking the home photos and video: get them about a foot or so in front of the background wall, not right on it. You need some space behind them to avoid troublesome shadows. And match their eye level. You can’t stand at your adult height and angle the camera down to their height - it needs to be held with the lens eleven with their eyes, and they need to look naturally forward, not tilted up or down to the camera. Try your best to do this in the daytime with natural light if at all possible!
If your kid absolutely loves this life and still loves the idea even if you might go to endless auditions and record hundreds of tapes to never actually get a contract, then it is worth all the upheaval to give them this shot at living their best life. I haven’t been on holiday in years and I’m never home enough to keep my house tidy, but I have no regrets because he gets to do something amazing that he 100% made happen through that combination of talent and hard work. If he didn’t love it or he wasn’t dedicated, I don’t think I could do it, but he runs and I just try to keep up!
All the very best of luck to your DS!