Youth and school theatre

Working with minors

Six habits that keep young actors safe and parents relaxed, plus the three forms that make them stick.

The free parent and safeguarding packet

Once, before the first rehearsal

Every rehearsal and performance with minors

Every call with minors

No adult is ever alone with a young person. If you need a word with one actor, another adult stays in sight and the door stays open.
Toilet trips go in pairs, and the adult waits outside.
Run the numbers before auditions: enough chaperones for every call, from the first audition to the last show. Not enough adults means you pause, not push on.
Volunteers who are not school staff get whatever background check your school, company or insurer requires.

Pick a finish time that works for a school night and keep it until dress week. Print any exceptions in the schedule, and explain them to parents early.
Long weekend calls get a real break. Around three hours at a stretch is plenty for young actors.
Send kids home when their scenes are done, and before the late-night notes that are only for the leads.
In a mixed-age cast, build tech around the youngest actor’s curfew instead of hoping nobody notices.

Give every chaperone a shift, an area and a checklist. “Keep an eye on them” is not a job description.
Keep young actors onstage or in the green room, out of the wings. Unsupervised wings are where both trouble and accidents start.
Separate dressing rooms for young people. Catwalks, booths and power tools are off limits.
In an emergency, the adults’ first job is the children. Know the route and take the pickup log with you.

Every young person is signed in by the adult who drops them off and signed out by the adult who collects them.
Parents come inside to collect. Nobody waits alone on the steps.
A child only leaves with an adult named on their permission form. Anyone else, and the child waits with two adults while you call home.
The stage manager or a chaperone stays until the last child has gone.

Ask for photo, video and name consent separately, in writing, before the first rehearsal. Make “No” an easy answer.
Plan publicity around the noes. First names or role names in the program, and no social posts showing those children.
Cast and crew don’t post backstage photos of young people from their own phones.
Keep contact and health details locked away, and don’t collect personal information online from children under 13.

Give parents the house rules, the full schedule and your youth policy in one packet, and have both the parent and the young person sign.
Ask for help early and make it specific: costume returns, a backstage shift, water and snacks. A parent coordinator saves you hundreds of emails.
Tell parents about schedule changes the same day you decide them.
Rehearsals are open to parents unless you say otherwise at auditions.

California’s Business and Professions Code section 18975 asks youth service organizations to train regular adult volunteers in spotting and reporting child abuse, run background checks, and keep two mandated reporters present with children wherever possible. Whether your company counts as one is a question for your board or a lawyer. The state’s online mandated reporter training is a good start either way.
Paid work for minors in entertainment needs an Entertainment Work Permit from the state Labor Commissioner. If you pay young performers, or are unsure whether a stipend counts, ask before rehearsals start.
Outside California, your state, province or council will have its own versions. Schools and districts often add their own rules on top.

Distilled in my own words from youth and community theatre handbooks, plus what I’ve learned directing and teaching young actors: