The child as a prop. Does an infant have a place on the theater stage? / Script

IN SHORT.

• When filming babies, the shooting team works under special conditions.
• Theater lights, their changes, noises and the late hours of the evening when performances are taking place can have an effect on the behavior of the baby and cause additional anxiety for parents at night.
• Inga Akmentiņa-Smildziņa, head of the parents’ organization “Mammamuntetiem.lv”, calls on parents to put their children’s well-being first and to realistically understand their possibilities when applying for a regular job.
• The world’s experience is contradictory, there are shows in which babies are replaced by dolls after the premieres.

Babies in the cinema are not the same as babies in the theater

Two-year-old Tristan was not yet born when he was already hired to work in the series “Sisi” filmed in Latvia for the role of the newborn son of Empress Elizabeth. As Tristan’s mother, Rita Zaula, herself worked in the film industry, it was not an experiment for her: “He was only there for two weeks, and they took great care of us there, asking all the time if everything was okay, provided his own room, where he could then eat and he could also relax, sleep, panic.”

For the most part, little Tristan slept throughout the filming: “That’s how it is with very small babies. Then, when they grow up, maybe it’s a slightly different experience for the parents.”

Director Ināra Kolmanei, while filming “Mother’s milk”, had four babies of different ages ready for work: “In the birth scene, we really needed a baby, many parents applied, and we had a very special regime on the set – silence, lighting close to natural lighting. The group communicated only with small microphones, on headphones, so that there are no unnecessary noises, and if the baby cried, we also filmed immediately, so that the filming is very short you plan the shot properly, you discussed it with the cameraman, then it’s very short, but there were also times when the baby was sleeping and didn’t move, and then you had to tickle his nose a little to make him open his eyes.”

Ināra Kolmane is aware that the theater is not able to provide such adaptation, therefore she does not understand the request of the Daile Theater to apply young girls for the new production up to five months.

“The performance is a long process, and the performance is a loud process and also with a change of different lights. I don’t stand in front, maybe it’s a short moment, but why is it necessary, why can’t you use a mannequin, a doll in this case, it’s such an amazing statement,” said the director.

Parents are invited to subordinate their ambitions to the well-being of the infant

The Fine Arts Theater refused to comment on the advertisement published on social networks to “Kultūrshok”. Agnese Vārpiņa, communications manager of the Daile Theater, writes in an e-mail to the program:

“Unfortunately, Dailes Theater and its management are not ready to communicate with the program “Culture Shock” due to the previous negative experience, when in one of the programs the facts related to the discussion about the actors’ open-term contracts were falsely presented.”

Meanwhile, in connection with the search for a young actress, the theater has opened the backstage for an entertainment edition. The internet site jauns.lv reports that more than 70 infants have already applied for the role in the Daile Theater. Inga Akmentiņa-Smildziņa, head of the parents’ organization “Mammamuntetiem.lv”, advises parents to seriously consider this step: “Of course, a five-month-old child cannot say – I want to be on stage, I want an entry in my CV. He cannot say it, and it is like that divorce of parents. Unfortunately, it is sometimes observed that such a desire of parents that their child is – wow! – on the stage of the Daile Theater or in the cinema, or in an advertisement, or on the cover of a magazine, is very, very big and strong, maybe it’s even the unfulfilled dream of my parents that I also wanted to be on stage or on television, because it’s cool. Here’s the thing

in that overwhelming desire to fulfill this big, beautiful thing, will the parent be able to notice how the child feels in all situations?”

Around four to five months, babies develop an idea of ​​life

Neonatologist and pediatrician Dina Kruze admits that – if an actor’s career would not harm a one-month or two-month-old baby, then it is different with a five-month-old baby, who is already in the next stage of development: “This period of four to five months could really worry me.

It’s a time when a very, very important leap in emotional development takes place, and it’s a time when he develops an idea about life.

This is the age when subconscious thinking goes to consciousness, a person begins to think. It has been proven that they begin to see dreams, they cry and laugh in their sleep, and most importantly, they begin to separate people, they have their own and they have strangers. One does not like glasses, one dislikes moustache, one dislikes men, one dislikes women. It’s lights, it’s noises.”

The doctor points out that the behavior of a five-month-old child is unpredictable, especially in the evenings after a day full of new impressions: “He won’t go from one hand to the other at all. The question of how the child is doing, but it will be exactly the same as it will be with those adults when the child cannot be controlled, when he cries, when he wants his mother and when he has to be given to a stranger, or right now he has to get into the crib and lie down or hold him in his arms, because that scenario calls for exactly this kind of action.”

Inga Akmentiņa-Smildziņa, the head of the parents’ organization “Mammamuntetiem.lv”, believes that parents should understand whether they themselves are fully ready for such a working relationship: “This is not a one-day event, a performance like today. We all prepared well here and we came, and it’s something regular, shows are something regular. Do I have such family resources, internal resources? Will I really be able to withstand the huge load and stress?”

Gunita Groša, the founder and head of casting agency SIA “Casting Bridge”, says that when choosing babies, they look less at the child, and more at the parents: “If the parents are calm and stable, then the child is like that, and then there are never any problems. If I announce some kind of competition, parents are already the ones who apply, parents are already the ones who want their child to be at any age, and then it is always explained who, what, why. And then they understand – they will be able to, won’t be able to.”

Controversial attitudes about babies on stage

The public’s reaction to the Daile Theater advertisement was mixed. While some forwarded the ad to new mothers, not everyone saw the great life opportunity in it. Fine theater actress Darta Daneviča, who received the title of Actress of the Year last year, writes on the microblogging site “X”: “I believe that it is an action in cooperation with the social service, which will record all new mothers who apply and invite them to a “conversation”:)”

Deputy Director of the National Theater in matters of repertoire and artistic strategy, Ieva Struka, emphasizes that public opinion is divided on everything: “I can’t imagine an issue on which the public would not be polar, even about the Song Festival. The context is probably important, it is important to understand what then maybe he will appear for one second in the video.

I think it’s really important to just know the context of how that baby is going to be used. So, before dividing into a group that is for, into a group that is against, one should still know the circumstances of the need.”

According to jauns.lv, Dailes theater is looking for an actress for the scene of “Winter’s dreams” by the British director Jeff James. The theater reports that the director has previously involved parents with very young children in the performances and the experience has been positive and thoughtful.

“It’s not so much about rewriting history, it’s really about sometimes the specific dramaturgy demands it, sometimes it’s of course added by the director, but sometimes it’s written into the play, and certainly a classic example in plays could be “Skroderdienas Silmachis” , where there is a scene in the bathhouse and someone is screaming in the cradle. And it is a two-week-old child, and probably there could be some experimental production, where not an actor behind the scenes would scream, but there are no babies here in “Scroderdinės” so far. says Ieva Struka, deputy director of the National Theater for repertoire and artistic strategy.

Dolls are a better choice when thinking about the long-term development of the infant

It is the public’s contradictory attitude towards the presence of babies on the stage that sometimes made the creators of the production decide in favor of dolls after the premieres.

Because while one part of the audience admits that a live baby on stage adds credibility to the story, there are viewers who become so concerned about the child’s real needs that they can no longer follow the show. Due to the audience’s heightened emotions at seeing a live infant on stage, the baby was fired from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company’s 2016 production of Mary Page Marlowe.

“Is the work of art that is being created really such a great piece of art, in which the baby is the decisive piece, the decisive cherry,” asks Inga Akmentiņa-Smildziņa, head of the parents’ organization “Mammamuntetiem.lv”.

Neonatologist and pediatrician Dina Kruze would rather see dolls on stage instead of babies: “In our advanced technological age, there are many other options, so we don’t even risk what will happen, maybe it will be good, we can’t say that, that [varbūt redzēs] in two years; if we have problems with behavior or development or something else, we can no longer tell when something has gone wrong.”

A baby requires a different work environment

Legislation regarding child employment and welfare in the cultural, artistic, sports and advertising sectors is clearly defined in some countries. For example, in Hollywood, a newborn must be at least 15 days old to start an acting career. There are no such laws in Latvia and babies can start earning money as soon as they are born.

In Latvia, there are regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, which stipulate that in order to attract a child to cultural, artistic, sports and advertising events, the permission of the State Labor Inspectorate must be obtained.

Gunita Groša, the founder and manager of SIA “Casting Bridge”, admits that an environment suitable for children remains the producers’ responsibility: “With us, it is, I think, at the development stage as it should be, but in my experience there have never been any problems. Because we I always ask every producer who really wants to have a baby three times where we will need this baby, where we can use the doll, because of course everyone understands that it is a fine, delicate thing, with which you have to work just as delicately.”

Director Ināra Kolmane says that during the filming of “Billi”, the children were taken care of by a special employee: “We had a special assistant nanny, who only dealt with the children while they were not in the frame. We had a special kitchen with fruits, because the work process is long hours, but the parents were also accommodating, and, of course, the child had a relatively normal fee.”

For a child of a few years, being on stage can become an adventure

In the National Theater in recent decades, the youngest actor has been 4-5 years old. Ieva Struka, Deputy Director of the National Theater for Repertoire and Artistic Strategy issues, points out that there are plays in which a child cannot do without: “We are once again calling on “Skroderdienas Silmachis”, and I cannot imagine the play without little Tonia, so what to do? Play without that little girl, apart from the fact that Antonia was a child. It can be done now, I hope it will be possible in a hundred years. So far, they have all been proud of the fact that they have started their careers Tonya’s role.”

The mother of little Tristan, the youngest actor of the “Sisi” series, Rita Zaula herself, was five or six years old when she starred in “Aija”, playing the daughter of the main character Zane Jančevska: “In my childhood, those were a little different times, but even then everything always seemed very interesting and very engaging. And I really liked the film studio, all its declarations, it’s already such a great adventure for a child, I think.”

This is also confirmed by twelve-year-old Nikola Odrija Kļava, who is currently participating in the selection of actors for an upcoming Latvian film and whose career as an actress already has a record of participating in the TV series “Sisī”: “Now I just see movies differently, I know how everything happened.”

When asked if she herself would have liked to start her career earlier – in five months, as offered by the Daile Theater -, Nikola Audrey’s answer is – yes. Why Dailes Theater is looking for a girl for the role has not been publicly disclosed. Studies show that 40% of adults, looking closely at the face of an infant, cannot correctly determine the gender.