Seven Dancing Boys, One Cat And 14 Carers
The Age
Saturday January 17, 2009
IF THE boys who play ballet prodigy Billy Elliot or his cross-dressing friend Michael ever get up to mischief off stage - one too many pirouettes down the corridor perhaps - their punishment is to do the laundry and pair up the socks.
This may not sound onerous, but they live in a household of five Billys, two Michaels, an aloof British Blue cat called Noodle and two "house parents", which makes for an avalanche of socks.As the young stars of Billy Elliot The Musical go through their paces on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre, a dozen adults behind the scenes undertake a military-style operation to ensure the boys also do their homework and eat their vegetables.For the duration of the show's year-long Melbourne run the five Billys and two of the four Michaels, all from interstate or overseas, will live with their house parents, Brigitte and Keith Rennie, at a house in suburban Melbourne.Almost every detail of their lives is mapped, from the high-protein food that fuels their energetic performances to the schedules of 14 chaperones with them at all times."We try and return them to their parents in as good a condition, or better, than when they came to us," says Ms Rennie, who is a performer and a teacher.Billy Elliot is about a boy in a mining town who overcomes the odds to become a ballet dancer.The Rennies try to give their seven charges a normal life. They ensure they observe table manners, sleep well, and even sew colour-coded labels on their clothes.The five boys who play Billy; Joshua Waiss Gates, 12, from Tasmania; Rhys Kosakowski, 14, from Newcastle; Sydneysiders Joshua Denyer, 13, Michael Dameski, 12, and Dayton Tavares, 12, and two of the four Michaels; Thomas Doherty, 12, from Queensland, and Landen Hale-Brown, 14, from New Zealand, begged for a pet, so Noodle the cat joined the household.The house parents nurse the boys if they feel sick, take them on weekend bike rides and insist on dinner conversation that is not about the musical.At The Age photo shoot the boys draped themselves over Ms Rennie and often got pulled close for a hug.Contact sports are out. "We can't damage them," says Ms Rennie, so each boy has compiled a post-show wish list of high-risk activities like roller blading and getting a tan.A tan? Billy Elliot is set in northern England and the nut-brown children would not fit the bill, Ms Rennie explains.Thomas Doherty, 12, who plays Billy Elliot's friend Michael, says it was "weird" to enter a household of strangers, but he soon adjusted.His house parents keep him in line and he looks up to them: "It's fun (being in the house), I get really excited," he says.Children's care manager Erin Brooks, who is also a social worker, keeps a roster juggling home visits, rehearsal times and schooling for the children - about 40 - in the Billy cast, within the strict Victorian child labour laws."Aside from the Billys and Michaels there are 40 other kids who want to go to school excursions, outdoor-ed camps, grandpa's 70th," she says."It's funny to look back on the photos of when they first came to us. They've all grown up so much."Teacher Peter Slattery tutors the boys at home and has enrolled them at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, where they go for about 15 hours a week.He said they were motivated even when studying at unusual hours to fit their schedules.
© 2009 The Age