Stage Dad: Schools & Tutors

What goes into the education of a child actor and who is helping behind the scenes

Mathlete publicity photo from the 2018 Broadway production of “Mean Girls.” (Joan Marcus)

“When/how did you know he was meant to do this?”

Parents of aspiring performers ask us this question all the time, just as we asked others when Ben was just starting out. Now I have numerous one- and two-line responses to the question — some pithy, some serious, some self-deprecating.

Given this week’s “Stage Dad” starts a focus on the education of young performers, let’s go with pithy:

“Well, we knew he was an actor when he played a ‘mathlete’ in ‘Mean Girls’.”

The reason? Ben hated math when he was in school. He resisted it with a fervor surpassed only by his stealth-like refusal to eat green beans. As someone who preferred to draw outside the lines, math’s logic and precision eluded and frustrated him, even though he could do it when he tried.

As parents with deep ties to public education, Jill and I worried that working professionally would be a detriment to our son’s academic future. At the same time, we recognized he was a nontraditional student, bright but not easily engaged in the mundane day-to-day world that we call school. We struck a deal with Ben: Keep your grades up and you can continue to pursue this; fail academically and you’re benched professionally until you’re 18.

Ben took it to heart. One day before a Kennedy Center audition, my then 11-year-old told me in a matter-of-fact way: “Dad, I really need this job. My grades suck when I’m unemployed.”

Schooling a Performer: The Maze of Options

The job was “Ragtime,” and Ben was fortunate to move with the show when it transferred to Broadway in the fall of 2009. In a previous essay, I mentioned some of the challenges that move brought to us as parents and as a family. A big one was the education of our sixth grader.

At the time, we weren’t sure how long he would stay in New York or how long the show would run, and his local school in Fairfax County was not equipped to provide him with the necessary assignments and lessons. Ben enrolled in New York City’s Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS), which is designed to accommodate working students. He stayed at PPAS through his ninth-grade year while working in New York and then on tour with “Billy Elliot.”

If you’re in New York, Los Angeles or on the road, you can approach your performing child’s education in different ways. A public school like PPAS is designed for working actors; many public schools in New York are not. Private online coursework is available through institutions like Laurel Springs School, but you will have to pay for the service. Homeschool also is an option.

For six weeks, when the show was in rehearsals and up until opening night, Ben and the other “Ragtime” kids were provided instruction by a certified teacher. After the show opened, he returned to PPAS and went to the show at night and for matinees.

When Ben was on tour with “Billy Elliot,” PPAS provided textbooks and assignments and he was tutored on the road by two certified teachers. During his junior year in high school, as the “Newsies” tour began, we enrolled him at the Academy for Metropolitan School of the Arts, a local private school that partners with Laurel Springs.

Fortunately, Ben had Bernadette Jusinski as his tutor on the road with both “Billy Elliot” and “Newsies.” As his teacher, she quickly became an academic lifeline for his parents. She also has become a lifelong friend and member of our extended family.

Ben with Ginno Murphy, his guardian on the “Billy Elliot” tour, and tutor Bernadette Jusinski at the opening night of the “Newsies” national tour. Bernadette and her husband, Matty, and Ginno and his husband, Elie, have become core members of our extended family.

The Tutor’s Role

When we met in the fall of 2011, Bernadette had worked as a tutor on theater and film productions for 18 months for On Location Education. (I will explain OLE’s work in the industry in a future installment.) In New Jersey, Bernadette taught high school English and Math as well as middle school math for 17 years before making the career switch.

Recently I interviewed Bernadette over email about her work as a tutor. Responses were edited for length and clarity.

How do you describe what you do to someone you’ve just met?

I’m an academic teacher for children who perform professionally. Since the young actors I work with are either on tour or otherwise can’t attend a regular school due to their theatrical obligations, I bring school to them.

All students must provide the official textbooks or the online program, and I provide instruction and supplemental lessons. Each week the families and the schools receive a written record of the student’s lessons and activities. A quarterly report card is provided as appropriate.

What do parents need to know about the work you do?

Children are the center of the tutor’s universe. Parents need to know their child will be scheduled for an average of 3 hours of school each day (about 15 hours a week). That said, school is not necessarily Monday through Friday.

School almost is never held on Mondays, when theaters are closed and tours are often traveling to the next venue. As a result, the child probably will have school over the weekend. Sometimes, school takes place during the performance while the young actor is not on stage, or when you’re on the bus traveling to the next city. There will probably not be homework.

How many entertainment-related projects have you worked on as a tutor?

In all, I’ve worked on 99, including 14 Broadway shows and nine touring productions. (I was on tour in Portland with Disney’s “Frozen” when the pandemic shut down the industry, and I joined the re-boot of the tour in 2021, so I count them separately.) The other 70+ gigs have been Off-Broadway, regional theater, film, television, commercials, and private tutoring for a family. 

What have been your favorites so far?

I enjoy tour life. In the best situations, a touring cast/crew/management team form a family.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Arena Tour (fall 2010) was my first foray into the world of non-traditional teaching. It was my introduction to group travel, hotel living, making the recalcitrant Internet work for my students, and seeing behind-the-scenes activity that a humongous production entails. I was hooked.

From 2014 to 2016, I was on the first North American tour of “Newsies,” where I was introduced to some of my favorite people in the world. The cast and crew became my adopted family and I formed lasting friendships with folks from all over the country. Theater is a people business. 

You added “guardian” to your work description when you started with “Newsies”? What is the biggest difference between the two roles?

The tutor/guardian is responsible for “all things children” in the confines of the theater. In some ways, the tutor is looking at the future while the guardian is looking at the here and now. 

The tutor provides academic instruction and builds the student’s confidence and competence necessary for a smooth re-entry into their regular school when their contract expires. The guardian ensures the safety and readiness of the child actors while on the job during rehearsals and performances.

Being a guardian on the “Newsies” tour gave me an education of what (and who) makes a show happen. I became a crew member and learned the ropes of a completely new-to-me industry.

The guardian is very much bound by the clock, in that the young actors must be in costume, report to hair and make-up, vocal warm-ups, and stage entrances (with the proper props) at very specific points in the sequence. The guardian is also the adult closest to the young actors during the performance when they are not on stage. You are monitoring the activities and emotional state of the young actors so they are rested and focused for their entrances.

For those who wear both hats, the workday is at least twice as long. It’s a fine life!

As a tutor, what are the most kids you’ve had on a show? Fewest? 

Working with a co-teacher on the “Billy Elliot” tour, we had 19 students ranging from third grade through 10th grade for an entire school year. Periodically, we would gain a few students as new actors were in rehearsal, so we had as many as 22 or 23 for a few weeks. On the other end, I worked one to one with a young actor who was performing in a television series.

Child performers from the “Billy Elliot” tour work in a makeshift classroom at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Right: Bernadette with two of her “Newsies” charges following a Color Run in 2015. (Courtesy: Bernadette Jusinski)

What are the challenges of dealing with groups large and small?

My students are rarely in the same grade, and if they are, they live in different municipalities and usually in different states. As a result, group lessons are rare. 

Small groups are easiest to work with because tutoring time can be planned so one student is set to work (relatively) independently while I work one-on-one with another student whose lesson requires explanation, scaffolding, and over-the-shoulder monitoring.

The challenges of dealing with large groups, with “large” defined as up to 10 students in multiple grades working on multiple students per teacher, are many! Ensuring each student learns what’s required and feels comfortable and confident to ask questions is a primary concern. As the teacher, preparing for such broad-ranging instructional days requires being knowledgeable about the novels the students are reading, and being competent with various instructional techniques to match those used in the different subjects in different curricula.

Bottom line, in groups large or small, the challenge is providing each student the one-on-one attention needed for success. Some need more, some need less, but each student needs to know the teacher is there for them.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten from other tutors?

Flexibility is the key to professionalism. Recognize when a student is too tired or too excited to do a particular lesson. Be able to provide alternatives when the Internet goes down! Be able to shift to a different topic or mode of instruction.

Do you stay in touch with your kids after they leave? 

Wow! Yes, I do. I’m in touch with at least three dozen of my former young actors or their parents or both. As “my kids” grow up, I’ve been able to celebrate their graduations, bar mitzvahs, weddings, being cast in a new show, and even one who earned a pilot’s license. While traveling the country, I try to visit the theater friends in their current city of residence. It’s always great to talk and experience a city with a friend who is a local.

What advice do you have for parents that will help them and you do your jobs better?

Feed the children well. Make sure they are rested, which is a challenge when they are all wound up until midnight or beyond. Make sure they always have a book to read. Help them develop checklists of what they need to bring to work: snacks, water, books, writing utensils, notebooks, computer, headphones, etc. (This will save a phone call and another trip to the theater with their forgotten items.) 

Most important, ask your child what they learned each day, which reminds them they’re not alone in the learning journey.

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The Daily Photos

Here are the Daily Photos posted for the week of April 25-May 1 to my Facebook business page. The photos represent the random things I capture during travels to various places. To see a larger version of this image on your desktop, just click on the photo.

If you’re on Facebook, you can check out the full-size images and more details about them there. If not, you can view my page by clicking on the link above. (You don’t have to be on Facebook to see my page.)

If you have any questions or are interested in purchasing a print, let me know in the comments or by sending an email.

See you next week!