A miracle has happened…my seventeen-year-old daughter and two of her best girlfriends have gone to a play. Not a play at school, packed with a cast of their friends–but they actually took themselves to our city’s performing arts center, purchased tickets (with their own money) to a professional theatre production of “A Christmas Carol” and went as a threesome. I have actually lived to see the fruits of my labors…
My kids have grown up around performing arts. I have worked with and for several local performing arts organizations–including a large choir, and a theatre company. I also spent a stint on the board of directors for our local ballet. Add to that the fact that my sister, their aunt, is a professional actor and you’d think the odds were stacked in favor of them developing at least a cursory appreciation of performing arts–but there was a lot of popular culture to contend with and combat.
My philosophy was just to give them a taste; to introduce them to the world of live performances so that at least they would feel as comfortable waltzing into a performance hall as a movie theatre. We did “The Nutcracker” every year until I thought that I would scream if I had to sit through another “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.” But, if you ask my kids what they remember most–they will tell you it was going back-stage.
There is nothing like getting to walk onto a completely dressed stage in the quite dark of an empty house–hours before a performance. Or crawl beneath racks of costumes; or twirl in front of a huge three-way mirror in a lighted dressing room. Far from diminishing from the magic of live performance, it adds to the complexity of the experience and contributes to an understanding of the teamwork of time and talent that it takes to get a show on stage.
Believe it or not, meeting dancers in their street clothes and realizing quite young that the many incredibly talented actors and musicians who make up our symphony and theatre companies actually work day jobs so they can afford to perform has given my kids a depth of appreciation many people never experience. They know that it takes a lighting designer and a prop master working weeks or months before a production and what a stage manager does. They know that sets get built in warehouses and there is an actual person (their mother) writing the words for all those playbills and programs.
For parents who don’t work in or close to performing arts–the back stage world is more accessible than you might think–visiting costume shops (where costumes are built and stored for theatre companies, operas, ballets, etc.), meeting dancers, actors and musicians, and getting a tour of a performing arts center, rehearsal hall or stage are all quite possible and usually pretty easy. Make some phone calls to your local performing arts groups, you may even be able to arrange a field trip or a visit from performers and arts managers.
When I really look back on it, I realize it’s not so much of a miracle after all that my daughter and her friends bought their tickets and took their seats, dressed in fancy teenage clothes–she really never had a chance!