A brief rant about school theater and its importance.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about theater, and due to the looming auditions for Chicago coming up, school musicals in particular. Everyone has been in one. Regardless if it was by choice or not, we were all forced to sing in front of our parents, teachers, siblings, grandparents, neighbors, cats, dogs, and whoever else your parents insisted on bringing to their baby’s big show. Elementary school is one of those times where you are confronted with the decision to admit you love musicals, or to hide in the background. Even though some (ok, most) people now look back on their elementary school roles as irredeemably embarrassing, the experience was important nonetheless.
In light of a lot of the unfortunate cutbacks to school arts programs of late, I can stand and tell those school boards that cutting programs will suck the lives out of certain students. Sports hardly get cut. And yes, sports are important for keeping kids in good shape, and teaching teamwork and discipline. But never have I met someone who talks more passionately about their hobbies than musicians and artists. It’s almost as if it is part of their soul. The emotional connections created through the beauties and terrors of the arts are something that is difficult to describe. It makes you learn stuff about yourself.
So, thinking back, the embarrassing moments of school plays might not have been just for embarrassment. You learned something, whether it was that you really hate musicals, or that this is what you were born to do, or just a certain silly song that you won’t be able to forget no matter how hard you try. And look at me; I’m 20 years old and still auditioning for musicals. It isn’t for everyone. But for the people who love it, it is a part of them. It takes a certain type of person to step on stage as someone they’re not. And whether or not that’s you doesn’t matter, because there’s something to be said for the lessons theater can teach us, after all, all the world’s a stage.
