Wednesday, February 24, 2016
14 Ways Doing Theater As A Kid Can Help You As An Adult
www.buzzfeed.com: In school there are make-up tests and project extensions, but in theater the show must always go on, whether or not you’re ready. Being in a play teaches you (forces you, actually) to find creative ways of meeting your deadline and coming up with effective shortcuts in your work.
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7 comments:
I think theatre is very important for kids and definitely helps them in the future. You learn so much from theatre that you do not even realize you are learning. I think one of the most important things especially for me is learning professionalism. I worked in community theatre a lot as a kid and was working with a lot of adults. Most of the time I was the Stage Manager or Assistant Stage Manager so I was in a higher position than most of the adults. Gaining respect from adults as a young kid is a very important skill that can really help in the future. I learned when it was time to be professional versus when it was all right to have fun and fool around. Theatre definitely trained me to be able to work on a lot of different things at once and get them all done on time. In high school I would do a show at school as well as a community theatre show plus school and homework. I was able to juggle all of them and it forced me to be more focused and deal with the stress in a productive way.
I completely agree with the point this article makes – GO BUZZFEED. But I think an important thing to consider is that not every kid who is exposed to theatre at a young age is going to gain these qualities when they grow up. I think that only the kids who really delve into the work and try their hardest to make a good product are the ones who will really grow into the well-rounded adults the article expects them to become. In my grade school experience, we had to take certain theatre classes at different ages and in the elementary and middle school ages there were clearly some kids who did not care at all about their performing arts education and put in little to no effort. But by the time high school came around, the kids who really cared were the only ones involved in the theatre process and that lead to a much more beneficial and educational environment.
I've never thought about this before, but I definitely identified with a lot of the points this article made (less so with some points that are more geared towards actors, but I can definitely see how they are beneficial). Especially when it comes to deadlines, I've definitely learned how to meet deadlines ever since I came here. However, I personally don't think it's (as the article states) about finding creative ways of meeting the deadline or coming up with effective shortcuts. Rather what I learned is that deadlines are deadlines - there are no short cuts, and the only way to meet a deadline is to not procrastinate, get started and just do the work. Professionalism is definitely something I wouldn't have learned in high school if I didn't do theatre - theatre was the only platform where I actually worked with adults/professionals (instead of being taught by these people). This is a great article and it definitely made me realize that a lot of stuff I know today came from my experience in theatre, not in class.
Reading this article was like reading a script for the speech I give every time I meet someone or a parent of someone considering taking the dive into theatrical life. I had no idea when I entered this unfamiliar world that the light at the end of the tunnel could be quite so bright. Before I began studying theatre I had the social skills of a moth. I couldn't look people in the eye when I spoke to them. I couldn't introduce myself to new people. The last time I'd made a new friend I could truly open up to was the third grade. I didn't know it was possible to laugh off or grow from embarrassment because all I knew to do was turn my face and cry at a misspoken word. I was a burden to everyone I met, because I didn't know how to be anything else. I only ever spoke loud enough for myself to hear because I assumed no one else ever needed to hear me, because anything I had to say was unnecessary to anyone but myself. I was unnecessary to anyone but myself.
Theatre made me necessary. Theatre gave me a purpose and a reason to get up, show up, and not give up. Theatre taught me to mold myself into the person I had always wanted to be, to create for myself the world I dreamed of living in and the life I dreamed of leading. It taught me that we are all just trying to figure out what we are struggling for, and then to make something great out of that for the world to learn from. We do this on stage, and we do it in our own lives. There is no difference.
I am not the first to have felt this, and I am certainly not the last.
When someone tells me that theatre is a dying art form, that we no longer need it, what I hear them say is that there is no one else in this world who feels the way I once felt, who needs to be taught that they are necessary as I now know I am. And they are wrong, and they are blind, and I pity them like I once pitied myself. That's no small amount.
This world needs theatre for far more than entertainment, and the reason that this business thrives has far less to do with audience statistics than anyone who was never a theatre kid knows. Last time I visited my sister she showed me an application she was filling out to enroll my eldest niece in a local theatre program. I went home and cried. If theatre can do for a take-charge ten year old who still has no idea what a stage manager is - yet - what it did for me, I will stand by my art through even the toughest tech week. It is never too late or too early to learn what theatre can help a person become. I'm still learning. So is everyone else in this business.
I always have a love-hate relationship with these kinds of articles. On the one hand, it is great to have the merits of theatre broadcasted to the outside world. On the other hand, as a shy, stressed out tech, I often feel as if these articles do not quite grasp the scope there is to those who are considered drama kids. This is true for many articles of this sort. They usually connect to the loud, charismatic actor rather than anyone else. Not everyone who loves theatre as a kid is an actor (as I well know). I do agree that you do learn a lot of these skills no matter what you do in the theatre, I just wish that I couldn’t list off what the article was going to say before reading it. I guess that seeing the same things over and over again means that these really are the benefits of being in theatre, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t think of a way to say them more creatively or broadly.
The points touched in this article are so true. I always believed that being in theatre makes you such an enlightened person and a better overall individual. The qualities described in the article are so spot on in highlighting how so much of the theatre world can be aimed toward actual life. I have always been an advocate for kids in theatre. It is what brought me closer to others, what taught me how to breathe, how to interact with others, with myself, how to be professional. I owe theatre so much for its life lessons and its simple basic teachings applicable to the real world. I even find myself meeting people with careers that have nothing to do with theatre, a doctor for instance, and he would probably mention that he did theatre as a kid which helped him gain confidence, leadership, and a personable demeanor. Over all, I am very glad I learned from 6th grade drama, something I can apply to my career and my life.
Honestly, I am surprised that not every kid does theatre, if only for the meta skills. But seriously, theatre is an excellent medium that fosters growth in almost all of the areas required to be a productive, effective adult. It was a tremendously formative part of my childhood and, in addition to granting me many invaluable and cherished memories, it did indeed make me more confident, better at public speaking, and many of the other things listed in this (surprisingly) insightful Buzzfeed article.
I truly think more funding and importance should be given to grade school theatre programs, as they are so enriching, and produce more developed kids. It is also valuable in that it is constructed fun, an enticing activity with a tangible purpose and outcome. I think about how my school years, and educational process would have been different had I not been involved in a theatre program, and I can say with certainty it would have been much poorer as a result.
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