WhatsOnStage.com: WC Fields' mantra has long since been debunked. Some of the best theatre is made with animals and children – and for the very same reason that the straw-boatered Hollywood star warned his peers off them: they can't be controlled.
The same unpredictability that can ruin a shot on film runs a charge through theatre. The second an animal or a child saunters across a stage, anything might happen. Their presence reveals the liveness of an event, the reality of a performance. actors act, performers perform, and animals just are.
14 comments:
I like the idea that children should be included more in the creation of theater. Not only does it encourage kids to do theater, but it brings insight into the adult world. Since kids are so unpredictable, it can be a challenge to work with them, but I think the best things come from challenges. Also, there is something relatable about when children help create the world. I believe that part of the reason that the Harry Potter Franchise did so well was because it had a kid being a kid, just thrown into an extraordinary situation. Underneath all of the being a wizard world, was a child, which people were drawn to and inspired by. I hope that live theater can inspire people through the use of children the same way that movies have. By embracing children, we may be able to bring in a new group of people into the theater goer community that were previously uninterested.
Adult voices are not the only voices worth hearing. Having worked with middle school and high school theatre students for five years, I was continually moved by their moments of brilliance and artistic and emotional intelligence. And those moments weren’t somehow outside of their typical middle and high school behavior. Sometimes, a student, in standard teenage fashion, would rudely roll her eyes at me and then not a moment later make everyone cry with the genuine pathos of her musical performance. Sometimes, a sophomore with no previous experience would could step up and manage costumes like a pro. I grew to dislike the compliment “beyond your years” because it makes it seem that sparks of wisdom and intelligence are somehow foreign to young people and that’s just not true.
I think we, as adults, often remember childhood in a rosy glow because it wasn’t burdened by adult responsibilities, but being a child is hard and confusing and frightening. They have lot to say and a lot to share. They are more capable than we give them credit for and I’m glad this article recognizes their power as collaborators.
I really love the idea that children are being treated as artists and collaborators. We always think of them as nuances and sometimes in the way and more of a hassle than we would like to have for a production but they bring so much life to the stage. Every Time a child is brought on stage everyone in the room looks for them to step out of their “character” and be cute. Sometimes it is a distraction but other times it keeps the actors on their toes. They can’t just worry about their lines or blocking but rather focus on what is going on around them because you never know when a child may do or say something not planned and you have to roll with it. Children have an innocence about them too that we lose when we realize who we are in the world and how to be “proper” and “poised”, so with their help we can bring that innocence back into our art.
As described by the article, having children involved in theater is a sensitive and non-deterministic risk. However, the article is also rightfully defensive of the usage of children on the stage. This is actually something that came up recently in my mind with the show “So You Think You Can Dance?” In one of its more recent seasons, the previously adult-dominated show said it was going to be a season of only children. I stopped watching the show at that point because I didn’t quite believe in the ability of younger performers when put in contrast with that of older ones. But, I was proved wrong, as is shown across every SYTYCD highlight video I have watched since. These children are incredibly in control of their abilities and have shown an incredible capacity to learn and adapt. The natural aptitude of young children to be more easily influenced than adults is something that is mentioned in this article and is very powerful when it comes to artistry – new inventions and ideals cannot come about without fresh minds, and often those minds are found in children. This is why I agree with this article – though it is a risk to include children because they are unpredictable, in the end the rewards likely outweigh the risks.
I really like the point that this article is making. When I was younger I use to work at a children's theatre, the same theatre that I grew up at. I was always suprised and delighted to see what the children could come up with, their imagination and creativity, how they interacted on stage. I agree with what the article says about how kids are genuine and that's why we like them on stage. One of the main factors that attracts people to theatre is the realness and yet unrealness of the experience it creates. kids have the ability to b e completely real in a way that seem unreal to the adults. they believe in their imagination. I think the idea to use this idea to motivate pieces is very interesting. after all, these kids are the future and what better way to find what is genuine about the future than to see through the eyes off kids today?
I volunteered at various art classes and art camps with kids ranging from 3-12 for most of my high school years, and seeing how they react to things so differently than the adults was often pretty interesting. One time, I was in a class where the kids had to make puppets - there was one boy and three girls. One girl was significantly older than the other girls, probably 6 and the other girls were 3-4. The boy made a puppet that was a baseball player. The oldest girl made a bride puppet, and the two younger girls also made bride puppets. One of the other adult volunteers leaned over to me and said, "Isn't it so sad we've conditioned little girls to only think of themselves as wives to men?" Then, the puppets all began playing baseball together. The little girls only made bride puppets because the oldest girl did, and she just wanted to use the cool lace she found and could only seem to justify it as 'bride'.
While I think it is interesting to read into the things children do and say, and can say a lot about our culture, you also have to consider things from a child's point of view - the girls weren't thinking 'I can only be a wife!' They were thinking, 'I love lace! I want a pearl necklace, maybe the other girls will like that, too!' They are thinking about complex issues in a much simpler way, which is something adults do the opposite of - we over analyze everything! Using children's simplicity to counteract adults over-complication of some things could be a powerful tool in the world of theatre.
The concept of including children into the collaborator work space not only benefits the child by introducing them to new skills such as problem solving and team working, but they also help us as the adults to gain an entirely new insight to the world. With children, almost everything they see is new to them and hasnt become jaded yet, therefore creating an entirely new perspective on the world that we simply cannot achieve from the bias that we hold to most things because of our prior experiences with them. This new perspective is what can keep up the unpredictability and liveliness a piece of theatre because of the pure originality that children posses.
Children have always made me notice the moments I would normally not see, precisely because - as this article says - they are unpredictable. My sisters children have shown me this more than any other children, simply because I have been lucky enough to witness them in their unstructured moments. One second they're sitting still, the next they're playing guitar hero with lollipops in their mouths, facing away from the TV screen and giggling deliriously. That freedom from embarassment and obliviousness to judgement is remarkably conducive to discovery in a way that, though it should seem obvious and essential, can often be cast to the wayside by an adult fear of doing the wrong thing. Children don't know what the wrong thing is. They don't show up for a plan - they show up for possibility. It is one thing to channel that openness and excitement as an adult, but it is an entirely different thing to bring it onstage in its purest and most original form. To open the doors of one's production to children is to do oneself a favor - and if you're lucky your audience will thank you. After all, they were kids once, too.
I really like the points this article is bringing up. I used to volunteer at children’s camps and the amount of creativity and curiosity they bring to the table is amazing. They think in completely different ways from the rest of the adult world and so can come up with some really great ideas. Using them in theatre and film can definitely add a new look into whatever show or movie you are doing, you just have to accept the extra time that might be needed because they are still children and need to be taken care of and cannot work as long as adults. But that is simply a budgeting thing. If you know it is going to happen in advance, you can add that to your budget line and if you have to you can make your production budget smaller to accommodate, but the added inspiration you will get from the kids and the amount of encouragement and problem solving and plethora of other skills the kid gets will be entirely worth it. While reading this article I kept thinking of the tv show Stranger Things where the five main characters are all children in this world of adults and they are the ones who figure out the solutions and save the day. It makes me wonder how much they as child actors influenced the story line and changed the process.
I think is such an interesting article. From the title, readers understand the preeminence of childrens' imagination. Like Monica, I also have worked at summer a camp- this year I was in charge of the youngest campers (7 years old)-and my experiences there have taught me more about myself as an artist. I don't think we give children enough credit for what they do. SCHOOL? HOMEWORK? Children consultants can be especially helpful on shows with recurring themes of childhood: matilda, lion king, etc. If each one of the "family friendly shows" has a child critique their production, producers will be able to identify the undeniable success amongst the targeted demographic of theatre goers.
I love this article so much! Children are the gems of our world; they are the untainted brings that keeps us grounded to humanity. We have a natural instinct to keep them safe and protected from corruption. Such an integral part of our world needs to be part of theatre.
I hate when people in theatre say they hate working with children. Yes they can be unpredictable and sometimes a little disruptive, but like the article said, that spontaneity and curiosity is what makes working with them so amazing. Not only that, but the joy and energy of having children and animals on said can be so refreshing. A friend of mine is a music director and he always tells this story of a show he was working on. The show ran for about a year if I remember correctly and there were two child actors that were working on the show. Every night when places was called they would run past every dressing room yelling "We get to do it again!" It was something that would always cheer up the tired cast and crew and make them realize how amazing it was that they were able to do the thing they loved every night. To me, it's small things like that that really makes working with children worthwhile.
Children are great. Stage parents are not. The joy and the creativity that children bring into theater is like a breath of fresh air after you've been working with crotchety old actors doing A Glass Menagerie for the seventeenth time. I'm really into the concept that adding live animals and small children into shows makes them more real. I could almost say that it takes me out of it sometimes, but I think that's because I just haven't seen it happen too much. Like Monica said, having children in a show, due to child labor laws, can be a challenge when it comes to scheduling and budgeting. But, if reality is an important pillar of your production, you'll find a way to make it work. The concept of a "child's eye is on the present" is also fascinating, seeing as children only have a few years of experience under their belt- what does that mean for art? I'd be very interested to read more on this subject.
Having grown up going to a children's theater and performing in shows as a child, I see so much relevance in this article. People need to understand that children's theatre has the same value as "adult" theatre. Having also worked in a theatre summer camp, I constantly saw the importance of exposing kids to the environment of ensemble work, professionalism, artistic understanding, and expression. Like Cassidy said, children are thinking of complex issues in such a simple way, simpler than how adults make things seem. Children are then able to express those ideas in theatre games, activities, and infuse that in performance. The minds of children are very impressionable so we as theatre people have to be cognizant on that, but still show kids that they can spread messages and change/solve problems and issues through art and theatre.
This article really got me thinking about what makes a good theatre collaborator. While thinking about this I was imagining a group of children on the beach building a sandcastle together. Each child brings a different set of skills and tools to the beach with them. Individually they will each be able to ball a small sandcastle, but together they will be able to build one huge sandcastle. Theatre collaborators are basically in the same boat. Each one brings their own perspective and insight to the production. Adding children into the mix will strengthen this because it provides a new look at the world that no adult can. Children’s minds are incredible adventurous, and can do a lot more than we think they can. This will be extremely helpful in creating a production for younger audiences. The only way we will know if the production is “working” is if we listen to the audience.
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