Theater

    My question tonight is this: “Do we believe our children to be thoroughly incapable of understanding the true and real problems of life?”

    Being opinionated goes hand in hand with being a “blabber mouth” and unfortunately I plead guilty to both of those traits. But I have learned in my lifetime that there is a time to be critical and a time to.. well for lack of a better word.. not. As much as I would, so love to be truly honest about my feelings, I am afraid I will just have to hold back. Now before I runaway with my thoughts I will explain. Tonight I saw Stuart Little (the play). The tickets were free and I always say yes to any free show. As a child I loved to sit in the velvet theater chairs. I loved the sparkling lights, heartfelt songs, and most of all the passionate fervor seen on the actor’s faces. There was something that I just understood about theater. And as I sat watching Stuart Little I thought of how sad it is that we deprive our children of the true beauty in theater (Not in all cases of course). The acting was sufficient, but due to the fact that the given plot and script was lacking, an actor can only try. At one point I started to drool on myself but made a quick recovery before I got a disapproving glance from my mother. That always seems to instantly send my saliva crawling down my throat. My God the length was awful; too many scenes were filled with pointless scenarios. 

    And thus I have made a full circle back to my point. Why is it that we expose our children to “mindless” productions? I truly believe that children understand real life struggles and passions on stage. As I pondered this I remembered one of my favorite musicals, The Wizard of Oz. My father used to take me to the theater, as young as 6 or 7 years old. There was something about that show that I grasped; the true fear that engulfed the cowardly lion and the stinging loneliness that Dorothy felt while being in the strange land of Oz. Children can look at those characters and situations and feel what they feel in an innocent child-like way. 

We should never corrupt the minds of the innocent, but to deprive them of the true passion of life, that so often comes out on stage is completely wrong.