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Why you should take your kids to local theater
Recently Princess went with our American Heritage Girls troop to see a local theater production of Cats. It was amazing, and the actors sang and danced their hearts out. The girls who went got a great experience together. If you get the chance, I highly recommend taking your kids to local theater.
*Faces blurred on the kids because they are not my kids.
Your kids will learn how to act in an audience
Watching a show in a theater is a completely different experience from at a movie theater or at home. Audiences interact in a theater. We read programs, we applaud, we’re sometimes encouraged to talk back to the actors.
Your kids might get a chance to meet the actors
After the show most local productions will bring their actors out on the stage for you to talk to the actors. Not all of them, but most of the ones I’ve been to. You can ask what it’s like to be in the show, how long they had to practice, and what their favorite part is.
When we’ve gone to plays at Zilker and at the farm the actors have come out afterwards to talk and let you ask them questions.
This time was particularly special because the kids were allowed twenty minutes or so to talk with the actors AND then they got a tour of the backstage. It was a great experience for everyone.
Local theaters can inspire a love of theater
We saw Cats two or three months ago, and Princess is still talking about it. Every year the highlight of her year is going to the summer musical with my friends and I to see it. Part of what makes this possible is the pricing for most local theaters. Most shows will only cost $5-10 as compared to a Broadway show that costs $100 per ticket. We’re very blessed here in the Austin area because there are several groups regularly providing free (for donations) shows for us to see.
Local theater can expand your schoolwork
Cats fits in great with a study of modern poets, T.S. Eliott did a great job of writing some fun poems. You can watch “West Side Story” and discuss immigration in the 1950s and 1960s, you can compare it to Romeo and Juliet, you can then go watch the movie and see what changes were made to it. You can watch Sound of Music and fit it into your knowledge of World War 2.
Look for common phrases and terms we now use that Shakespeare invented.
Local theater is just fun
This is Princess and I waiting for a production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” one of my FAVORITE Shakespeare plays. We laughed for 2 hours straight as they ran through a great rendition of the play and added in some fun bits of comedy.
Plays discussed in this post
(with affiliate links to books or often inferior movies)
Much Ado About Nothing: Complete Text with Integrated Study Guide from Shmoop
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
West Side Story (Full Screen Edition)
West Side Story
Cats: The Musical (Commemorative Edition)
Cats
linked to: Thoughtful Spot
Comments
18 responses to “Why you should take your kids to local theater”
It looks like a great trip, and I love the picture of two of you together. We try to make it to a theater at least several times a year. Our last outing was to see The Snow Queen production at exact same time when Frozen came out. A was so confused as to why everyone is talking about Frozen and telling a completely different story from what she has seen.
I do too, that picture makes me smile.
It would be hard to see how Frozen relates to the Snow Queen, because like so many Disney cartoons it vaguely resembles the original.
I practically lived at the London theatres growing up as my best friend’s mum worked selling tickets so we got loads for free. I only wish my children had the same opportunities because it is so expensive to take our family of seven!
That would be expensive. I like Phyllis’ suggestion of taking one at a time in cases like that. We’re lucky because there are several FREE theaters near us, and with it being a college town there’s a fair amount of less expensive theater opportunities.
I agree! Community theater is awesome.
Our community theater costs a FORTUNE! I keep meaning to try to catch the free Shakespeare in the Park performances when they come around in the summer – something always seems to come up.
I love your t-shirt in that last picture…”read the movie”…great advice 🙂
If your community theatre is expensive, you could do like I do sometimes and just take one child per show. They each get some one-on-one time and each get to see one show without it being too expensive at any one time. Be sure you ask about student and group discounts. If you arrange a group to go, it might be less expensive.
We’ve started doing a book and movie reading challenge. We read the book, watch the movie with special snacks, and then talk about what we liked about the different ones.
Oh you need to go to the Shakespeare in the Park if you can, I always love doing that.
Oh, yes! You know I agree to that. Our community is very small, so it is a small theatre, but it is still a great experience. We are going next week to see South Pacific.
I like South Pacific, it’s an odd musical, but it has some super fun songs. I should check and see if it’s on my WW2 movie list, because it is set during WW2….
I agree. My daughter opened a local theater with her husband where they adapt Shakespeare plays for youth productions. It has been great fun for everyone! Unfortunately, our youth has many distractions. I think it could be much bigger if it weren’t for this fact. So, I agree, it is very important to support local theater! By the way, I love your posts…I think I repin more from you than anyone. I believe we would get along quite well!
Oh man, I’d love to see those plays, I’m a huge Shakespeare fan. Your comment really made me smile, thank you.
Also love community theatre and sharing it with the girls – another fun (and affordable) option are jr and high school performances – always so much enthusiasm and passion, and kids can relate to actors and the work it must take
Oh, good point on the high school and junior high theaters…
AGREE!! We have been taking our kids to local theater productions since they were very young and they love it. Thanks for sharing at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop!
I can’t tell you how much this post made me smile!
We LOVE local theater, and are blessed to live in an area with loads and loads of opportunities. The only really expensive option is the Broadway Series — The Lion King is coming, and I’m going to have to save up for that one.
There are two or three children’s theater companies in our immediate area, and I also check out the schedules for ones in Lexington, Indy and Cincy. Rachel is going to Nashville to see a Frozen on Ice production in the fall.
I’m featuring this post tomorrow as part of The Thoughtful Spot Linkup — so glad you shared this!
AND …. I almost forgot! We’re an AHG family, too! I LOVE it!
What a great opportunity! We have a small theater we attend each summer for kids programs, but we have just started looking at longer programs! We went to the symphony last week for one of their summer kids programs, and despite the 2 hour length, all the kids were entranced! I am sure it helped that they were playing kid friendly songs and had some of the ballet there performing.
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