I love the feeling of enclosure when I’m feeling comforted.

This would be why sad children seek hugs, crawl under tables, and sleep well in small spaces.  This would also explain why gyms, fields, and hallways are so conducive to running.

I was reminded of this yesterday at Boston Children’s Museum.  It’s huge and very runnable.

I used to work there full-time and returned as a consultant last year to work with an arts educator and several of her floor staff on techniques for guiding dramatic play in their children’s theater.  They have a wonderful children’s theater program as part of the museum.  15-20 minutes interactive children’s plays are performed multiple times a day.  They are written for young audiences but have a great sense of style and possess all the goodies of good live children’s theater: lights, sound, solid scripts and characters, a safe space, and enthusiastic acting.

When I was an employee, the theater was left open to the public in between shows.  Children could come into the space, play at theater using set pieces, costumes, and lights.  Several times a week, I also  ran guided drop-in programming for children and families.  The new stage, just designed and installed a few years ago, also includes a pretend box office.  I was excited to share all this with my daughter who having just performed in her first dance recital and visited me at the theater for pre-show of my latest production is very interested in the performing arts.

We arrived after lunch only to discover we had missed the shows for the day and the space was not open for free play.  Not open at all.  And the counter workers’ answer implied that my question about it being open for free play was absurd because it was never open for free play.

Who knows why this is so, but it is certainly a loss to the children of Boston.

However, as I followed Do-Bug through the other very expansive exhibits, watched her engrossed for an hour in Peep’s World and watched her run fast down the wide inviting halls, I thought back to my experiences teaching on KidStage and how challenging it might feel as a member of their Education Team to guide a group of unknown children through an activity in a space that invites expanding.  Because that really is a challenge: to retain the focus of children in a space that simply begs for them to run, skip, and jump.  I know it can be done; I’ve done it.  That’s not to say it’s easy.

And what about all the teachers who want to introduce theatre to their preschoolers?

If large spaces invite the running of feet and the tossing of objects, then smaller spaces invite precision.  Precision of movement, voice, and choices.

So, forgo the idea of bringing your children to the gym or on to the elementary school stage for their first time doing a theatre activity.  Stay in the confines of your classroom, a safe space where they are comforted.  Invite them to be precise in their choices.

And when you decide to create your own stage inside your classroom, make it small.  3 feet by 3 feet is ample room for two children to put on a play.  If you have children with mobility differences, make it just big enough for them to turn around, move a foot or two, and then move back.

Because although it feels good and can be easier to take up space in a large space, it is  safer, more productive, and set your children up for success to learn to take up space well in a small space.

Wait until summer!  Which just happens to be right about now.

Summer: when every other park in the country has free Shakespeare and puppet shows.  Children love watching Shakespeare outside.  Of course a lot of it swims right over their heads, but it’s a fantastic introduction to actors performing on stage in front of an audience.  And they will enjoy themselves even if they (and you) don’t follow the whole story.  Plus, the lights won’t go out which cuts down on the fear factor and if you get hungry for ice cream or too tired to finish the show, you can get up and leave and no one will blink twice.  It’s a win-win situation.

So if the cost of theatre tickets would normally send you to the library, now’s the time to scour the local newspaper for free outdoor performances.

Not surprisingly, more and more professional companies are creating interesting, beautiful, and challenging works for children to see.  Just today, the UK Guardian (a country with a genetically inherited love of theatre!) put out a blog post about this very topic.

Performance is a way of ritualizing how we see the world, and it’s a way of playing. Children recognise and understand ritual and play on a very deep level, and that understanding can lead to an extraordinary synergy between the audience and the work.

And, although the author doesn’t really go into it, this statement really gets to the heart of theatre for children: synergy.  Children don’t just “see” a play, they participate in it.  They absorb the story in new and unexpected ways reacting both immediately and over time as they continue to process ideas.  The actors receive this feedback as the story unfolds; there are no secrets.

When I work with actors who perform for young audiences, one of my very favorite tasks is asking new actors about their experience because without fail he or she says something along the lines of, “I love that I know what they’re thinking right away.  I know if they like or hate what I do because they tell me.  I hear it.”  This give and take of story-teller and meaning-maker is what makes live theatre so exciting.  And it’s why theatre works so well within a classroom.

Children as performers experience this same synergy with their classmates, the audience members, and their teachers.  Their stories take on, shall we say, a life of their own.

But, we’ve forgotten: how do you find it?

You look.

Very hard.

The first step is to get on the mailing list of all the professional theatres in your region.  They often produce or host children’s theatres for limited engagements.  They don’t play for long, though, so you will need to be on top of things to know about them.  Some high schools and colleges also create children’s theatre.

This is a list of all the theatres that belong to TYAUSA, (Theatre for Young Audiences/USA) that may be useful.

Some national touring companies exist that will come into your school to perform.  If you decide to go this route, plan on visiting another school that is hosting the show before you commit.  Not all theatre is created equal and it is important to expose your students to the good stuff first.

Have fun!

My daughter was about 2 years and three months.  Verbally precocious and experienced in theatre (both her parents are theatre professionals), I took her to a holiday musical revue performed by the local children’s theatre.  I assumed, since it was kids, the show would be pretty upbeat so it would keep her attention.  With the added bonus of a few scenes by a local ballet troupe and her own babysitter in the choir, I gambled on taking her to a 7:30pm show.  That’s her bedtime.

We took a nap that afternoon, ate a good dinner, and arrived with enough time to explore the lobby and run around before taking our seats.

I found a seat all the way on the side, with plenty of empty seats next to us for an occasional climb through the aisle as needed.

The show started…very very slowly.

They began with a compilation of the slowest ballads ever, performed by high school student soloist.  Avi could have cared less.  The ballerinas showed up eventually, but by then Avi was busy trying to climb all the seats and run down the aisles.  Her babysitter appeared on stage, but because of the angle of the stage, we couldn’t even see her.

By then, it was about a half hour into the show and Avi was beyond not interested.  I moved over to the empty seats and let her climb back and forth between a few, occasionally attempting to point out things on stage to her.  She was being very quiet, so I figured it was okay.  Until she fell.

Of course, she fell!  It was dark, her foot slipped, she got scared.

This meant hauling her out of the theatre while she screamed.

We calmed down, ran around the lobby for a few minutes, and then she decided she’d like to go back in, so in we went.  Only to have her start crying that she wanted to leave 30 seconds later.  This decision involved not only leaving with a crying toddler, again, but hauling out our winter coats and diaper bag as well. If the show had stopped and they’d all pointed and yelled at us, it couldn’t have been more embarrassing.

Out in the lobby, she re-entered her element.  She relaxed, explored the decorations, and we discovered a ballerina warming up to go on stage.  In her tutu she pirouetted and pranced, and Avi fell in love.  She did her own spins and twirls beside the young dancer.  Our babysitter appeared within a few minutes and they talked and hung out together until she had to go back on stage.

And then we went home.

As you can see, I expected too much from a very small child.

But we made up for a possibly disastrous evening by taking our time in the lobby and enjoying our own personal ballet performance.

Luckily, I started out by following my own advice.

At about 20 months I took my daughter, Avi, to see a children’s play as performed by high school students, City Mouse and Country Mouse.  About 40-minutes long, it was perfect for the four-year-olds in the audience.  It was too long for my daughter, but here are some things I learned about her and what we did to make it a fun experience:

• Since I didn’t know how she’d handle the lights turning out, we stood in the back of the auditorium until the show started.  As it turned out, she got scared of the man doing the pre-show announcement.  His voice was projected loudly due to the mike he held.  So, we went to the lobby to wait out his announcement.
• Right after he finished, the lights went out.  We walked slowly back into the darkened auditorium while I whispered in her ear about why the lights went out.
• Together, we stood in the back of the house.
• Eventually, she decided she wanted to sit in a seat like the rest of the audience.  I made sure to sit a couple rows away from everyone else because it was clear she was going to comment and ask questions the entire show.  Even with an audience full of children, I didn’t want to be rude.
• She enjoyed the singing and dancing the most.  And got restless during the scenes, even if they were active.
• When the mice pretended to lie down and go to sleep, she got worried about them and thought they were hurt.
• When the mice left the stage, she got nervous they wouldn’t come back.
• Ten minutes before the end of the show, she decided she was done so we went back out to the lobby for a run around.

Now, it’s also important to remember that my daughter is the child of two theatre professionals so she already knows what a stage is.  After the show, the actors came into the lobby to meet the children.  This was particularly wonderful because it allowed the children in the audience to see that actors are real people too.

In the end, Avi had a really great time, and I did too.  I let her take the lead so she felt in control of a potentially scary new experience.  We did a lot of whispering so she could vocalize who she felt and what she saw and I could explain things to her.

We liked it so much that, a couple weeks later, we went back for another show, The Fabulous Fable Factory.

This time, Avi had an even better time because she knew what to expect.  However, she kept calling the actors mice!  Even though they had no ears.  The cast came into the audience a lot, so they left the house lights slightly lit.  This, it turns out, was fantastic because it didn’t add the element of darkness to the unknown.  If you can find (or request it) a children’s theatre that will leave the lights slightly lit, this is a huge benefit.

This time, Avi lasted the entire hour long show and clamored for more.  Success!

Stayed Tuned for the next  post, What Happens when I DON’T Follow my Own Advice.