Working in children's theatre is not just about teaching kids about theatre, but also about important life lessons, like how to stand still, how to listen, how to be aware of what you're doing (you'd really be surprised), how to not be mad at your neighbor because your neighbor thinks it's fun to permanently place his/her feet on top of your feet, and how to teach neighbor to keep his/her feet to themselves! It really can be exhausting! The smallest tasks seem to take a while to accomplish when kids seem to want to do their own things.
Children's theatre also exposes kids to new things... New people (different cast every time), new place, new choreography, new lines...etc. For some, new things can be scary. For some, new things are overwhelming. The new things we ask these kids to do are small so they are easily accomplished and can show kids that new things don't have to be scary. Yesterday, we talked about an important life lesson when teaching the movements to a song. After going over it once, some were complaining that it was too hard. We had a discussion about life and how even when things seem hard, it is important for us to try, try again and then, when the task is mastered, we can feel such a sense of accomplishment.
With all that being said, after nearly 3 hours of work, we finished blocking and choreography of 3 songs.
Again, it always amazes me what kids can do! Rehearsal may look like herding cats, but the kids can pick up and learn and REMEMBER so quickly, it's shocking especially when we have people standing on other people, doing back rolls or push ups on the stage, taking multiple trips to the bathroom and complaining that their feet that are so tired they may literally fall off from standing (for five minutes).
And that's after ONE rehearsal!
This show is one of my favorites and after yesterday, seeing how well the kids did, I'm even more excited to rehearse and share it with Texarkana October 22-24!
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