Fourth Grade Theater -- Afterall

I'm helping with my son's school play. Nothing lavish; cute music, the costumes turned out well and for a few moments in the lives of these 4th grade performers one might even think that they were actually on "Treasure Island"! Not true, but a good effort by about 50 kids and two very dedicated teachers.

I think they called me in because I'm not worn out and wearied down by the constant effort required to maintain the attention of young people. These ten and eleven year-olds launched everything I said to a thousand different places in their intellect. At times I thought I'd stumbled into a camp of very small, extremely brain damaged comedians. Most times my suggestions were scattered like "water skippers", those spider-looking bugs that walk on water, swarm like wasps and flee from slight disturbances.

Underneath the energy and chaotic clamor of our rehearsal was a goodness that's found in children. And as we completed the first performance, they were excited by their successes and adamant in their excuses. Which is what I found most interesting of all.

It is a rare child who listens.

It's the common child who shouts.

While responding to simple on and off-stage instructions; blame was readily placed for every innocent mistake of others and responsibility quickly denied for naive blunders and intended disruptions by themselves.

It seemed as if every child, and certainly the more vocal ones, declared everyone else at fault while claiming the group's collective success as their own.

They are young and they will grow. They are children and they're self focused. But the very complicated process of fifty beings producing sixty minutes of performance saw little give and take and lots of grab and twist and turn and forget.

Yet as we finished our performances, all two of them, wonderful results peaked through in spite of my challenge and their activities.

The discipline of doing something the correct way, though forced by sheer personality on my part, produced competence. A boy who wanted no part of the experience declared his enthusiasm for his effort managing scenery.

Clamor that was fueled by not knowing what to do turned into calm as the structure of rehearsal and repeated effort produced laughter and applause. The girl most likely to disrupt our runthroughs became the character most delighting the spectators.

Emotional age notwithstanding, the influence of principle and structure, small and insignificant as it was for me in comparison to the personality of growing young people made my foray into fourth grade theater a positive happening.