I’m not surprised at the children’s reaction because I would be crushed if all the work we do and the money we put in to make the productions entertaining for children was to be in vain. But I didn’t expect them to be as entertaining to the older generation – teenagers, parents (both sexes), grandparents and other relatives, teachers, caregivers, young adults – just about anyone.
Most of our audience, both adults and children, come in buses – sometimes coming from as far south as Batangas, or as far north as Pangasinan. Some commute, some come in private cars. Some adults come with children, their own or children in their care, and some come without children. Often this theater experience will be a first for the child and/or the adult. Everyone seems to enjoy the show.
One mother told me her three-year-old son sat mesmerized throughout the opening performance of Beauty and the Beast, the current RCT production, and insisted on going back to the theater with his businessman father. They both enjoyed it.
Someone else told me this three-year-old nephew proudly showed him he could sing the "Ha Ha Song," a number which requires audience participation. A sophisticated teenaged girl was overheard saying to her teen-aged companions: "It’s boring but it’s nice," and then participated excitedly in the audience participation number.
A grandfather, coerced into bringing his grandchild to Jack and the Beanstalk, a previous production, said later "Now that is my kind of theater."
Cinderella’s prince, when he went to try on the slipper on lucky members of the audience in a production two years ago, got as many screams as any famous pop star. Two college students sent e-mails admitting they should have been too old to enjoy Beauty and the Beast, but loved it nonetheless. One came to see it twice, once with her mother who enjoyed it just as much. Teen-agers scream when Beauty and the Prince come out after the show for a photo-op and parents scramble to take pictures of their children with the cast. A good time seems to be had by all.
When we started doing fairy tales made famous by Walt Disney movies, I was asked, "Won’t children be disappointed that the show is not like the movie?"
I didn’t think so, and I was right. At first, I think the children are a bit jolted that some of the names are different, the songs are different, or the story isn’t exactly as they’ve seen it umpteenth times on television. But then, they get drawn in by the new story, the new names and the new songs.
They also begin to realize that there is something unusual about watching live, actors on stage. There is no cold, hard silver screen between them. They get an added thrill when the characters talk to them and they can answer back. Nothing recorded. No batteries required. This is a new experience.
But what about the adults? What draws them in?
Maybe it is the quality of the whole production – the sets, the lights, the costumes, the music, the staging and choreography, and the standard of acting and singing (the RCT uses professional actors) – that makes it simply good entertainment. Maybe, without realizing it, they find it therapeutic. Tired of the violence – either real or created as entertainment – to which we are exposed daily, 90 minutes of uncomplicated gentleness may be soothing to the soul. Maybe it’s just the chance not to have to think, thereby giving the tired brain and body rest. Maybe it’s the happiness one gets watching children enjoy themselves. Or maybe, for some who never have seen legitimate theater in English, it’s just a new and fascinating experience. Often we get questions like "Is this an imported production?", "How do you train the actors to speak so well?" and "Is the singing pre-recorded?"
As the saying goes, whatever. When I see a theater full of children from three to 73, with their eyes riveted on the stage, and watch their reactions to the goings-on, I forget the hard work, the frustration, the stumbling blocks, the tempers, the stress, and the uncertainties that accrue while working in the theater, erase all thoughts of looking for an easier life, and start planning for the next Children’s Theater production. I didn’t plan it to be, but it has become, theater for everyone.