Delights of Drama

Last week was "cheesy movies" week at my house. We were cleaning out our collections for our garage sale, getting rid of all those bargain bin titles that we're embarrassed to own anyway. But we decided to watch several before we parted with them for good. One was A Walk to Remember, a sappy Nicholas Sparks special. The movie starts with a delinquent teenager being sentenced to participate in Drama Club with the unpopular Christian girl. This experience is the beginning of his radical transformation. I laughed and commented, "See, drama is good for kids!"

Which brings me to the topic of this post. Drama is good for kids. My performance career started out poorly. At age six or seven, I memorized a cute little poem called "Shine, Christmas Candle" to recite at a Christmas program. When the time came, however, I was paralyzed by stage fright—even though I never actually made it onto the stage! As a naturally fearful and anxious person, it's quite possible that I could have continued down that path and become one of those people for whom public speaking is more terrifying than death.

But drama changed all that. It put me on a stage in front of hundreds of people, telling a story. I could do it because it wasn't me talking to them, but my character. My contact with them was mediated by the story. But once you've done that, it's also a whole lot easier to stand and speak in front of people as yourself. I am fairly certain that if not for all those years of plays, I would not be a literature teacher today.

My drama experience was almost always in the context of my church family, which makes it even better. It is the source of some of my most treasured memories. When I think back to my childhood relationships, so much of what I remember is in the context of putting on a play. I'm forcibly restraining myself from going off on a tangent sharing all those memories right now!

All this musing is prompted by two events last week. The first was that I taught a week-long drama camp to eleven little girls, ranging in age from 7 to 11. Some of them had never performed before, and it was incredible to see the breakthroughs that happened throughout the week. I was so proud when they faced that audience of nearly 50 people on Friday night and performed a play they'd put together in a mere 5 days.

Second, on Sunday we finally had our cast party for A Shakespeare Festival. We had so much fun reliving the experience as we watched the DVD of our performance, our special features (including a spoof reel the kids filmed), and played an uproarious ad lib game.

I was telling a friend about the party, and she summed it up perfectly. She commented on what the world says is "fun" for teenagers—drugs, drink, sex, parties. Destructive stuff. And then she said about my cast, "those kids are having so much fun, and they're doing something so constructive and uplifting!" Drama on its own will not always be something so constructive, but this group of kids bathed their production in prayer that they would work and act for God's glory, and the end result was definitely uplifting. It is such an honor for me to facilitate that opportunity. I hope they find in 10 or 15 years that they look back on the experience with as much delight and satisfaction as I do.