Theater Babies

I was brought up in the theater....literally...sleeping in the costume shop....holding pins in fittings...my mom is a costume designer and shop manager at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Of course I was interested in theater then...I met my husband in a children's' theater production in 8th grade. We are theater people for sure. Love it! This has rolled over into the next generation. My daughter was just recently in Honk!. Now she was a theater baby too. She, too, was brought along to rehearsals, fittings, meetings, performances starting prenatally. She loves being in theater and seeing it. And she has great theater manners.

Now the boys...there's something different. Because when I had the boys I was a stay-home mom and my husband was no longer directly involved in theater, they had little opportunity to get in on the theater fun. We don't even go the movies that much. Last year I brought them to a performance of fairy tales by the Jr. Performers at Urbana Park District....didn't go too well. But they really wanted to see their sister in her show. We went to Crystal Lake to see the company perform and my 3yo loved it! Cheering and dancing! So, let's try bringing them to the real performance.

We had a back-up plan. I had seen the show several times, so if they couldn't make it, I could leave (and a cookies at intermission was good). But they loved it! The 1yo kept repeating the lines "Honk! Honk! Quack!" so my husband asked me to take him to the back....but then he just screamed "Sit down!" So we sat through the whole show with him dancing, singing, identifying all the scenery, and nursing some to keep him quiet. My 3yo did a running commentary....telling us every time his sister was on stage and asking where she was if she was off. He was very concerned about the ugly duckling "he looks so sad...where did all his friends go?" But overall, they liked it and they weren't loud enough that anyone complained (at least to us). Many thought they were cute. After all, it was children's theater.

So, I think even though they were not exposed to theater in vitro....there may still be a chance for them!