Theatre is for more than just geeks

I love theater.

I wouldn’t consider myself a full-on theater kid. I don’t sing songs from Wicked, Hamilton or Moana. And I don’t quote The Music Man as often as I used to. That’s more like my best friend from high school, Eric, and his wife Grace.

But I think I enjoy watching musicals and plays a lot more than the average audience member.

Waseca High School is performing its one-act play “How to Succeed in High School Without Even Trying.” It was hard for me not to laugh a lot and still take pictures of the actors and actresses.

A special shoutout to Waseca student Nathanael Andrs. There’s a bit in the play where the narrators explain how to pass English class by reciting poems in a dramatic way. One of the examples was the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Imagine someone dramatizing that poem. Both of the two times I saw the whole play, Andrs had me laughing during that bit. I still am laughing about it as I write this column.

Watching them and looking back at Waseca’s production of Little Women and JWP’s production of The Little Mermaid made me reminisce a little bit about my time as a theater kid in high school. I know I seem more like a sports fanatic and a music critic. But back then, I leaned a lot into music and theater. That inclination got me through high school.

I still remember the one night my brain refused to work as a freshman and I butchered the feature song for Once Upon a Mattress. I still remember when we did Bye Bye Birdie my sophomore year and my best friend and I split the role of Albert Peterson, the agent of music sensation Conrad Birdie (basically Elvis). I look back fondly on being Marcellus in The Music Man while singing with the barbershop quartet.

I even think about the last night of my musical career my senior year when I had the worst headache ever in my entire life. I still rocked that Cogsworth costume and continued on with Beauty and the Beast. It was so bad that the cast and crew refused to let me help with teardown. I don’t think I was in school the following Monday.

But the more I write about this, the more I think about the other things surrounding theater. The cast parties hosted by one of the seniors, the drive to Perkins in Mankato after the Friday night show, and all the backstage tomfoolery we were up to.

Theater was where I felt like I belonged. It was where I made most of my friends in junior year. It was where I met my second girlfriend. It was where, even for two hours, I felt like I could be myself and everyone’s eyes were finally on me, and for a good reason.

I think that’s why I enjoy seeing students do it now. I know at least one member of the cast, if not most of them, feel the way I felt when I was up on stage: That people actually think they’re cool (for a minute); that other people could relate to them; that at least for a few nights, everything was awesome.

I know that a lot of people may not think music or the arts are that important. I know there have been political conversations about education reform. It often seems music programs and the arts are the first things to be on the chopping block.

It’s important to keep the arts going in our schools. Participation in art programs teaches students how to express themselves in a good way. It gives them an outlet to be creative and release their pent-up energy. And, like it or not, the arts are an integral part of the entertainment industry.

If we didn’t have schools teaching music, who would be the musicians, let alone good musicians? If we didn’t have theater, how would students learn audio, design, and communication skills? I think I learned more about how to communicate with others through theater than any communications class I had taken throughout my schooling.

This conversation has turned a little more political than I intended, but I think it needs to be said. Just like sports teaches life skills such as how to cope with setbacks and losing, the arts teach students how to act, how to operate lights, how to design sets, and more. And in my opinion, the most important thing is it gives those who feel like they’re weird and are different an outlet to feel like they belong.

Without theater, I don’t think I would have developed any ambition in life. Without theater, there wouldn’t be much entertainment.  And without much entertainment, life would be dull.