Children's theatre: trend for teens

Chris Porterfield
portercm@uwec.edu

At the recent Crestview Christian Academy Christmas play in Eau Claire, eighth- grade student Grace Jacoby really got into her character. Cast as a down-and-out bag lady in “The Christmas Flight Delayed,” she plumbed her mind for the best way to portray the woman’s dismal situation to the audience.  

            “I had to be really crazy.  I wore a woolen coat, and there was mistletoe on the set,” she explained. “I walked up and ate it.”

 Many Eau Claire middle-schoolers are turning to theater arts for direction, friendship and a creative outlet.  

             According to the National Middle School Association, the uniqueness of early adolescence stems from “a variety of developmental needs, variations in the maturation rate, and complexity due to their simultaneous occurrence.”  It lists seven key developmental needs that characterize early adolescence:  positive social interaction with adults and peers; structure and clear limits; physical activity; creative expression; competence and achievement; meaningful participation in families, school, communities; opportunities for self-definition. 

            Involvement in the theater arts addresses each one of these issues, making it an ideal activity for middle school students.  As participants in theater, students begin to realize a positive self-concept and a new understanding of others.  Theater challenges them to respond to the world and to look beyond themselves to see the connectedness of human society.  Being on stage allows the performer to leave real life behind and enter a new world with the opportunity to take on unlimited different identities. 

“You get to be a different person for a while,” Grace said.

Ann Behrens has been working on costumes for the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre since her oldest daughter, Kelly, got involved in 1990.  Initially a parent volunteer, Behrens is now on staff as the costume designer.  Recently, she was at her home outside of Altoona, repairing coats and scrubbing the collars of men’s dress shirts used in the theater’s recent production of “Annie.” 

            “It never quite ends,” Behrens said, laughing.  “It’s not all glamorous.”

             When she was in middle school, her daughter Kelly found the existing social hierarchy prohibitive.  She wasn’t fitting in at school, and struggled finding good friends.  Then she began acting in the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre’s performance of “Barnum” and instantly fell in with her peers in the theater.   She loved the company of creative, outgoing, dramatic students with interests similar to her own. 
            “It’s tough for middle-schoolers,” Behrens said.  “She found a place to fit in with other theater kids.  It was such a nice social and creative outlet for her.”

            As Kelly’s involvement with the theater increased, so did the hours that Behrens logged “hanging out” during rehearsals.  Two other Behrens children got involved.  Like many parents of student actors, Ann Behrens began volunteering her time, putting her degree in textiles and sewing from UW-Stout to use.  Parents are often deeply involved with the productions, she said.  Their presence fosters improved parent-child relationships, and helps to shield kids from peer pressure to drink, smoke or do drugs.

            “Very rarely do we get kids who are likely to get involved with drugs,” Behrens said.

            A recent study seems to corroborate the connection.  Researchers from the University of South Florida will present a study this month at the American Public Health Association’s annual conference titled “Impact of Teen Theater Production on Attitudes toward Alcohol and Tobacco Use among Middle School Students.”  The results underscored theater arts’ potential as “a supporting and reinforcing mechanism for prevention of adolescent risk behaviors, particularly when community, theory, and evidence-based elements are involved.”

            “Theater itself becomes a positive behavior,” Behrens said.  “The kids that get involved in theater tend to be higher achievers.  They are the ones that get into band, forensics, choir.  They have so many interests.  These are very intelligent kids that have a need to be creative.”

            With so many activities vying for their time, middle school students and their parents often have to perform a balancing act to keep up.  Behrens said that some kids actually do better in school when they are involved in a play. 

 “The demand for time requires them to be more organized in order to get everything done,” she said. “Some kids just love it that much.”

            A decade and a half later, Kelly is still involved in theater.  She is now working toward her master’s degree in theatrical lighting design from Purdue University, and was recently asked to be a guest instructor at Viterbo University, where she did her undergraduate work.

            “That’s what saved her, doing these plays,” Behrens said.

 Theatre personality       

Grace Jacoby is energy.  She is clever, charming and delightfully comfortable with people years her senior.  She is a swimmer, a tennis player, a dancer, an avid reader, a movie buff (“I like any movie that’s not like, really stupid.”).  She is excited for high school next year.  She hopes to get involved with show choir.  

“My mom thinks the costumes are corny, and you have to pay a lot of money for them, but you get to travel all over, and I think that sounds like a lot of fun.”

            This is Grace:  “I’m not really nervous about high school.  It’s nothing to be nervous about.”

Photo By: Chris Porterfield

Crestview Academy eighth-grader Grace Jacoby performs as a down-and-out bag lady in "The Christmas Flight Delayed."

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