Guest Opinion: How playing Mrs. Cratchit in the Children's Theatre can change lives Guest Opinion: How playing Mrs. Cratchit in the Children's Theatre can change lives (December 21, 2005)

by Emily Blum

That vivid red dress hooked me. There's nothing a kindergartner loves more than dressing up. The wings and the beak added to the fun. I loved being the Red Red Robin, from the song, "The Red Red Robin Goes Bob, Bob, Bobbing Along."

Mrs. Dunker, my kindergarten teacher, devised a theatre program for the 5 year olds who graced her class. That was the beginning of my love affair with theatre. The music classes and songs we practiced culminated in performances for friends and family.

The acting, bright costumes and pretty makeup, the friendly audience -- all of it -- was a living dream.

I am lucky to live in a community such as Palo Alto that supports a children's theatre, which produces amazing shows. The Palo Alto Children's Theatre is one of the oldest children's theatre programs in the country. Approximately 4,000 children per year participate in its programs and more than 50,000 people a year watch its plays. A few years after my kindergarten experience the Children's Theatre offered auditions for a play. I jumped at the opportunity and auditioned for my first "big show."

Years later I still work with the Children's Theatre as part of the High School Acting Company, which I helped start. Each month we create, direct and produce shows. Even after about 35 shows with this group and in other productions there is nothing I love more. It's a great feeling walking up to the theatre and seeing a crowd of little children who know my name. I seem to have become a role model.

I have taken theatre and arts classes for about four years, but have been doing shows for almost 10 years. Because my community supports the arts, I have taken three years of acting and a year of dance in school.

Our children's theatre has been a great resource. I spent three summers in conservatory there, learning to work with light boards, sound systems, sets, costumes and makeup. I can safely work a fly system (the system that raises and lowers the curtains onstage), give light cues and assist in programming light boards, operate sound systems, build sets, and create an era-and-character-appropriate costume and makeup combination.

Yet it's the acting I love most. My favorite thing is to be onstage and feel that blazing light on me: the pounding heart, the sweaty hands. I would not give it up easily. Nothing gives a person more confidence than stepping onto that brightly lit stage and successfully telling a story to an audience.

Even stage failures have been successes, teaching me how to deal with adversity.

My best experience was the biggest mistake. The show was "A Christmas Carol," and I was playing Mrs. Cratchit. Our scene started, and with pounding heart and sweaty palms I stepped onstage. Everything went smoothly -- until the actor playing my husband did not enter.

It went downhill from there: Tiny Tim forgot his lines, props were dropped. And because the other actors were younger and less experienced than I was it fell on my shoulders to get the show back on track and go on as though nothing had gone wrong. When I found I was able to cover up gracefully for the mistakes I realized how much the acting and the schooling I had received had affected me.

And I now find myself wondering how many hundreds of other young persons over the years -- generations of us -- have had similar awakenings because of the Children's Theatre and related classes and training available.

As I approach my 36th or so performance, I am more self assured, outgoing and articulate. My confidence and ease in speaking in front of people served me well when I participated in a cable television show two years ago discussing intergenerational relations. I am relaxed participating in school classroom discussions. My involvement in the theatre has also led me to read and see many plays. The Children's Theatre has also taught me teamwork. Each production requires putting aside any disagreements and working with others to make things run smoothly. Our plays have an approximately 95 percent attendance rate because we work hard to make them successful and we work with a talented and dedicated professional staff. The staff, which already puts in long hours, has had to work even more hours to adjust to city budget cuts.

Even if my name never appears in lights on Broadway, my "career" will have changed my life in more ways than I can count thanks to my involvement. And the best part is I helped entertain and inspire many younger kids, some of whose names may someday show up in lights -- whether mine does or doesn't.

Emily Blum is a Palo Alto High School senior. She can be e-mailed at enblum@comcast.net.

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