Let’s Pretend
By
Gerry Niskern
If you recall, I wrote about my great-great-grand daughter’s Winter Concert last week. She loves to pretend and was enthralled when she attended her first live production with her dad on Thanksgiving weekend. From toddler age she has received tiny costumes from Santa and on birthdays too. She loved pretending and stretching her creativity to act out many scenarios.
Most kids love to perform and they need to be encouraged to take part in those activities . It helps them grow as individuals and even become leaders in the future.
I’m reminded of many trips years ago of my granddaughter and her four little kindergarten friends piling into the backseat of my convertible for a trip downtown to the Childrens Theatre. We left extra early because they coveted the front row seats. They knew the actors sometimes ventured into the audience. The girls also loved approaching the actors afterwards for autographs. Imagine, “the Prince or the Frog actually talked to them1”
A few years later, at another venue, the Phoenix Youth Theatre, this time it was the great-grandkids who were allowed to kneel in front and look down into the orchestra pit and watch the musicians. Once I was urged to “come see the “ really huge guitar” as they pointed out the bass fiddle.
When one of the great- g grandsons was four and everyone was clapping at the appropriate times during the performance, he insisted on pumping his fist and shouting “whoo, whoo, whoo1”. And when it was time for his rough and tumble younger brother’s time to attend a play, I was hesitant. He went down to the floor and proceeded to sit beside an older boy in a baseball uniform. But he didn’t move an inch during “Beaulty and the Beast”. He was mesmerized. Later, when I asked how he liked it, with big eyes, he replied, “I loved it!” Even tough guys can be melted.
If my great-great granddaughter lived in my town, we would be attending every performance, but who knows, maybe some day I will get to attend a performance of hers!