Voices of Youth: Theater offers kids skills beyond the stage 

Theater is a great experience because it lets you explore your concept of who you are now and who you are becoming by taking on a role. 

You may think that you wouldn’t like participating in theater. But imagine you are somehow pushed into a theater program doing props. After a few meetings, a scattered amount of hours working, it could dawn on you that you sort of, somehow, like theater. 

When I first stepped into theater work, I wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was in eighth grade, overly shy and recklessly nervous. Nobody I knew had joined, and in a sense, I was anonymous.  Since then, throughout four years and six shows, I have seen, heard, and grown so much. 

I became best friends with the two guys who costumed with me on “Big Fish.” I gained confidence, became more spontaneous, and began to emerge from my shell. This is what theater programs do, around the globe, around the state, around Grand Rapids: theater helps people live. 

Finding yourself

Theater is a great experience because we can meet many new and different people. That new person could even be a new version of yourself.

“Theater brings people out of their comfort zone,” says Emelia Redwine, student stage manager at City High Middle’s theater program. “It encourages new facets of people’s personalities, and it’s a safe community where people can present themselves however they want to, without facing truly hateful pushback. It’s a place where you can figure out what you like and what you like to do, minus everybody else’s opinions and feelings.” 

The City High Middle Theater Program is a student-run, adult-supervised PTA program at Grand Rapids Public Schools’ City High Middle School that provides scholars with high-quality resources to produce shows three times a year. Students from the high school and middle school build, act, assist with direction, dress, and design the characters, with some helpful adult supervision. 

Acting is a time-tested way to get a person out of their shell, just for a minute, so they don’t get too frightened and become a permanent turtle. Emotions and acting go hand in hand, and actor Kat Seijas knows that firsthand. 

“Acting is definitely a form of empathy, because one has to step out of their own vision, the version of the world you inhabit, and move into the character’s version of the world,” says Seijas. “You don’t necessarily have to like or agree with the character, but you still have to become them for a while. That stepping out helps you to be a better communicator – really, a better person.” 

Capturing attention, freeing imagination

If you do like to act, or think you might, then get into the theater. Pushing limits, when you bat away the fear incessantly, is actually not that bad. 

If you’re just a viewer in the audience, theater is still a great experience. Acting is one of the most alluring disciplines to watch unfold, while costuming and set design take your disbelief up into the rafters, far, far away, and immerse you in the world of whatever show you attend. 

In our continually running, brimming-with-ads, cynical modern world, theater is a speed bump in media consumption. It rocks us in our seats and dislodges phones from our hands, setting our attention back to the present. 

“When I give the opening talk at the beginning of a show about the students’ work, I notice people in the audience slowly draw their attention to the stage and prepare themselves, in a way, deciding that the show is something they want to dedicate their time to,” says Jaime Bott, director of the City High Middle theater program. 

Theater is a form of entertainment to which people dedicate a range of hours. Theater is not bound to a specific type of people; theater is really one of those activities that, as cheesy as it sounds, is made for everyone. Anybody can walk into auditions and snag a role. Anybody can step on stage and create contentment. 

Through all my four years in my program – the gut-wrenching hours, laughing fits at terrible jokes, deliriously fun cast parties, and bittersweet goodbyes – I have loved theater and my place within it. Truly, I can say that theater is an outstanding art. 

Photos provided by Tommy Allen and Ineke Petroelje

Ineke Petroelje is a junior attending Grand Rapids City High Middle School, where she has been volunteering with the school’s theater program. She and the whole theater program at City High Middle invite you to see their production of “Charlotte’s Web,” coming to the stage this March. 

To learn more about Rapid Growth’s Voices of Youth project and read other installments in the series, click here. This series is made possible via underwriting sponsorships from the Steelcase Foundation, Frey Foundation, PNC Foundation, and Kent ISD.