How to help your kid realize their theatre potential?
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Regardless of the age of your child, they can always jump into theatre. This hobby provides an amazing outlet for your child while also offering a fun way to socialize with like-minded peers. Here are five ways that you can help your child to realize their theater potential.
Start young kids with dance
If your child is still young and not ready for the acting component, you may consider starting them with dance lessons. Dance is an ideal jumping-off point into the world of performance. Children can start dance lessons as early as three years old.
Enrolling your child in dance classes will help to support their dreams of becoming a performer. These classes will also build their leadership skills and help them to feel more comfortable on the stage. Along the way, they will also develop meaningful friendships with like-minded children.
Take them to shows
One of the best ways to help to support your child’s passion for theater is to take them to real performances. Not only will this help them to learn more about the industry in general, but it will also give them a feel for what a professional performance looks like.
Start with your local children’s theater and work your way up from there until you are attending traditional Broadway shows. You should also begin with short shows so that they do not get bored and restless. Once they have mastered sitting through an hour-long performance, you can begin to increase the duration.
Enlist the help of the professionals
Unless you are a trained performer yourself, your child will most likely benefit more if you enlist the help of the professionals. Once your child has shown that they can handle the responsibility of dance classes and recitals, you may want to look into dedicated acting classes. Most children’s theaters will begin offering classes to children when they reach school age.
A Broadway school will be instrumental in helping your child to develop the skills that they need to take to the stage in confidence. When looking for a school, be sure to find a place that teaches a wide range of skills while simultaneously encouraging your child to let their personality shine through on the stage. If your child is serious about pursuing this as a profession, this type of school will teach your child how to carry themselves professionally and land auditions.
Teach your child time management skills
In addition to learning the necessary theater skills, it is critical that your child learn how to manage their time effectively. Participating in theatre is a serious time commitment, necessitating that they need to know how to handle this responsibility.
This is clearly easier as they get older and become more responsible for their personal schedule. As a parent, your job is to teach them how to organize their schedule so that they have time to manage their schoolwork and their theater practices. As a bonus, learning these time management skills now will provide them with a valuable skill set as they grow older and become an adult.
Teach them how to handle rejection
One of the necessary hardships of theatre life is learning how to handle rejection. Regardless of the talent level of your child, they will inevitably face rejection as they travel this path. You can make this path easier if you provide them with the necessary skills to get back up on their feet after a tough loss.
There is a fine line between instilling confidence in your kids and making them believe that they are truly better than everyone else. Learning how to walk this line so that they are confident yet humble is one of the biggest challenges that theater kids face. At the end of the day, all that you can do is to give your child a safe place to land and express their disappointment after they are turned down for a role.
It is important to remember that your primary role in this process is to be your child’s biggest cheerleader. All that you need to do is to provide them with the tools and the schooling so that they can achieve all of their theater dreams.