How to Save a Life.

For the most part, we start our infatuation with the theater and this art form as young child. Dazzled by the beautiful costumes, astounded by the glamor of our predecessors, in awe of everything you could become on stage, we began to blindly stumble into a world so appealing to our innocent imaginations. I've worked with hundreds of kids at this point in their theatrical career and I can honestly say that the look on those kids faces when the curtain goes up is worth every penny I have to my name. It's not even just that opening moment that has me hooked to working with kids. They have this wide eyed, wonderment that turns quickly into a work ethic and a sheer love for what they are doing. If I didn't have that experience with theater as a kid, that fascination that turned into a passion, I would never be where I am right now.

And then I see the cast of the CCM Prep musical: 70 children who are under a militant regime, producing a musical that will only be seen by their parents and siblings. Looking at those kids, forced to remain quiet at all times, yelled at for any minor misstepping, treated like they are older than they are, I saw the aspects of theater that make me hate it sometimes. Those kids were whipped. I saw them being put through exactly the same regiment that CCM puts its college students through that kills their love for what they are doing. Suddenly theater is no longer that glamourous dazzling wonderful place where kids experience and play on their passion for the craft. It becomes this fight to put on the most professional production a cast of 8 to 14 year olds can put on. I tried making faces at them to make them crack a smile and I got were blank stares and shh's. All I could think about was: "If this is what theater had been for me as a child or a high school student, I would be a math major."...and I hate math.

I can put up with a lot of things and I can take a lot of things as I am dealt them but children being whipped and those innocent spirits being crushed before they even get to experience the passion for what they are doing is not something I can turn a blind eye to. So my goal is to make this the best theater experience they've had here at CCM. I am going to make them laugh by making horribly silly faces and by telling them silly jokes and if their laughter is heard offstage then I am doing a heck of a job. I've learned all 70 names because every kid deserves the chance to be called "Jenna Susan Marie." I want these kids to love what they are doing now because if these children are the future of theater their spirits will already be crushed before college institutions like CCM get the chance to try and squelsh them forever.