What a 5-Year Old Taught Me About Directing

“I believe the children are our future, teach them well, and let them lead the way.” I think Whitney was truly on to something when she sang those lyrics. I am a 29-year-old performer and director learning new things from my students every day. When I recently had the chance to direct 5-12-year-olds in a production of Honk Jr., I never realized how rewarding that experience was truly going to be.

I have directed shows working with teenagers over almost a decade expecting more of myself and pushing them to raise the standards they set for themselves. When I was given the opportunity to work with directing children under thirteen I will admittedly say I was nervous. I was nervous that I would not feel challenged. I was nervous I was going to get frustrated easily. I was nervous I was going to feel like the product would be not near the standard I expect of myself and my work.

Saying all of this now, I feel ashamed that these thoughts would have ever crossed my mind. 

There are four valuable lessons I learned in my experience working with actors as young as five years old. First, I learned that I had to challenge myself to go back to basics. Working with children who have never been on stage in front of an audience before, reminds you to teach the ABC’s of performance again.

Actors who have previous experience and performance knowledge tend to be easier to work with because they know about projecting and cheating out, they know about goals and character tactics, but five-year-olds do not. Thus, rehearsals were always a teaching opportunity to give some fundamental lessons as well as a challenge for myself to figure out how to break those lessons down to something that they would understand. 

Secondly, I learned that it is important to set an expectation for yourself and always push yourself but theatre does not have to be perfect. Theatre is meant to be an imitation of real-life...and let’s be honest, real life is not perfect. I always want to create something that in my mind is a perfect performance but the reality is that there is beauty in imperfections. Life is not predictable and neither is live theatre. It is in those imperfections that some of the most beautiful moments occur onstage or the greatest growth occurs. 

Realizing this early on in the process has allowed me to learn my third valuable lesson, let yourself be surprised. Going into working with children, it is easy to think this is going to be above their capability but I learned I should allow myself to be surprised by their work ethic and their abilities. I forget sometimes that being in a play is playing​​.

It is more likely that children will be able to play better than adults because of their imaginations and capability to pretend convincingly. As we get older, we tend to have the world around us cloud our ability to let go of being self-conscious in front of others. But, working with these children it appeared they had no fear, they knew how to commit to a character because it was fun. That tenacity taught me not to underestimate someone because of their age and experience but give them the chance to show you what they can do.

The fourth valuable lesson I learned from my tiny teachers, was to have fun and remember the joy of creating. Seeing these actors onstage performing fearlessly reminded me that putting pressure on myself to create the perfect show is a fool's errand. Yes, I will always strive to create something spectacular but I will now remember not to put so much pressure on myself to be perfect. Working with children has brought the joy back into why I love doing this. It allowed me to connect with my inner child because sometimes you just need to create because it brings you joy. 

The thing that warmed my heart most about working with these children is seeing the potential they have to be not only fearless performers but fearless adults someday. The purity of their “go get it” attitude is admirable. The courage to stand in front of audiences at such a young age is inspiring. My goal as a director from here on out is to remember the basics are fundamental, imperfections are magical, allow others to surprise me, and don’t forget to always have fun.

Photo: Woodland Opera House production of Honk Jr. (Amy Shuman/Courtesy photo)