On March 27th, every year since 1961, the World Theatre Day has been celebrated all over the world.
The main purpose of celebrating this day is to attract the attention of a wider audience to the art of theatre. On this occasion, we have wondered what is the role of theatre in the upbringing of kids, and how could theatre really matter for young people in this modern world?
A research that was conducted in Šabac (city in Serbia) in 2012 showed that 59% of high school students aged 15 don’t go to the theatre at all. Instead, children nowadays spend a lot of time online, using social media. It prevents them from having better social interaction with their peers. Moreover, they change and ruin traditional way of communication and develop a completely different culture.
There are many benefits of exposing your children to the theatre:
- It opens a whole new world to them and at the same time it can help kids learn how to think, dream and play.
- In the theatre children will discover lots of different characters and heroes, absorb their messages and stories, as well as gain new life experience
- Theatre fires the imagination
- Theatre is a family experience, it brings people together
- It develops play and social skills
- It is live and encourages activity
- It creates empathy
- It exposes children to tales of other cultures, historical event and traditions
- It boosts a child literacy
Unlike cartoons and video games, theatre provides children with the opportunity to interact and communicate in a familiar way. Just imagine their surprise and happiness when their favorite characters address them such as: Aladdin, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Tinker Bell, Sleeping Beauty or some other Disney characters.
Therefore it is very important to take your children to the theatre. Let them enjoy the play and introduce them with the culture of the theatre. Enable them to enter into the world of fantasy and dreams, and encourage their open-mindedness.
