On With the Show, This is It!

by Kelly Knowlden

What is the value of having students memorize lines and movement to present a story? Why do we invest months of time into a drama production that is over in three nights?

There are a couple of reasons that ICS has a Drama Production. For students, the value of poise on the stage, overcoming fears, the discipline of memorizing lines and then bringing those lines to life by conveying emotion are valuable. But one of the things that takes place in the process is to have students understand what life looks like from another perspective. It forces them to not be themselves. [Read: die to self.] They must become someone else. They must portray a convincing story that they really are the character that is listed in the playbill.

That requires a degree of humility and willingness to be conformed to someone else’s character. This of course, has great ramifications for Christians. It is the life story of all of us, whereby we are transformed to become conformed to the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In that way, students who participate in those stretching opportunities, whether drama, spelling bees, speech meets, chess meets, or basketball - all have their eyes opened to new experiences, new skills, and new ways of thinking.

As a school, drama provides us with a venue to tout our students’ abilities. We want to make them known to our community and are thinking of ways to do that. We are thankful for the many volunteers who are willing to help us pull off these extra-curricular activities. Many school are able to pay their staff. We cannot do that and so the weight of that falls on the parents and friends of ICS who make these things happen.

For parents, drama is one of those opportunities to help your child expand their abilities and talents. It allows you to expose your child to things that do not require them to be excellent in order to participate. We take students who may be mediocre but are willing to work hard to do their best. Where students have taken advantage of that, they have learned how to handle defeat graciously, how to overcome the embarrassment of “messing up” in public and even how to excel!