Confidence does not always appear before a child steps onto a stage. In many cases, it develops because the child accepts the challenge of performing.
Linda Suda explores this process throughout her children’s theatrical music productions. Her books bring students into an environment where they sing, act, dance, remember cues, speak before an audience, and depend on fellow cast members. Each responsibility gives children another opportunity to discover what they are capable of doing.
Rehearsals can be difficult at first. Children may worry about forgetting lines, missing an entrance, singing the wrong note, or performing in front of an audience. Suda notes from her own experience that anxiety often becomes noticeable as rehearsals progress. At that point, encouragement and support from teachers and cast members become especially important.
A child gradually learns that nervousness does not mean failure. Preparation matters. Practice matters. Cooperation matters. When students continue rehearsing and begin to see the production coming together, their uncertainty can give way to greater confidence.
Performing arts also teach children that they are part of something larger than themselves. A successful production depends on everyone. The student with one spoken line has a responsibility. The dancer in the ensemble has a responsibility. The singer waiting for an entrance has a responsibility. Children begin to understand that other people are relying on them.
That sense of responsibility can strengthen self belief.
The experience becomes even more meaningful when students finally perform for an audience. They see the result of weeks of learning, repetition, mistakes, corrections, and cooperation. Applause is rewarding, but the greater achievement is knowing that they completed something that may once have seemed frightening.
Suda has seen the effects continue long after a production ends. Former students have approached her years later to share how participating in a performance encouraged them to continue music lessons or become involved in drama.
Her books, including Opera Is Awesome, It Ain’t Over ’Til the Scientist Sings, and What Is This Thing That Is Called Love?, are designed to give children active roles in musical theatre while introducing them to opera, education, creativity, relationships, and the arts.
For schools, teachers, parents, and arts programmes, these productions offer more than an evening of entertainment. They give children a place to practise courage.
A child may enter rehearsal wondering, “Can I really do this?”
By the final performance, that same child may already know the answer.
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