Teaching Skills and Appreciation

Harvard may have a plethora of award-winning screenwriters, trained actors, and directors who have been working with visions since the age of five. But from May 1-4, Harvard drama will highlight the work of an entirely different group: middle schoolers.

Kidshow!, which will take place during Arts First, is a program started by Harvard students to engage Boston public middle school students in the theater.

Now in its fifth year, Kidshow! begins each fall semester by teaching the students the essential fundamentals of theater—improvisation, reaction, screen writing, directing, and more—as well as drama’s technical staples, such as staging and sound. The program directors help the aspiring Thespians develop their work and their ideas, aiding them to reach into themselves and pull out their own masterpieces. Finally, in the second semester, the students start applying the skills they only recently learned to produce short stage plays of their own creation.

With four middle schools participating in the program this year, the youth group will perform four 20-minute plays. Ranging from comedy to action—and tackling themes such as superhero morality—these shows feature some serious professional work with a fair share of depth.

According to Philip A. Petrou ’09, the vice president of the program, the goal of Kidshow! is to “instill a sense of appreciation” for the arts, especially in “schools that have lost art programs.” In order to accomplish this, the program directors had to work hard to remind the children that though theater is fun, it’s also a meaningful medium in which to express their creativity beyond the superficial clichés of their youth. As Petrou notes, “We hope it will continue through their lifetime.”