When you give a girl a stage, you give her instant confidence. There is something about being on stage under a single spotlight that makes you crave attention. The spotlight makes you crave the thunderous applause and a standing ovation. The stage gives you the racing of your heart, the tightness in your chest, the claminess in your hands. When you give a girl a stage, you give her the biggest scare of her life, which is followed by the greatest rush of her entire life. If you give a girl a stage, and she takes it in stride, than she has confidence for the rest of her life.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her imagination. To become someone you are not is both the biggest challenge and the easiest task depending on who you are. When you give a girl a stage, she decides her fate. A girl with a stage is a girl with imagination. A girl who can change from being herself one moment backstage, to a fairytale creature from the world of Shrek, to a princess from the world of the Little Mermaid, to an Schuyler sister. To become someone you are not, is to have the fullest and truest form of imagination.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her best friends. When you spend 30-40 hours a week with the same people, you tend to grow very close. When you spend 30-40 hours a week singing and dancing and holding and hugging these same people, you become a family. Family isn’t something you choose, and theatre families are a perfect example of that. Everyone knows that you don’t LOVE everyone in your cast, but you would protect everyone in your cast with your heart and soul. That’s what family is, that’s what love is. When you give a girl a stage, you give her a non-blood family.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her public speaking skills. In every class for the rest of her life, she will wonder why other kids dread speaking or reading in front of the class. She might pretend to hate it, but secretly, she like it (or at least isn’t afraid of it). Making persuasive speeches, doing a presentation, poetry readings and anything else, she won’t fear it. It all comes so naturally to someone who has done monologues in front of audiences of 200+. You help her with her grades and her confidence.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her feet to walk confidently with. Too many girls stumble through life without a purpose. Slow, quiet steps that don’t rattle or shake the world. If you give a girl a stage, she will walk with purpose and confidence no matter where she is going or what she is doing. Some main rules on the stage are standing up straight, walk with purpose or not at all, and always wear a smile. If you give a girl a stage, she brings those qualities into real life.
When you give a girl a stage, you teach her to see the world differently. There is a reason that the arts community is generally the first to be social activists. People in the theatre are just different. People in the theatre and arts community just get it. When you surround a girl with great people, you create an even greater growing girl. She will grow to be smart and fair and see people in the world in beautiful lights. When you give a girl a stage, you teach her how to treat people the way they deserve to be treated.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her an instant love for music. You can’t get into Broadway musicals without having a love for Broadway music, and to an extent, Broadway music can cover any genre. Of course there are showtunes (Newsies, Addam’s Family, Shrek, Wicked, etc), but there is also punk rock (American Idiot), rap (Hamilton), R&B (Memphis), and much more. When you give a girl a taste for Broadway music, you give her a taste for all types of music.
When you give a girl a stage, you give her an ability to find herself in her character. In every character she finds a little bit more of herself. In ensemble she finds patience and leadership. As a lead she can find her voice and a special talent she didn’t know she had. Behind the scenes, she can find creativity and humility that she never knew she had.
When you give a girl a stage you give her love for the rest of her life for people, art, and the world around her. When you give a girl a stage, you give her a future she could never dream of without it. When you give a girl a stage, you giver her, herself.
