I fell in love with the theater when I was 9 years old.  My best friend, Kay Lynn had a theater birthday party, meaning she invited 7 friends to go to the theater with her and see a play for her birthday.  I was completely enchanted.  The next live performance I saw was “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.”  My 4th grade class climbed on a bus and took a field trip to this live production of a favorite children’s story.  Again, I was enthralled.  And that’s all it took.  I was hooked forever on live theater.

Now, 50 years later, I still jump at the chance to see a live performance.  The magic of the scenery, the costumes, the actors, the moment seizes me.  From the smallest production to the most fantastic, from a junior high production to a Broadway show, each has its own allure.

I once volunteered to sit up in the light booth in an antiquated theater, manually directing the lights for a high school production of “South Pacific” with a limited talent base.  For weeks of rehearsals and the final performances I climbed up a wooden ladder and into the light booth to listen to songs I grew to love sung by untrained voices.  I have no boundaries with the theater.  I embrace all of it.

When my children happen to be a part of the cast, I sit in the audience night after night.  Each performance has something different, some element of surprise or mishap.  I love that too.  When my girls were little I combined my love of the theater with my love of ballet and each Christmas took them to see “The Nutcracker Ballet.”  Because they were young I was prepared to leave at the first sign of disinterest, entertaining the thought that holding their attention until intermission might be as much as one could expect.  I never did have to leave early.  We looked for other fun theater opportunities.  One year we saw Bob Baker’s Marionettes Christmas production.

When they grew up we saw “Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables” and “A Christmas Carol.”  As our Christmas traditions evolved, live performances became a little luxury of the holiday experience, an extravagance we gave ourselves, a special holiday treat.  Live theater and the holiday–an unbeatable combination.