Bella’s First Time at the Theatres – The Gingerbread Man by iTheatre

Bella attended her first play (The Gingerbread Man by iTheatre) over the weekend with her big brother Jah and us in tow. :p Well it was technically her second exposure to the world of theatre (her first was with her school last month). But we all know how differently kids behave in school and with their parents.

I was extremely apprehensive about taking her with us, given that she is often little Miss Ants-in-her-pants. However I have to say I was alittle surprised at her level of understanding and enthusiasm.

As usual we arrived about 45 minutes ahead of time which gave both Jah and Bella time to settle down and Bella was more than happy to follow her brother around for the ‘mandatory’ photo-taking. Jah was also extremely happy to have his little sister around to ‘show off to’.

Before even purchasing the tickets, Joel and I had agreed that we would divide and conquer. We decided that Joel would take Bella outside when she starts to misbehave/ cry. Note I said when and not if because we didn’t expect her to last the entire show at all!

Yes this is how we divide and conquer

But not only did she last through the entire show, she also looked like she enjoyed herself quite abit. The catchy tunes from the show definitely helped! While she was definitely still Miss Ants-in-her-pants, moving from Joel’s lap to her chair more than 10 times in that 50 mins, she was also quite transfixed by what was happening on-stage and was bobbing along to the music at various points of the show. 🙂

The serious theatre goers

The jolly theatre goers

I probably had the better end of the deal because I was in charge of Mr I’m a Big Boy and I can use my indoor voice (Jah) but I was very glad that he was not thrown off by his sister’s constant fidgeting.

Nah..we are happy theatre goers

I love the fact that the show had so much audience interaction that it was perfectly acceptable and fun to watch Jah and Bella shout out responses to the cast. The audience was a boisterous bunch and the storyline made it fun for them.

The show is targeted at children 3 years and up but given that Bella is just shy of 2 years old and we made it through ‘unscathed’, I’ll say it would work perfectly fine for a 2 year old as well. That being said, while it was all fun to hear kids shouting out responses and the cast being ever so game to entertain and interact, I fully appreciate and thank the ushers for stepping forward to request that crying babies be soothed at the back or outside the theatre.

We are totally looking forward to bringing Bella with us on all future plays! (in fact we already have 3 of those lined up! 🙂 ) At the end of the day, there is no crying that can’t be soothed by quickly stepping out of the theatre (if and when it happens) and the ability to let both siblings spend a day out at the theaters together far outweighs everything else. 🙂