I grew up in the little Methodist Church in Collinsville. We went there with our cousins— on my mother’s side.
There could be 10 or 12 of us there in youth group or Sunday school any given week.
My mother has two sisters, and they raised us kids together.
This was a point of pride for my grandfather. He loved seeing a church full of his grandkids.
This point came up at his funeral when the late Tom Worsham, Sr. eulogized him.
“I remember at the last church Christmas pageant,” Tom said. “I remarked to Roger, ‘this sure is a fine looking group of young people.’”
Tom was an elder in the church and lay speaker.
“’Well they ought to be,’ Roger told me. Most of them are mine,” Tom chuckled.
I feel this way when I see my kids participate in school activities.
All three of our daughters have taken up with the Tioga High School Theatre Department.
Along with their compatriots, they have excelled.
The Bulldog One Act Play came in 5th at State last week in Austin.
It has taken me this long to find the words to describe just how proud I am.
The Lewter girls rocked it this year.
Mackenzie stepped into a leadership role behind the scenes and made stage manager her own.
She was recognized with a few awards along the way for her efforts.
Isabella honed her craft with light design and won some awards of her own.
Grace embraced a stage role that seemed insignificant to her at first, but that was not the case at all. Her emotional delivery gave us goosebumps each performance.
And, yes, about 15 percent of the Tioga OAP company lives at my house— but it’s not just our kids I am proud of.
One Act Play is a team sport, and we’ve grown to love each of these kids as if they were our own.
Most of them have been recognized with awards along the way and the journey has been worth the hard work.
You see, the Tioga OAP was disqualified right out of the gate last year.
They went over time at district competition with what was a very promising show.
They were heartbroken. They cried. They learned and they moved on.
And here we are a year later— State finalists.
How about that?
The growth we’ve seen is proof positive of the value of theatre education.
Theatre education builds essential life skills like empathy, collaboration and self-confidence.
Students who learn how to exist on the stage, learn how to exist in life.
It was the American playwright Thornton Wilder who said, “I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
He won three Pulitzer Prizes, so he knew what he was talking about.
Personal growth on the stage is just as evident as on the gridiron— if not more so.
In fact, one of Tioga’s star actors is also one of their key football players.
He won a State acting award last week.
His mother cried and his dad was blown away.
“He just got into this acting thing because he had an injury and couldn’t workout,” his dad told me. “He was bored, so he thought he’d give this a try. Who knew he’d be so good at it? He gets a bigger rush out of acting than he does playing football.”
I couldn’t help but to relay an old story.
“You never know,” I said. “That’s how Burt Reynolds found acting. He was playing football at Florida State when he blew out his knee, so he took an acting class, and the rest is history. That’s how he became Burt Reynolds.”
The football playing actor’s dad was surprised.
“Really?” he asked. “I didn’t know that. I guess you never really know how things can turn out.”
At the end of the day, our young people are blessed to have options.
We are blessed to have local schools with vibrant programs willing to share students.
And I am blessed by all these new memories our children create for us.
What did you do early last week?
I got to witness magic on a stage in Austin, Texas. I got to see 21 young people act as one unit to create something inspiring.
Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday.
