Many, if not most, of those currently pursuing career in theatre started out in their high school drama club. Today, I want to say that you should go out and support the theatre being done at the high schools local to you. This doesn’t apply as much those who already work in high school theatre, but more to those professionals who might not have gone to a high school show since you yourself were in high school.

Everyone starts out somewhere, and if your start was in high school then you can remember how you felt being in the drama club. Did you enjoy putting on shows? Did you feel good when there were more audience members? Or even better, when your audience sold out?

Who knows… maybe you thought your play was really bad, and you didn’t want people to come see it.

Whatever happened to you in high school, it jump-started your career and helped you become who you are today. Now, you could look at high school theatre and be snide at the lack of talent or finesse some of them might have, if you wanted to be an asshole. Sure, sometimes the choreography could be really bad, or singers could be off key, or scene changes might be really long and cringe-worthy, but high-schoolers have a lot of talent, too. And these groups make do with what they have at their disposal.

Writing this reminds me of something that happened a couple years ago that irked me, and is relevant to the point I want to make. I was in college, and we were doing a production of a certain musical (that I will not name). A relatively close high school was doing their own production of the same musical around the same time as ours. The lead in our show decided to see the high school production with a friend of hers (although I can’t remember if that friend was also in the cast). Instead of going to support the high-schoolers, they decided to sit in the very back and Snapchat through the show, making fun of it at the same time. This was a completely jerk move on their part, and illustrates what NOT to do if you go to a high school show. Just imagine if, for whatever reason, people in the high school cast of the show ended up seeing those Snapchats. Can you imagine how they would feel? Can you imagine what it would do to them to see older performers in college making fun of their own production? Do you think it would encourage them? Or do you think it would discourage them from even continuing on with theatre? Whatever the result, if wouldn’t have made them feel good.

In this day and age, where the arts are decreasingly funded, and sometimes outright removed from school programs altogether, it’s important to support high school theatre while you still can. Feel free to go yourself, and even take some of your friends. Go with an open mind, and with the patience to last through a performance that might be a bit cringe-worthy at times. Hopefully the show will be great, and you’ll leave having a good experience. Regardless, you’ll be supporting some young artists who might end up pursuing this career path just like you. You’ll at the very least be increasing the size of the audience, and by extension increasing the confidence of the performers that you’re supporting.

I’ve seen several amazing plays and musicals performed in high schools, and I can guarantee you will, too.

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