How to Enjoy the Arts With Children

Lori and Bill Waldman of Calabasas may not consider themselves patrons of the arts, but in the last six years they’ve taken their children with them to a score of Broadway-type musicals, dance concerts, art museums and local theater productions.

Their excursions haven’t always been easy. Like the time 5-year-old Jenny, decked out in a red velvet dress and party shoes, got her legs caught in the folding theater seat at a performance of “Annie.” Tugging and pulling at the screaming child didn’t free her, and the parents thought for awhile the manager would have to call the Fire Department to remove the seat. (Eventually, an usher extracted her.)

On other occasions, the children asked questions incessantly, needed to use the bathroom--one after the other--and ultimately fell asleep.

Undaunted by these experiences, the Waldmans have spent countless weekends at fine arts performances with their children. They remember the good parts: the times their girls sang the show tunes in the car all the way home and when one recognized Vivaldi after a junior symphony program.

Symphony and ballet may never take the place of zoos and theme parks in the hearts of children, but each weekend increasing numbers are donning their best to join their parents at the Music Center, the Getty Museum and the Orange County Performing Arts Center, to name a few. At such temples of the arts, and especially at certain performances, audiences are taking on a decided family cast. Los Angeles residents Lin Oliver and husband Al Baker take their two boys with them everywhere, from the Hollywood Bowl for a performance of Beethoven to a Bruce Springsteen concert, where tickets were $35 apiece.

“We take our boys because we want to be together,” Oliver said, “and what we do acts as sort of a bonding device for the whole family.”

Not everyone is willing to spend $35 a seat to bond with their children. Indeed, young connoisseurs are still a rarity at evening symphonies and serious theater. But they do attend ballet, modern and ethnic dance, Broadway-type musicals, pop music concerts, and opera. And strollers and Snugglies are commonplace at art museums.

Robert Haag, dean of El Camino College’s Community and Cultural Services, goes to at least one of their Nutcracker productions each year just to watch the audience. “I’m always impressed as I watch very little kids completely mesmerized . . . not moving a muscle.”

Six-year-old Jonathan Strauss has already discovered the excitement of ballet. His parents, Susan and Peter Strauss of Beverly Hills, have taken him to the Joffrey for the last three seasons and Jonathan already has his favorites--Parade, Le Petit Prince and Les Patineurs.

Serena Tripi, director of operations for the Joffrey Ballet gets a lot of calls from mothers asking which programs are good for children.

“I tell them story ballets are wonderful. This season, ‘La Fille Mal Gardee’--a light, humorous ballet complete with a farmyard scene--is especially good. It’s a no-lose ballet for kids.”

Almost any kind of dance is a winner, the experts say. Dance troupes such as Alvin Ailey, Polobolus, Martha Graham and Dance Theater of Harlem captivate young and old alike. And the ethnic diversity presented through dance is especially appealing in multicultural Los Angeles.

“It’s easy to bring children to dance performances,” said Michael Alexander, a Los Angeles artists’ manager and father of two. “One of the difficult things about taking kids to a performance is that they can’t talk. In dance, there are a few more breaks in the silence when people burst into applause. If the kids just have to say something, they can do it then.”

Alexander believes that children need something specific to watch for. He spends a little time before the performance talking with his children, asking them questions they can think about--who’s the mother, who’s the young girl, does the music go with the dance, what are the hardest things for the dancers to do.

But family fare need not be limited to gala musicals and dance. When it’s done well, children respond to drama.

It was a special matinee performance at the Mark Taper Forum. The Improvisational Theater Project, a group dedicated to professional theater for children, was presenting “One Thousand Cranes”--a play about a young Japanese girl who develops leukemia after the Hiroshima blast, and a California boy who worries about nuclear war and wonders what one person can do.

The small theater held families of all configurations and children of all ages--toddlers to teens.

One mother folded paper cranes to entertain her fidgeting children until curtain. Four boys ran up and down the aisle bantering loudly. Two girls with braces debated about where to go for lunch afterward.

The lights went out to signal the beginning. There were squeals, then, “Shh . . . shh . . . shh.” Said one 9-year-old: “It’s starting.” Said another: “It’s really dark. I’m scared.”

And the performance began. For 45 minutes, children sat still, hushed, engrossed by the action on the stage. Then, when the girl with leukemia died, the same 9-year-old who squealed with excitement when the play began, sat sniffling along with her parents.

“Live theater is not a passive experience,” said Lynne Heffley, who reviews theater for young people for The Times. “Parents need to be aware that their kids will be actively involved, they’ll be responding.

“Children are very aware they’re watching real people. The more intimate the setting, the closer they are to the action, the more involved they’ll be.”

Drama is a tricky matter with its sometimes difficult language and mature subjects. While preteens have been spotted at “Nicholas Nickleby” and “La Victima,” even the most adventurous parents think seriously before buying theater tickets for their 9-year-old.

But going to theater as a family can create precious memories. “Children respond to theater very naturally because they suspend belief so easily,” Heffley said. “If they experience the magic (of Shakespeare) at a young age, they’ll look for it when they’re older.”

Carl Weintraub, actor and director of the We Tell Stories Program, a Los Angeles-based children’s theater company, agrees that Shakespeare is great theater for children, as long as the production is good.

“It’s theater where the stops are pulled, where everything is a little bit bigger than life and you can understand the gist without understanding the words. But you have to find out about the production because there can be some very dark versions.”

While offering new perspectives to a child may be the motivation for some people who attend cultural events, it is the last thing other people at the same event may want to be part of. Many patrons of the symphony, who’ve paid big bucks for season tickets, pale at the thought of a 10-year-old sitting next to them.

The Oliver-Baker family gets around these challenges by taking their children to the Hollywood Bowl and sitting in the bleachers. The children can chomp on popcorn while they listen and get up to move around if they get restless.

“I prepared my kids by playing Beethoven at home,” said Lin Oliver, who recalled that, despite her efforts, they sometimes still have to leave mid-program.

Most parents know that the excitement of the Fourth of July and Disneyland fireworks concerts at the Bowl are good for little ones. But other Bowl productions--the Great American concert (with fireworks) and the early Sunday Sunset concerts--are good ways to introduce kids to the classics.

Joan Boyett, director of the Education Division at the Music Center, also recommends introducing classical music through youth programs--productions designed for families. Programs are shorter, more visual, and usually offer on-the-spot explanations about the music.

“If kids can’t figure out what’s going on, it could be a negative experience. If they don’t like it, they’ll fidget, they’ll whisper, and they’ll roll their programs into spyglasses.”

For many parents, a visit to an art museum is a far less chancy activity. A recent Museum Educators of Southern California Visitors Study showed that 56% of all museum-goers come with their families.

Children can jabber and go at their own pace. You can take breaks to eat, and many galleries are surrounded by grounds perfect for kids itching to use their energy.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has recently added classes in its Art-for-the-Family program and has doubled the number of classes for families with children ages three to five.

At Barnsdall Junior Art Center, hundreds of families participate in their drop-in program called, Sunday Open Sunday.

The J. Paul Getty Museum’s Weekend Family Workshops are so popular they’re turning away as many people as they accommodate.

Savvy parents are guided by one principle: Know your child. The first exposure should be to the best because you never know what your children will absorb.

“I started taking my daughter to the Santa Monica Chamber Orchestra recitals when she was 6,” said Stephanie Waxman, actress, writer and mother of two. “She would fall asleep on my shoulder as soon as they started to play Telemann. But she always wanted to go back and it became a little ritual.

“We’d come in, we’d sit down and she’d curl up and go to sleep. To me that intimate time together was as valuable as having her understand how the music was constructed.

“Now, at 11 (years old), she’ll say to me, ‘Please, can’t we listen to Mozart.’ ”