When I was in high school my best friend’s dad was the drama teacher. Neither my friend nor I took drama (we both played in the band), but we knew lots of kids who did, and his dad was one of the more popular teachers at the school. His classes put on plays each year, went to UIL drama contests, and every other year joined with the music program and staged a full musical. That there were classes dedicated to learning drama struck us as no more remarkable than band or choir, or, for that matter, chemistry or typing.
It was also my good fortune that my friend lived just down the street since we were in kindergarten, and consequently I spent a lot of time at his house and got to know his dad pretty well. He never was one to pontificate about the arts (and the status of the arts in schools was never really in question in those days and so needed less pontificating about) but it was clear just by being around him that the arts were something very important. Beside my parents, he was the main adult that I knew who showed that the arts were worth taking seriously.
I learned quite a bit from him that I didn’t learn at home, specifically about theater as an art form. Just for starters, although I’d heard of it I never had a clear idea of exactly what “Broadway” meant, and I knew nothing of the Tony Awards until I heard about those things from him. I remember being amazed to learn that there was a nationally televised show—just like the Oscars and Emmys, which I certainly knew about—in which awards were given out just for plays in New York City. On a national television show that people in other states actually watched. I found this odd, but it also told me that some people regarded plays just as highly as I thought about movies and TV.
It was also from him that I first learned the titles of many of the canonical works of American theater. For several years he had in his living room framed programs from some of the plays he’d staged like Blithe Spirit, The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can’t Take it with You, and Noises Off. It hit me that although I had never heard of them, these plays must be something worth knowing about. He’s also a big fan of musicals. I encountered West Side Story for the first time at my friend’s house, for instance. Through him I came to know South Pacific, Oklahoma!, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, and loads of others.
So here’s the point: I’ve heard numerous people in the U.S. military express concern that as fewer Americans have any direct experience with the armed forces, the level of understanding of and support for them will wane, both in public and even in Congress. The arts, it occurs to me, are similar. If a young person doesn’t know anyone interested in the arts, he will grow up not understanding how important and enriching they can be, and not knowing why he should care about them. All it really takes to answer this is exposure. This makes the atrophy of art programs in schools—and in the daily lives of more people—all the more regrettable. My friend’s dad showed me the arts were important and worth knowing about. We all can be something similar to someone else.
