The Smeds and The Smoos Review

About half a year later, we finally made another trip to the theatre. And this time we didn't stand outside throughout. I guess I would call that a success. Our kid quietly sat through the show, peering intently. So far, we observed he doesn't interact much with the stage actor's prompts. Very occasionally, he will point and clap along. It was a good start. 

Some differences was that we went with a bigger group this time round. My parents tagged along. This meant I had extra pairs of helping hands. Do remember to get the booster seats for the kids because it will elevate their height and not be blocked by the adults sitting in front. 

For parents who are keen to introduce their children to the theatre early, we would strongly suggest ABA Productions. We have went to their children shows twice - one sitting outside and I have to say they put a lot of thought into their productions. Both shows were on engaging stories and incorporated catchy songs. Our first show - Stick Man (read our experience here) had a tiny live band at the side to introduce different instruments and the sounds to the kids. 

The lighting and the costumes were very on point for The Smeds and The Smoos. Although it is a children's productions, my parents and myself enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Also, we really like that they used proper English, following the story, throughout the show!

If you come early, there will always be colouring stations set up for the kids. Do remember to check out the booth selling children's books. It has a nice curation of the popular books and I always enjoy flipping through some of them to have a sense of the content and moral values it conveys. Personally, I like stories that have a good flow. :)

Till the next show, I will be documenting the siblings' introductions to the arts so that fellow parents can have a sense and take a page. :) Hopefully, we can soon proudly declare ourselves as the friends of the arts. :D

Our first live theatre show - and it didn't went well

Everybody probably only thinks I write only about the good stuff. But the truth is, parenthood is truly unpredictable and not everything is always a bed of roses. I don't have much photos for this because...my hands were so occupied (with the carrying of my toddler). 

The day started pretty bad because my child wanted to take the public transport instead of cabbing down. We ended up being around 5 minutes late (not too bad) and by now I am actually quite chill when it comes to punctuality with my toddler. In fact, we weren't the latest either with quite a bit of family coming in after us. 

Sadly, my toddler was absolutely frightened by the dark theatre. We did try going in but he would fuss non-stop. And me, being afraid of being judged and boo-ed, acceded to his whims. We ended up watching the first half of the show through the intermission screen outside. 

The staff at Victoria Theatre was really kind. When I voiced my concerns, her words stuck me deeply: This is a children's production. Of course, it will be constantly interrupted by the needs of the kids. She gave lots of encouragement and even got me a plastic chair to sit outside. Eventually, I did brace myself and went in again. My kid still fussed intermittently but honestly no parent shooed me out. 

I know many of you must be thinking "what a waste of money". I am sharing this story because I wanted to say the waste was not the money but the experience. The acoustic of a live show would be so much more animated and engaging than staring on the screen, which he could have done any day. And the production - Stick Man was actually insanely good even from outside. Sigh.

Also just to encourage other parents who have gone through "waste" like me, don't be dishearten. We must remember that a child doesn't necessarily have to react positively to every experience. In fact, my son humming to the tune later at night and chatted to me about the plot. I guess actually he enjoyed it, he just wasn't used to the dark. So we will be trying again because I am quite a fan of the arts and other parents have assured me that it does get better with time. :)