By Vivian Boateng
Every child who steps onto a stage begins with potential.
About two years ago, I was conducting interviews for my research on the impact of performing arts education on children. During one of the interviews, a parent shared a story that has stayed with me ever since.
She told me that when her daughter took part in Sparkle Day 2022, she did not invite a single friend from school to come and watch her perform. She was happy to be part of the production, but she wasn’t ready for her classmates to see her on stage.
Sparkle Day is the biennial showcase of Vivie’s Dance and Theatre Academy in Ghana, where children and young people aged 2 to 18 present what they have learned through dance, drama, music, and other performing arts disciplines. More than a performance, it is a celebration of their artistic journey and personal growth.
Then came Sparkle Day 2024.
This time, she invited everyone she could think of from school.
Her mother smiled as she told me, “That was when I realised how much confidence she had gained.”
That conversation made me pause and reflect.
As educators and theatre practitioners, we often celebrate what happens on stage. But sometimes the greatest transformation happens long before the curtain rises.
It happens during rehearsals.
It happens when a child who was once too shy to speak suddenly volunteers for a role.
It happens when they learn to trust one another, solve problems together, and keep going even when something feels difficult.
Those are the moments that change children.
As someone who has worked with children through the performing arts for many years, I have seen these transformations over and over again. Theatre gives children a safe space to explore, make mistakes, grow in confidence, and discover abilities they never knew they had.
This year, Vivie’s Dance and Theatre Academy celebrated its tenth anniversary through our annual production, EvoluXion: Find X. As I watched the students perform, I couldn’t help but think about the many children who have walked through our doors over the last ten years. Every one of them arrived with different personalities, different abilities, and different dreams. Yet each one had the potential to grow.
The little girl whose mother shared that story with me performed in this year’s production too.
This was her third Sparkle Day.
The child who once didn’t want anyone from school to know she was performing took on one of the key roles in the production.
That, for me, is what transformation looks like.
Moments like these remind me that the impact of theatre cannot always be measured by the quality of a performance or the applause at the end of a show. Its true impact is seen in the confidence children build, the resilience they develop, the friendships they form, and the courage they carry into other areas of their lives.
As members of the ASSITEJ community, I believe this is something we all witness in different ways. We don’t simply create performances for children and young people; we create spaces where they can grow, discover themselves, and find their voices.
Theatre has the power to entertain, but it also has the power to transform.
Sometimes, the greatest success is not the standing ovation at the end of a performance.
Sometimes, it is a child quietly saying,
“Come and watch me.”
