Yall wanna hear a story about a time a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds went on a Newsies level strike to save their arts programs? COURSE YA DO! So I grew up in a small little town in New York State. Now, we had 2 middle schools back when I was in middle school. One school had all the fields and space for sports. Football, soccer, tennis, access to the pool next door for swimming, all that. The school on the opposite side of town had a gorgeous theater, a large choir room, and space for multiple art classrooms. It was great. I was an arts kid. When I was in 7th grade it was announced that the school with the art budget was getting shut down. The town didn’t have the money to keep both schools open and the artsy school was smaller. So we were merging into one school and moving to the bigger one. Now, with us shutting down, we were also going to be loosing our arts budget. Tell a bunch of kids who got spoiled with a huge auditorium, and a room strictly for pottery, and a choir room with BEAUTIFUL acoustics that we aren’t getting anything when we move? WE WERE PISSED! We went nuts. Petitions all over the school that 6th and 7th graders were hand writing. Little posters and motivational things we would doodle on sheets of computer paper and hang in the walls during free period. We were going to school board meetings and writing emails and going to city hall to FIGHT the board and city government. Over our dead bodies would our arts be taken from us. It was big enough that the theater department’s director wrote to someone in NYC and they got a letter back from a Broadway producer, encouraging and edging them along in their fight. It was INSANE! Imagine tiny little 4 or 5 foot nothing kids standing in rooms of big businessmen and speaking in front of the mayor all because we wanted to paint and dance and sing decent music. And guess what? WE WON! We moved on into the “sports” school the next year. But, we hosted an art showcase in the winter. We put on a production of a major musical that spring. We had kids go to compete at statewide music festivals. And we now have some of those very kids working in New York City and working as paid professionals in their arts field across the country. And I think that may be why I love theater, particularly Newsies, so much. Because it gave me something to believe in. It gave me a passion. It gave me a life. And it taught me how to stand up for what I believe in. And let me tell you….. there is no better feeling than that moment when you realize you, a child, took down a bunch of grown men. We won. And now think. If punk little 11 year olds can do all that, you can win your strike and your battle. School safety, coming out to your family, applying for your dream job. Whatever it is. Go do it. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. Go battle your Goliath, and WIN!
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