I live in Minnesota in the St. Cloud metro area. For those of you not familiar with Central Minnesota, St. Cloud is a city of around 65,000 people, about an hour northwest of Minneapolis. I think we residents of the area are very fortunate to have access to numerous athletic and cultural events, especially theatrical and musical.

One such event occurred last November and December when the Great River Educational Arts Theatre (GREAT) put on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was an amazing production! I know – I was in it.

Don’t get me wrong, what was amazing about the production had little to do with my acting, singing and dancing ability. My two left feet became tangled more than once and trying to sing and dance, while swinging a push broom, was challenging for me, if not slightly hazardous. (My balding head has the marks to prove it.)

Still, the performance was excellent, and according to most who attended, it was a production more than worth the price of the ticket. As we say in Minnesota, “not too bad” for a community theatre cast and crew of 60 or so volunteers, with varying degrees of theatrical experience and ability, and a handful of individuals directing and leading us, who I believe were compensated but far less than they were worth.

To me, though, what was most amazing about the production was not the final product but the experience itself.

To be clear, I’m a sports guy. I have participated in athletics at the high school and college level. I have coached various sports from the youth to the varsity level. I believe there is great value in competing and in winning and losing. I believe participating in athletics builds life-long skills and character.

I have never witnessed such growth, though, as I saw in my then 8-year-old son when he auditioned and was chosen for a play four years ago. Dropping him off for rehearsal three to four nights per week and on Saturdays for six weeks and seeing the changes in him when I picked him up several hours later sold me on the value of theatre and the arts.

Inspired by him, my 8-year-old daughter and I decided to audition for A Christmas Carol and made the cast. Through six weeks of rehearsing (two to three hours each night, three to four nights a week and five hours on Saturdays) and twelve performances over three weeks I got to witness first hand what my son experienced and came away with experiences and insight to last me a lifetime.

I got to witness and experience parent/child bonding when both are teaching each other, learning from each other and encouraging each other. I got to struggle through some rocky moments with the rest of the cast, crew and directing team, wondering if everything would come together and then realizing after more hard work and practice, things got better. I got to truly understand the meaning of “the show must go on” when cast members (including me) screwed up a line or a step and had no time to pout about it because the rest of cast was counting on us to get our next lines or steps right. My belief that our future is in good hands was reaffirmed because I got to hang out with and get to know young people in their teens and twenties and see the amazing things they are doing. Just the auditioning process itself was a valuable experience because it meant having the courage to dance, sing and read lines for the directing team, in front of 50 or so other people auditioning, knowing the chances of being selected were maybe 50-50 because another 50 or so were auditioning the next night.

Probably the most rewarding experience of all was watching my daughter work hard for six weeks, and though still being very nervous on opening night, have the courage to skip out on stage and perform in front of a full house. Because she did, she gained confidence to last a lifetime.

I repeat – I believe there is value in competing and in winning and losing. But I also believe there is just as great a value, if not more, in people working together so everyone ends up succeeding. Unfortunately, too often the end result of a sporting event leaves one side, at best, unhappy and, at worst, yelling and screaming. As a youth coach, I have been a witness to way too many screaming and yelling matches. As a high school coach, I ashamedly admit, at times, I was a participant.

What is great about the theatre is the only screaming and yelling is usually by the audience saying job well done.

For this, I say “How Great Thou Art!”