When You're Not a Parent at a Kids' Show

Over the weekend, my sister and I took my nephews (ages 7 and 4) to a kids' show at the Kennedy Center. It was a puppet group that presented the books 'Runaway Bunny' and 'Goodnight Moon' in life-size puppet format. You could see the puppet handlers and the props and characters were all sizable. It was definitely interesting although I'm not sure how kids or parents had a chance to enjoy any of it because it was a "non-shushing" show.

So first question here is how old/young do you have to be to attend one of these shows? I'm not as familiar with 'Runaway Bunny' but for 'Goodnight Moon,' I remember reading that to my nephews when they were around two. Two years old, in my opinion, is way to young to be in a large theatre to watch this show....they can't sit still, their attention span is minimal to non-existent, etc. That didn't stop some parents from being their two year olds to the show. But a couple of things to keep in mind when bringing a child that young to a stage show....is your child afraid of the dark? The second the lights went down, one girl had to be taken out for excessive screaming. Fortunately, her father knew immediately that she couldn't stay. Unfortunately, she was seated near the front so the whole audience had to hear her screaming and try to focus on the puppeteers for a good two minutes.

How do they make a short story into a drawn out puppet show? Lots of dead air. I guess it's supposed to be more visually stimulating but for me, it was complete torture. I think part of it was the fact that I'm not a parent yet so my patience hasn't grown to an infinite level to handle constant kid noises. Secondly, I know it only takes me less than five minutes to read 'Goodnight Moon' at a steady pace (maybe even less than that). The fact that I sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the story to get over with amazes me. 'Runaway Bunny' is a longer story but it still wouldn't take more than 10 minutes to read the story from cover to cover. By the end of both shows (no intermission, sadly), I thought I had been there for four hours. In reality, it had only been 60 minutes. Sigh.

So be careful if you're not a parent going to a kids' show. On the bright side, I did get to spend quality time with my nephews and they both enjoyed the show - they both got introduced to a new book 'Runaway Bunny,' and that's always good.
If you are a parent, I would recommend the show - but only if you know that your kids will be well-behaved (which for the most part, 75% of the kids were) and they're not afraid of the dark.