Bringing young children to live theater is both thrilling and daunting. It’s a chance to expose them to pure imagination, sustained attention, and endless possibilities. It can also be stressful and confusing finding bathrooms, parking strollers, and keeping the kids entertained until the curtain rises.
A new group, Petite Seat recently arrived on the scene to help parents navigate the world of family-friendly theater. It was founded by Liz Schwarzwalder, who spent the past 12 years at Disney Theatrical Group, and Mindy Swidler, whose background is in advertising and marketing with several of the world’s largest agencies. I recently spoke with Liz and Mindy about the creation of Petite Seat, some of the potential challenges of bringing children to shows (including some of their own humorous faux pas), the importance of accessibility, and the magic of live theater.
What is Petite Seat?
Liz: Petite Seat is a resource for live theater and family entertainment in New York City. We provide information about the shows that would be helpful to inform parents’ decisions. Ultimately we want parents to find the shows and experiences that are the right fit for their families. Our hope is that everyone should have a great experience at the theater, whether that’s selecting the right show or knowing what to expect in terms of the physical theater itself.
What was the genesis of a Petite Seat?
Liz: Mindy and I met at a Broadway Babies music class. We connected in that class and started talking about our interest in the theater and the importance of exposing kids at a young age. At the same time, we were noticing the same questions about family theater come up on a lot of the mom chat boards and we realized that we had all the answers to those questions. We thought that there has to be a way to consolidate all of this information and better present it to the family audience. So after googling and research, we found that nothing like this really did exist and that there was a void we could fill and then Petite Seat was born.
Mindy: We launched this past spring. We first started quietly amongst our friends and family and then slowly built through word of mouth. In early summer we launched publicly. We were really excited because we were very warmly received and we’ve watched it grow.
Was your own experience as a parent part of what made you want to create petite seat?
Mindy: As an adult when I choose to go see a show, there aren’t a lot of factors I consider. There’s the date, the price and do I want to see that show. As a parent thinking about bringing your child, it goes beyond those three factors. What is the experience going to be like? How am I going to get them there? What am I going to feed them? How do we keep them busy? Those are the types of questions we are seeing that really led to us thinking there needed to be some consolidated resource that could really inform this audience.
Liz: I have to add that we are far from the all-knowing experts. People may think that everything goes perfectly every time that we take our kids to a show but it’s so far from the truth.
Mindy: Yes! I have a two and a half year old who in the last six months I’ve just started exposing to some family-friendly theater. One of our first experiences was amazing but also terrifying. We got to the theater earlier than we probably should have and immediately took our seats. My husband and I were pretty sure that we were ready to give up before the show even started because it felt like two years keeping her entertained. But as soon as the music swelled and the curtain went up, she was transfixed. Seeing the look on her face was worth all of the handstands that we did to entertain her for that time. But we learned our lesson.
Liz: My son is almost six and I’ve been taking him to see shows since he was 18 months old. I used to work on Newsies when I was at Disney Theatrical and he knew that entire cast album by heart. I thought that my then 2-year-old would do just fine sitting in a Broadway theater to see the show. The second the lights went out and the orchestra began their first notes, he started to cry. We had to run to the back of the theater to get out of there.
Liz S. with her son at Broadway’s Aladdin (from Petite Seat Instagram)
In your experience, do you think that there are things that theaters and shows can do to make the experience more family-friendly and family-accessible?
Liz: It really comes down to communication from the show and from the theater. People want to know things like what age is appropriate for the show and why, how long the show runs, do they need to buy a ticket for their baby, etc.? Surprisingly, those answers are not always easy to find and they are not always in a single place because the theaters often operate independently from the shows. Making this type information clearly accessible on their website will go a very long way in helping the theater experience be more family-friendly.
Why do you think it’s important to expose children to live theater?
Mindy: So for us as theater lovers ourselves, it was important that we expose our children at a young age to establish their interest in the arts. Live entertainment shows always have some sort of key messaging message and theme. It’s important for kids to be exposed at an early age. Doing so through live performances for that is a great way to ensure that they digest the messages in an easy way.
Liz: There’s also the importance of breaking away from the distractions and fast-paced world. Live theater really does give families a chance to enjoy time together and start a dialogue about important topics.
Liz & Mindy visiting The Hungry Caterpillar Show (from Petite Seat Instagram)
Do you think there are ways to make theater more culturally and financially accessible?
Liz: We are very much of the belief that every kid does deserve to see theater. New Victory Theater has a program called Give A Kid A Seat. You can make a donation to send a kid to the theater. On Giving Tuesday, we donated a dollar to that cause for every new follower. Also, so many of these off-Broadway shows are available at an affordable price point. We also try to highlight some of the discount options for purchasing tickets.
Mindy: In terms of the cultural piece,in our experience a lot of these off-Broadway and smaller productions are much more overt in covering this topic. Exposing kids, at a time when they are yet to have prejudices, can help to set the groundwork to be a inclusive as an adult.
