Your First Theatrical Experience

[Singular Intellect]

Jurassic Park in the first movie I recall going to see in the theater.

[Kanastrous]

A filmed production of The Magic Flute. I believe it was the German show originally made for television, and shown theatrically in the USA.

[CrateriaA]

I'm not sure what movie was the first one I watched. If you mean by going to a theatre.

However, I'm rather proud in a geeky sort of way to announce that ANH was one of the first movies I remember watching. It was pure awesome the first time I saw it (around 2-5 years old) and made me love Star Wars.

[charlemagne]

My dad took me to the movies at age 5 or 6 to see the first Asterix movie, but I wanted to see Meister Eder und sein Pumuckl instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9qL74g3TU (Pumuckl's first appearance is at 6:30 )

[Spoonist]

Theatrical Experience != movies, you barbarians...


First theatrical experience would be a hand-puppet show made with man-sized dolls when I was about four or five. Apparantly I wouldn't talk about anything else for some weeks. I could still recite the main points of the story.

Stage theatre would be five or six, a version of Peter Pan, had me swordfighting with my brother for quite a while.

First MOVIE or cinema is something lame when I was four which I've totally forgotten, my mother usually retell the story of how I didn't find the restrooms in time...
First movie that I do remember to this day is like so many others a disney - The Jungle Book. I was about six or seven and that was a huge deal for me since my older brother didn't get to go. So for the first time I could tell him about something great instead of vice versa. That wouldn't be overshadowed until ET some years later.
Then nothing beats sneaking into my first teen movie - dragonslayer. I was 10 or 11 and the movie was rated for 15. I was really into fantasy as well, having read bilbo & lord of the rings when I was seven through eight.
That was magical, a whole new dream of what movies could potentially be. The dragon was awesome, in the correct sense, not the modern use.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Sorry, I should've said 'cinematic'. I apologize.

[Zaune]

Is it worth starting another thread for actual live theatre experiences, or should we just use this thread for both?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Keep em together, its not like this is a high-traffic thread.

[Zaune]

Okay then, here goes.

First actual live stage show experience? The Derngate Theatre in Northampton, age about five. Some sort of kid's show based on Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and just about everything else Gerry Anderson Productions ever wrote. It may or may not have involved the Chuckle Brothers in some capacity, but my recollections of it are fairly dim.

First proper, grown-up theatre experience if you don't count pantomimes? The Royal Shakespeare Company performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in Stratford-upon-Avon when I was thirteen. Rather good actually, certainly better than attempting to read it out in class with a lot of proto-chavs, and afforded me the rare privilege of being a minor participant in a tabloid scandal on account of Titania and Bottom having a sex scene that left very little to the imagination.

[Eternal_Freedom]

First theatrical experience would be the Windsor Theatre, seeing The Hound of the Baskervilles. I think I was 7 at the time.

[DudeGuyMan]

I remember the fact that I was taken to E.T. as a 4 or 5 year old child, but have no real memory of the movie itself. The first movie I really remember going to see was Return of the Jedi. I'd have been 5 or 6. I remember some other kid in the audience yelling "YAY TEDDY BEARS!" when the Ewoks were kicking ass and wishing she would shut up.

[Frank Hipper]

The Apple Dumpling Gang, with Don Knotts.

I remember going to the drive-in theater when I was younger, but don't actually remember which movies we saw there.

[Sinewmire]

The first film I ever saw was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I'm afraid I can't really remember anything about it except the witch slipping over on wet stones during a thunderstorm, or something? I remember more clearly being distressed that one of my friends told me that the Hubba Bubba my parents bought me beforehand has whale blubber in it.

The first film I remember all the way through was Jurassic Park. I was obsessed with Velociraptors, and began my first step to the Dark Side when I was disappointed that the T-Rex beat them, thus saving the humans. I was so engrossed I forgot that I hadn't moved in the best part of an hour or so, and fell over in the aisle with numb legs.

As for Theatre, the first thing I remember at all was going to see Coppelia the ballet with my mother and grandmother when I was about 5 (no, I don't know why they took me either). I remember that the male lead had flesh coloured tights and I was certain that he was naked from the waist down. I also being frightened by the machine the villain attaches to the female lead to drain her life. It made sparks and everything!

More recently, the first proper play I saw was The Relapse. It was dark, cynical and humorous, with swashbuckling action scenes and Brian Blessed in it. I loved every second!

[Zor]

Beauty and the Beast at age three.

Zor

[Tsyroc]

The Apple Dumpling Gang, with Don Knotts.

I remember going to the drive-in theater when I was younger, but don't actually remember which movies we saw there.

Excellent. I remember seeing that and it's sequel in the theater.

[Surlethe]

Probably The Lion King. I (believe I) still remember Mufasa falling. It apparently made an impression on me.

[Kane Starkiller]

The Land Before Time.
My mom took me and my younger brother who kept crying since Mom died and kept asking where she was until finally crying himself to sleep. I managed not to bawl but had a heavy lump in my throat for the rest of the movie.

[Edi]

The first movie theater experience I remember was Disney's The Sleeping Beauty in the theater right across the street from us. We went to see a fair few movies there when I was a kid, but sadly it's been gone for over 25 years.

First theater experience I remember was a Chinese production titled The Crane and the [other animal] when I was really small. Don't remember much about it except that it was, I think, a tragedy (in part at least) like so many Chinese stories are and that it had a cave/grotto of jewels in it.