Theater for Children and Young People

by

Matthew Reason, Karian Schuitema

• LAST MODIFIED: 23 November 2021
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0243

Introduction

The relationship between theater and children has a long and evolving history, mirroring the evolving conceptualization of childhood itself. Children have featured as performers, or had a presence within audiences, far earlier than the emergence of anything specifically labeled as theater for children. For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, whether a performance was for children was rarely clearly delineated. For example, while J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is now considered the most famous single piece of “theater for children” it is contested as to whether it was specifically intended for children when first performed in 1904. In the modern guise of theater for children (often also titled theater for young audiences, or TYA), a central tension exists, echoing that in literature for children, in the work being made for children, but created, performed, and written by adults. Among other elements, this often results in theater for children having a close educational ethos or moralistic focus, reflecting and reinforcing adult conceptualization of childhood and adult/child social relationships. Over the last several decades, however, theater for children and young people has entered a period of increased vitality in which some of these relationships have started to change. This vitality is manifested in professionalization, the growth of festivals, dedicated venues, and the increased commitment of innovative artists who have sought to develop the practice in new directions, including through participatory and applied theater practices that seek to give voice to and explore the lived experiences of young people. Accompanying these developments, the field has also received far greater critical and scholarly attention in the last several decades. Historically the study of theater for children has struggled to assert a strong independent identity, often subsumed into literary studies. What is emerging today, however, is something much broader and more vibrant, often interdisciplinary and embracing performance and literature studies, education and child development, psychology and politics. It engages with the core issues of our times, including a growing focus on inclusivity, whether in relation to race, sexuality, or disability. Nonetheless, theater for children has much work to do to decolonize and decenter itself from white and Western dominances. There is also a strong thread of research interest in audiences, which seeks to understand children’s lived experiences of theater and in creative and participatory research methodologies. Finally, and interconnecting all these elements, theater for children is often political and frequently deeply ambitious, driven by a strong sense of idealism that is perhaps childlike in the very best of senses.

General Overviews

While diverse in their focus and approach, the works in this section all share a desire to address historical omissions of theater for children from scholarly consideration and position it as a vital and independent area of practice and research. Manon van de Water, for example, writes in the introduction to van de Water 2012a that the book was produced in response to a concern that “despite enormous artistic output, serious research [. . .] in the field of theatre for children and youth was in short supply” (p. 3). Similar statements are found in other outputs here, with works such as England 1990, Schonmann 2006, and Reason 2010 all asserting the importance of establishing theater for children as an endeavor distinct both from theater for adults and from being considered as a predominantly educational endeavor. If there is one prominent theme across these books, it is that theater for children needs to be understood and considered as an art form in its own right. Consequently, the books included within this section have significantly shifted the seriousness, specificity, and rigor with which theater for children has been investigated. These publications can be usefully considered in three categories. The first are books that have been written with a practitioner focus: whether Goldberg 2006, a collection of essays drawing on personal experiences as a writer and director; England 1990, which focuses on play scripts; or Bennett 2005, a collation of the voices of practitioners prominent in TYA in the United Kingdom. These resources provide insights from the adult practitioners involved in performance making. The second category are edited collections, which largely shift authorship from the practitioner to the academic scholar and researcher. Two publications from the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) are included here, van de Water 2012b and Wartemann, et al. 2015, along with Maguire and Schuitema 2012, a critical handbook, and Gubar 2012, a special issue of the journal The Lion and the Unicorn. All draw together diverse and international authors as part of efforts to strengthen and internationalize the field. These books are valuable for the range of voices, contexts, perspectives, and insights they provide. The final and smallest category are single-authored, book-length interrogations of theater for children, which draw on rich historical and theoretical scholarship to frame TYA within an academic context. Schonmann 2006 constitutes the first full-length academic text in this area; Reason 2010 shifts scholarship toward young people themselves in an analysis of the meanings and impact of theater for young audiences; van de Water 2012a examines social and cultural aspects through global and diverse case studies.

• Bennett, Stuart, ed. Theatre for Children and Young People. London: Aurora Metro, 2005.

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  This publication brings together some of the main figures involved in creating theater for young audiences in the United Kingdom. It has a practice- and practitioner-orientated focus and includes issues such as writing for young audiences, adapting material for performances, building specialist theaters, theaters for special audiences, and educational theater. Published in 2005, the book captures the moment when TYA in the United Kingdom was accelerating in prominence and creativity.

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• England, Alan. Theatre for the Young. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 1990.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-20540-0Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This is one of the first studies of theater for children in the United Kingdom and focuses on stage plays written and produced specifically for young people. England draws upon interviews with directors, actors, and writers, along with what he describes as “considered reviewing,” to interrogate theater for teenagers and children and asserts the need for this work to be considered as a distinct phenomenon in its own right.

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• Goldberg, Moses. TYA: Essays on the Theatre for Young Audiences. Louisville, KY: Anchorage, 2006.

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  A collection of personal essays from US playwright and director Moses Goldberg, author of Children’s Theatre: A Philosophy and a Method (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974). It is divided into three sections, considering, in turn, the politics, art, and business of theater for young audiences.

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• Gubar, Marah, ed. Special Issue: Children and Theatre. The Lion and the Unicorn 36.2 (2012).

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  Edited and with an introduction by Marah Gubar, this special issue focuses on various aspects of theater and performance particularly in the context of children’s literary studies and from historical perspectives. Papers range from staging the book Little Women to children performing in historical productions of Peter Pan to child actors in 19th-century theater.

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• Maguire, Tom, and Karian Schuitema, eds. Theatre for Young Audiences: A Critical Handbook. London: Trentham, 2012.

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  An edited collection bringing together a diversity of chapters with a range of approaches and conceptual orientations. Includes contributions by authors featured elsewhere in this article, such as Jeanne Klein, Matthew Reason, and Tim Webb, and chapters focusing on specific audiences, such as children with profound disabilities, nonverbal audiences, and teenagers.

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• Reason, Matthew. The Young Audience: Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experiences of Theatre. London: Trentham, 2010.

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  This book uses a draw-and-talk methodology to address fundamental questions regarding children’s experiences of theater. It is divided into three parts: the first contextualizing chapters on education, audience development, and cultural rights; the second focusing on the theatrical experience; and a final section that advocates how children can become active and self-reflective audience members. It is an important moment in the engagement of theater for children with empirical audience research.

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• Schonmann, Shifra. Theatre as a Medium for Children and Young People: Images and Observations. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2006.

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  A significant and extensive investigation that at the time of publication was the only book-length academic engagement with theater for children. Schonmann’s text includes a recurring focus on the intersections between educational and theatrical settings—a theme accompanied by the assertion of the importance of theater for children not defining itself as an educational endeavor. Other key discussions include aesthetic distance, catharsis/moral narrative, and children’s understanding of theatrical conventions.

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• van de Water, Manon. Theatre, Youth and Culture: A Critical and Historical Exploration. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012a.

  DOI: 10.1057/9781137056658Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This book explores TYA globally, from the United States to Russia to countries in western Europe, from theory to history to theater for the very young to issues of diversity. As such it stands out because of its range and international scope. It was awarded the 2013 American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Book Award.

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• van de Water, Manon, ed. TYA, Culture, Society: International Essays on Theatre for Young Audiences. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012b.

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  Published by the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) through its International Theatre for Young Audiences Research Network (ITYARN), this book is possibly the first scholarly publication in TYA that is truly international in scope. Chapters range from discussion of the conceptualization of childhood in Nigerian theater to virtual puppetry in video games to staging the Holocaust. The book is part of ASSITEJ’s efforts to profile diverse and critical voices engaging with theater for children.

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• Wartemann, Geesche, Tülin Saglam, and Mary McAvoy, eds. Youth and Performance: Perception of the Contemporary Child. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag, 2015.

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  A second publication from ASSITEJ and ITYARN, this book draws together papers responding to the theme of the “contemporary child.” Chapters examine the role of children as participants, experts, and audiences within theater for children. As with other ASSITEJ publications, the book has a consciously international and diverse flavor, combining both academic and practitioner voices.

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Applied Theater and Young People

The term applied theater embraces a wide variety of practices that engage people through performance and creativity with issues relevant to their lives. Using methods such as forum, verbatim, or playback theater to work with communities, practitioners often move away from traditional theater spaces to work in community centers, museums, hospitals, and schools as well as on the street. The participants involved are as varied as the practice, but applied theater projects frequently focus on creating work for and with children and young people, particularly those from marginalized communities. The prospects associated with informing, empowering, and transforming young generations, often move beyond the individual child to have a lasting impact on societies. Moreover, theater is regarded as an educative tool that has the potential to support deep learning on any kind of subject. (Note: publications that mention a specific educational orientation are cited under Education.) The examples presented here have been selected to give an overview of the breadth of work written about applied theater specifically for the young, with a focus on work taking place in public, community, and informal contexts. For example, using participatory theater at a heritage site, as discussed in Tzibazi 2014, or gathering and addressing the lived experiences of undocumented migrant youth in South Africa in Opfermann 2020. Kumar 2013 discusses “platform children” in India and Salami and van Beers 2003 focuses on street children in Nigeria. Gesser-Edelsburg, et al. 2017 highlights the use of theater to start an intergenerational dialogue to prevent sexual abuse, and Perry, et al. 2002 is an example of several studies that look at using theater to promote healthy eating. Indeed, health is one of the recurrent themes in this section and is also relevant to Chivandikwa, et al. 2019, which argues for the importance of using traditional drama games in Zimbabwe to engage young people on the subject of mental and physical well-being. Sextou 2016 and Walsh and Ledgard 2013 both focus on applied theater in hospitals. Hammond 2015 provides a detailed discussion of forum theater, addressing the child’s social and emotional well-being.

• Chivandikwa, Nehemiah, Ruth Makumbirofa, and Itai Muwati. “Traditional Games and Child-Centred Development: Affirming Disabled and Female Bodies in Applied Theatre Projects in Zimbabwe.” South African Theatre Journal 32.3 (2019): 272–284.

  DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2018.1552190Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Exploring how applied theater projects engage with children in Zimbabwe, the authors focus on the importance of traditional/indigenous games in child-centered development. Using Africana womanism and critical disability theory, they analyze the practice of adapting traditional games to engage disabled children on the topic of public health. The authors highlight the need of subverting imposed ableist and gendered hegemonies and give examples of traditional games as sites of social change.

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• Gesser-Edelsburg, Anat, Taila Fridman, and Rachel Lev-Wiesel. “Edutainment as a Strategy for Parental Discussion with Israeli Children: The Potential of a Children's Play in Preventing Sexual Abuse.” Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 26.5 (2017): 553–572.

  DOI: 10.1080/10538712.2017.1319003Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This journal article focuses on the use of plays in the prevention of sexual abuse. Using the concept of “edutainment,” the authors present a qualitative study into how a play, as a form of media, can alter the attitudes and behavior of consumers. By interviewing parents who attended the Israeli play Yael Learns to Take Care of Her Body, the researchers aim to uncover how intergeneration dialogues can be stimulated.

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• Hammond, Nick. Forum Theatre for Children: Enhancing Social, Emotional and Creative Development. London: Trentham, 2015.

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  This book is dedicated to forum theater and has been written with the aim of supporting a range of practitioners, such as teachers, therapists, and social workers, to use this form of theater to deal with issues in young people’s lives. Giving many examples of forum theater in practice, it highlights how theater can address and support the child’s social and emotional well-being.

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• Kumar, Sanjay. “Performing on the Platform: Creating Theatre with India’s Platform Children.” TDR: The Drama Review 57.4 (2013): 95–119.

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  This journal article discusses the work of “Pandies Theatre” as they engage with young people named “platform children” who have run away from their families and use the Indian railway network to travel and live while forming new communities. The publication features a discussion of the methods of the company and how it aims to connect with the young participants.

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• Opfermann, Lena. “‘If You Can’t Beat Them, Be Them!’: Everyday Experiences and ‘Performative Agency’ among Undocumented Migrant Youth in South Africa.” Children’s Geographies 18.4 (2020): 379–392.

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  Drawing on practitioners taking part in theater-based case studies, this article focuses on the lived experience of undocumented migrant children in South Africa. The aim is to show how these children’s lives are affected by legal inconsistences and hostile attitudes toward foreigners. The article describes how participants apply “performative agency,” both onstage and in their everyday lives, whereby the undocumented participants can challenge perceived biases and foster integration.

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• Perry, Cheryl, Marguerite Zauner, Michael Oakes, Gretchen Taylor, and Donald Bishop. “Marguerite Evaluation of a Theater Production about Eating Behavior of Children.” Journal of School Health 72.6 (2002): 256–261.

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  This paper presents a study of a short play, alongside supporting materials for teachers and parents, to change children’s attitudes toward healthy foods. Using social cognitive theory, the authors studied 4,093 American children who were asked in questionnaires before and after a theater production about their eating behaviors. The authors concluded that professional theater productions have at least a short-term effect on changing children’s eating behavior.

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• Salami, Irene, and Henk van Beers. “Nigerian ‘Shade Tree Theatre’ with Street Children.” Children, Youth and Environments 13.1 (2003): 334–359.

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  Shade Tree Theatre (STT) uses theater to provide an enriching experience for often illiterate Nigerian street children while enabling them to understand their circumstances. This paper details the various stages in the development of a STT project and shows how children have the primary expertise and knowledge to address their own personal problems.

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• Sextou, Persephone. Theatre for Children in Hospitals: The Gift of Compassion. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2016.

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  Sextou presents a detailed overview and in-depth discussion of the importance of applied theater in clinical spaces. The idea of theater providing an “antidote” to clinical stress takes a central position in the book and discussions focus on the aesthetic qualities of theater for children in hospitals. The book presents and examines examples of bedside theater practice alongside research projects on this subject.

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• Tzibazi, Vasiliki. “Primary Schoolchildren's Experiences of Participatory Theatre in a Heritage Site.” Education 42.5 (2014): 498–516.

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  Heritage sites also draw on theater to ensure that a visit is engaging and educative for children and young people. In this journal article Tzibazi presents a theoretical framework to encourage greater insight into the child’s learning experience when participating in theater at a heritage site. It discusses a participatory research project at a historic house in northern England where children were asked to actively share their perceptions.

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• Walsh, Aylwyn, and Anna Ledgard. “Re-viewing an Arts-in-Health Process: For the Best.” RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 18.3 (2013): 216–229.

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  This article looks at the innovative work of an artist-in-residence at the Evelina Children’s hospital that would subsequently form the basis of a production titled For the Best. By highlighting intimate moments that emerge through working with young people undertaking the stressful process of dialysis, the article reflects upon how applied theater can produce images that represent and frame the uncanny and can stimulate moments of reflection for the audience.

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Area Studies

The International Guide to Children’s Theatre and Educational Theatre, written by Lowell Swortzell (Swortzell 1989), illustrates how theater for children is a phenomenon found around the world. Swortzell approached centers associated with the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) to report on theater in different geographical areas, translating material where possible to include as many countries as possible. This article presents sources published in the English language, which leads to the difficulty of underrepresenting the diversity found within this field in other languages. There are, of course, many non-English texts written about local theater scenes, practice, and research from all around the world. A variety of texts look at theater practice outside of English-speaking countries and feature academics and practitioners from different backgrounds. Where possible, these have been categorized according to thematic topics rather than placed in categories connected to different geographical locations (such as continents). This section focuses on sources that explicitly aim to review theater for children in relation to a particular city or country or that provide a general overview of a specific area. Reading across texts in this section highlights the different aims and benefits ascribed to theater for the young in different contexts and how these are perceived by academics and practitioners. For example, van de Water 2000, on theater in the United States, and Ogunleye 2004, an examination of theater for the young in Zimbabwe, stand almost in opposition. Van de Water provides a sharp criticism of those dominant narratives that define theater for children in the United States to what it is not, namely, adult theater. She argues that this marginalizes theater for young audiences, stripping it of histography, artistic merit, and reducing it to being simply defined as an educative pursuit. On the other hand, Ogunleye celebrates the educative potential of theater in Zimbabwe, where it can provide the mental well-being and practical skill sets needed to succeed in modern life. A special journal issue, Hunter and Milne 2005 showcases theater for young audiences in Australia and New Zealand, where the child’s active role in the creation and research of theater is regarded as particularly important. The special issue Schroeder-Arce 2015 focuses on theater in the Americas, while van de Water 2006 presents a comprehensive study of theater in Moscow. Maguire 2018 highlights the development and contemporary practice of theater in Ireland, and Lee 2020 features an extensive study of theater for the young in Singapore.

• Hunter, Mary Anne, and Geoffrey Milne, eds. Special Issue: Young People and Performance in Australia and New Zealand. Australasian Drama Studies 47 (2005).

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  Emphasizing diversity, indigenous and immigrant populations, as well as contemporary urban realities, this special issue provides an overview of the way in which theater for young audiences has changed in Australia and New Zealand. It provides an insight into how theater in these two countries creates platforms for educational aesthetic engagement and career development as well as fostering development and the ability for young people to understand and express their experiences.

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• Lee, Caleb. “Theatre for Young Audiences in Singapore: Dimensions of Creativity.” PhD diss., Royal Holloway, University of London, 2020.

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  This PhD thesis looks at theater for young audiences in Singapore and focuses on the intersection of education, politics, and market forces in the city-state. Drawing on interviews, performance analyses and archival studies, the thesis argues that theater has the potential to engage young audiences through innovative practice. The importance of Singapore’s ACE! festival is also examined with special attention to the cultural narratives this brings to the city.

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• Maguire, Tom. “Theatre for Young Audiences in Ireland.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance. Edited by Eamonn Jordan and Eric Weitz, 151–164. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

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  This chapter focuses on the development of theater for young audiences in Ireland and traces its roots from educational theater in the 1970s to contemporary practice. It highlights local engagement with children and young people but also international influences. The chapter focuses on elements such as festivals, the effects of the border in terms of TYA organizations, and the sectors’ rejection of “Irishness” as a globalized commodity.

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• Ogunleye, Foluke. “Zimbabwe's Theatre for Young People: Personal Development and Social Responsibility.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 10.2 (2004): 219–233.

  DOI: 10.1080/1028663042000255826Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article champions the idea that theater for the young can be a progressive and practical force for good within Zimbabwean society. It does so by discussing the concept of “theater for development” and putting forward six detailed case studies outlining the work of different non-for-profit Zimbabwean theater companies. The case studies also highlight potentially detrimental issues like the relationship between funding and influence.

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• Schroeder-Arce, Roxanne, ed. Special Issue: Theatre, Pedagogy and Borders. Youth Theatre Journal 29.2 (2015).

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  This special issue coalesces around the need to break down linguistic boundaries between English-speaking North America and the predominantly Spanish-speaking South American countries. It follows a conference of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) and the articles reflect on various aspects of theater education and innovative practice across the Americas.

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• Swortzell, Lowell, ed. International Guide to Children’s Theatre and Educational Theatre: A Historical and Geographical Source Book. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1989.

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  This collection edited by Lowell Swortzell features materials on forty-four countries. In alphabetical order it discusses different theater scenes while focusing on the history and contemporary provision for children and young people. It mentions particular companies, directors, and influential dramatists but also features publications and other sources of reference. However, while it is arguably the most extensive geographical review, it was published in 1989 and does not account for more recent innovations in the field.

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• van de Water, Manon. “Constructed Narratives: Situating Theatre for Young Audiences in the United States.” Youth Theatre Journal 14.1 (2000): 101–113.

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  Through its focus on the historical development of children’s theater and theater for young audiences in the United States, this essay interrogates the dominant narratives and accepted truths that have subsequently developed within the academic field of theater for the young. It professes the need for theorists and practitioners to recognize their own biases and frames of reference within the field and to care enough to deconstruct and write anew.

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• van de Water, Manon. Moscow Theatres for Young People: A Cultural History of Ideological Coercion and Artistic Innovation, 1917–2000. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

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  This monograph provides a very thorough discussion of the historical development of Russian theater for young audiences. The book highlights how theater for young spectators in the former Soviet Union was an important institution and was often used to teach (political) ideology. With a focus on theater companies in Moscow, van de Water lays out the pedagogical influences and aesthetic innovation that developed between 1917 and 2000.

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Audiences

Consideration of audiences brings many of the fundamental challenges of theater for children immediately to the surface. This is a medium largely made and performed by adults but for children and young people. As a scholarly discipline it is also one almost exclusively written about by adults. The omission and exclusion of young people from not only the processes of production, but also evaluation and academic analysis, seems complete and the paradox of theater for children is exposed. Addressing this omission underpins audience research in this context, providing a space for the voices, perceptions, and experiences of young people themselves. The manners by which the child audience is constructed by various adult stakeholders is examined in Johanson and Glow 2011, which identifies recurring instrumental objectives, such as child audiences, as the recipient of educational outcomes or conceptualized as the adult audiences of the future. While the educational context of children’s theater is a recurring theme, audience research often reveals that it is far from a straightforward process. Tulloch 2000 examines ways in which adolescent spectators subvert their school experiences of canonical texts—most noticeably Shakespeare—through introducing vernacular, populist, and counter-cultural readings. This perspective is joined in Reason 2006 and O’Toole, et al. 2014 in stressing how the limits and potential for such independent and active readings are prescribed by a range of circumstances, including social class and education. While similar themes do exist in research into younger, preadolescent audiences, the focus largely shifts to seeking to understand meaning-making processes. The younger the child the greater the developmental and cognitive gap between the nominal subject and the adult author-researcher—and consequently the greater the need for careful and methodological appropriate research. A recurring theme within this work, as discussed in Mor and Shem-Tov 2020, is that of theatrical literacy, while Wartemann 2009 examines the interplay and collective creativity between audience and child audience. A number of researchers have undertaken work in this area, including Klein and Reason (see also Reason 2010, cited under General Overviews), both of whom use a range of creative and participatory empirical approaches to examine meaning-making processes and affective experiences. Klein 2005 aligns an understanding of “children’s aesthetic” with stages in child development. Reason 2013 examines ideas of interpretative “pleasure” and the importance of supporting young people in becoming critical, active, and self-reflective spectators.

• Johanson, Katya, and Hilary Glow. “Being and Becoming: Children as Audiences.” New Theatre Quarterly 27.1 (2011): 60–70.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0266464X11000054Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article examines the reasons given by policymakers for funding the provision of theater for children. It describes the frequent dominance of education or learning imperatives, but suggests these are increasingly challenged by more intrinsic, aesthetic, and rights-based understandings.

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• Klein, Jeanne. “From Children’s Perspective: A Model of Aesthetic Processing in Theatre.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 39.4 (2005): 40–57.

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  One of a number of publications by Klein examining children as spectators, this article is her most sustained articulation of a developmental model of understanding “children’s aesthetics.” Its focus is on processes of meaning making and interpretation.

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• Mor, Smadar, and Naphtaly Shem-Tov. “Theatrical Competence, Communication and ‘Cargo’ among Young Audiences: How Do They Figure It Out?” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 26.2 (2020): 247–267.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2020.1847063Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A qualitative case study investigation into how young children (aged 5–6) acquire and develop “theatrical competency.” Proposes a model of the sociocultural, emotional, and cognitive “cargo” that inform children’s reception processes.

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• O’Toole, John, Ricci-Jane Adams, Michael Anderson, Bruce Burton, and Robyn Ewing, eds. Young Audiences, Theatre and the Cultural Conversation. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2014.

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  Based on research conducted in Australia, this book presents insights from an investigation of unusual scope and scale, with its focus on adolescent audiences also of significant distinctiveness and value. It examines how interlinked factors—of literacy, confidence, and etiquette—often serve to exclude adolescent audiences from attendance and representation within a nation’s cultural conversation.

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• Reason, Matthew. “Young Audiences and Live Theatre, Part 1: Methods, Participation, and Memory in Audience Research.” Studies in Theatre and Performance 26.2 (2006): 129–145.

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  See also Matthew Reason, “Young Audiences and Live Theatre, Part 2: Perceptions of Liveness in Performance,” Studies in Theatre and Performance 26.3 (2006): 221–241. Two interlinked articles that take a participatory approach to understanding how teenage audiences respond to and value the “liveness” of theater performances. Discusses the acute awareness of other people within the venue by adolescent spectators and the significance of educational and cultural capital in determining responses.

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• Reason, Matthew. “The Longer Experience: Theatre for Young Audiences and Enhancing Engagement.” In The Audience Experience: A Critical Analysis of Audiences in the Performing Arts. Edited by Jennifer Radbourne, Hilary Glow, and Katya Johanson, 97–111. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2013.

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  This chapter applies the concepts of active spectatorship and the longer experience to theater for young audiences. Reason argues for the importance of children being supported in becoming critically self-aware and articulate spectators and stresses the intrinsic pleasure that comes from processes of meaning making and imaginative interpretation.

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• Tulloch, John. “Approaching Theatre Audiences: Active School Students and Commoditized High Culture.” Contemporary Theatre Review 10.2 (2000): 85–104.

  DOI: 10.1080/10486800008568588Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article examines how adolescent audience’s engagement with “canonical” theater is framed through the school experience, presenting an intersection between “expert” and “lay” interpretative processes.

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• Wartemann, Geesche. “Theatre as Interplay: Processes of Collective Creativity in Theatre for Young Audiences.” Youth Theatre Journal 23.1 (2009): 6–14.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929090902851528Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article takes a theoretical approach to considering the relationship (or “interplay”) between actors and audience in theater for children, which it describes as one of co-presence and collective creativity that is being continually negotiated. These concepts are applied to observations of a performance that constructed an “experimental ground” (experimentierfeld) through which to examine children’s understanding of theater.

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Children as Performers

The title of this Oxford Bibliographies article is “Theater for Children and Young People.” The proposition “for” denotes all sorts of things, concerning power, authorship, agency, and an overarching conceptualization of childhood. More specifically it also signals a more pragmatic relationship: performances for children, typically by adult actors, dancers, or musicians. The entries in this section focus on the exceptions, and what happens when children become the performers for a largely adult audience. Three of the entries—Gubar 2012, Klein 2012, and Varty 2007—focus on the late-19th-century theater world of the United Kingdom and the United States, examining a period when children as performers was a common and prominent form of entertainment. Using historical research the authors examine questions relating to the training and competence of child actors, fraught debates concerning objectification and eroticization, the dawning of incoming labor laws, and how fears over exploitation would eventually lead to the banishment of children from the stage and to the audience. A common thread through these texts is how in the 19th century there existed much less age stratification, with a more fluid intermixing of adult and child worlds before the universalization of compulsory formal education. Gubar’s concept of “age transvestism”—children performing adults and adults performing children—represents a useful critical tool of much wider application. Klein 2012 observes that, unlike in film and television made for children, child actors are seldom present in theater for young audiences. Critical exploration of more recent appearances of children as performers are therefore rarer. The examples here examine very different theatrical forms. Freshwater 2012 discusses the marketing and presentation of child performers within the popular Billy Elliot musical; Chapman 2000 treats the contestation of female identity within US high school theater. In contrast Senior 2016, Austin 2019, and Maguire 2020 examine instances of contemporary performance practice, where adult theater-makers have used child performers to address adult audiences. The critical territory of both these articles reflects recurring concerns about power, agency, and the (in)visibility of children within contemporary theater and culture. What is unfortunately missing from this category are non-Western explorations of children as performers, an area that needs to be treated in further research and scholarship.

• Austin, Sarah. “Towards an Ethical Practice: Child Performers in Contemporary Performance for Adult Audiences.” Australasian Drama Studies 74 (2019): 189–216.

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  This article identifies an increase in the presence of child performers in contemporary and experimental theater for adult audiences. It contextualizes this through a brief history of the presence of children in theater before examining two Australian-based case studies.

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• Chapman, Jennifer. “Female Impersonations: Young Performers and the Crisis of Adolescence.” Youth Theatre Journal 14.1 (2000): 123–131.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2000.10012523Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The article examines adolescent female identity as enacted and observed with US high school theater. Chapman locates her work within the context of a crisis of adolescence, specifically the contested value surrounding female identity. She argues that the experience of performing on stage provides teenage girls opportunities to gain knowledge—positive and negative—about their gender identities.

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• Freshwater, Helen. “Consuming Authenticities: Billy Elliot the Musical and the Performing Child.” The Lion and the Unicorn 36.2 (2012): 15–73.

  DOI: 10.1353/uni.2012.0019Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Included within an issue of The Lion and the Unicorn on children and theater, this article examines how the hugely successful musical adaptation of Billy Elliot traded upon and marketed the authenticity of its “real life Billy Elliot” performers. Problematizing the concept of authenticity in relation to both childhood and child performers, the article is a rare analytical exploration of the contemporary world of children as performers.

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• Gubar, Marah. “Who Watched The Children’s Pinafore?’ Age Transvestism on the Nineteenth Century Stage.” Victorian Studies 54.3 (2012): 410–426.

  DOI: 10.2979/victorianstudies.54.3.410Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  In this article Gubar coins and defines the term “age transvestism” in the specific context of performances in 19th-century theater for child actors playing adult roles (and vice versa). She examines and rejects prominent narratives of child actors being enjoyed for their ineptitude, proposing a counterargument that they often presented highly competent performance that blurred age distinctions.

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• Klein, Jeanne. “Without Distinction of Age: The Pivotal Roles of Child Actors and Their Spectators in Nineteenth-Century Theatre.” The Lion and the Unicorn 36.2 (2012): 117–135.

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  This article examines the integral part child actors (and spectators) played within 19th-century theater culture. Klein presents a rich and often untold history of child performers, from young vaudevillians to “baby ballets,” arguing that, operating before strict age stratification, such popular performances led to the “invention” children’s theater well before the 20th century.

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• Maguire, Tom. “Watching Girls Watching: Hetpaleis’s Hamilton Complex.” In Diversity, Representation, and Culture in TYA. Edited by Manon van de Water, 46–57. Vrygrond, South Africa: ASSITEJ South Africa, 2020.

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  The chapter provides a close analysis of the Belgian TYA company Hetpaleis’s Hamilton Complex, performed by thirteen thirteen-year-old girls. Maguire explores the construction of girlhood and of female adolescent sexuality, examining the tension between the commodification or objectification of watching and production’s desire to assert the performers’ agency.

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• Senior, Adele. “Beginners on Stage: Arendt, Natality and the Appearance of Children in Contemporary Performance.” Theatre Research International 41.1 (2016): 70–84.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0307883315000620Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The focus of this article is the appearance of children as performers within two examples of contemporary performance for adults. Presenting an ethical consideration of the nature of the relationship between the child performer and adult spectator—including responsibility, power, protection, and authority—it poses questions about the agency and visibility of children within the public domain.

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• Varty, Anne. Children and Theatre in Victorian Britain: “All Work, No Play.” Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

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  A book-length examination of the widespread employment of children in the London theater industry at the end of the 19th century, including chapters on training child actors and the performing child as erotic subject. These are presented alongside discussion of the growing narratives of exploitation. A meticulously researched and detailed examination of theater history at a vital point of transition for theater for children.

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Disability

A commonly shared sentiment in the field of theater for children and young people is that it should be for all children. This includes disabled young audiences, who, for example, may use wheelchairs or have other physical impairments, have learning disabilities, autism, or are hearing impaired. The term disability can be understood according to various models (such as the medical, social, and charity models, among others), which impacts the way disabled people are treated, supported, and included. The social model is increasingly prominent for advocates of disability rights, and it affirms that people are disabled because society does not meet their individual access needs, for example there is no ramp to get into the theater building or a production contains strobe lightning, making it unsuitable for people with epilepsy. In this sense, the term disabled does not convey shame but is used by people to advocate for their right to be fully included and represented in every aspect of society, including the performing arts. A growing number of theater practitioners and researchers aim to find ways in which theater can be adapted to include and accommodate specific needs and interests of disabled young audiences. At this time, published literature is only now catching up with the innovative practice within this field. Goodley and Runswick-Cole 2011 stresses that theater and other artistic activities are often framed within medicalized or educational discourses when they target disabled young audiences. A trend in theater for and with autistic children and young people is also emerging. May 2017; Trimingham and Shaughnessy 2016; Maas 2021; Beadle-Brown, et al. 2018; and Mattaini 2020 all look at various aspects of performance for, and with, autistic children and young people. Trowsdale and Hayhow 2015 focuses on embodied learning and suggest that a new, mimetic approach can have significant impact on children and young people with learning difficulties, particularly within special school settings. Brigg 2013 and Brown 2012 focus on companies creating theater for young audiences diagnosed as having profound and multiple learning disabilities.

• Beadle-Brown, Julie, David Wilkinson, Lisa Richardson, et al. “Imagining Autism: Feasibility of a Drama-Based Intervention on the Social, Communicative and Imaginative Behaviour of Children with Autism.” Autism 22.8 (2018): 915–927.

  DOI: 10.1177/1362361317710797Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article details the outcomes of a research intervention, titled “Imagining Autism,” in which both children with autism and drama practitioners engaged through participatory play and improvision. This engagement took place in a themed multisensory “pod.” Suggesting that there is broad value in exploring the potential of drama techniques as a way of engaging people with autism, the article showed that intervention was successful across three different schools.

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  • Medline

• Brigg, Gillian. “Theatre for Audiences Labelled as Having Profound, Multiple and Complex Learning Disabilities: Assessing and Addressing Access to Performance.” PhD diss., University of Nottingham, 2013.

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  This thesis is based on a collaborative research project between the University of Nottingham and Roundabout Education at Nottingham Playhouse. Starting with the child’s right to access cultural activities such as theater, the project examined how barriers to meaningful participation can be overcome for a profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) young audience. By creating a performance, the author examined issues such as emotional narratives, safe ethical frameworks, and the engagement of three theater spectra.

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• Brown, Mark. Oily Cart: All Sorts of Theatre for All Sorts of Kids. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham, 2012.

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  Oily Cart were established in 1981 and has a world-leading reputation for its work for very young children and, in particular, its pioneering theater for young people with severe learning disabilities. The company was led by founder and artistic director Tim Webb until 2018. Brown presents a “celebration” of three decades of Oily Cart in the form of a source book that includes chapters, interviews, scripts, and critical responses. See online.

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• Goodley, Dan, and Katherine Runswick-Cole. “Something in the Air? Creativity, Culture and Community.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 16.1 (2011): 75–91.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2011.541610Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Using Oily Cart’s work, the authors analyze the extent to which a theater production can support disabled children’s well-being and challenge disablism in their lives. With a clear discussion of disability and creativity, the argument focuses on the ability of performing artists to engage with children. This is not for therapeutic or rehabilitative reasons, but rather to actualize disabled children’s rights to be active participant in exciting and transformative art.

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• Maas, Christene. “Improvisational Theatre and Occupational Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 68.1 (2021): 10–25.

  DOI: 10.1080/1034912X.2019.1634793Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article looks at theater arts and improvisational techniques as a way of understanding and addressing social participation of individuals with autism. By analyzing the emerging literature, the article shows how improvisational theater can act as a community-based program that meets the needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It offers occupational therapists and other health practitioners ways to provide children with better support.

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• Mattaini, Molly. “Creating Autistic Space in Ability-Inclusive Sensory Theatre.” Youth Theatre Journal 34.1 (2020): 42–54.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2019.1633719Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article argues that some theater companies offer young audiences sensory friendly performances that tend to avoid triggers and, in doing so, they limit the sensory elements and aesthetic experimentation. Ability-inclusive sensory theatre (AIST), in contrasts, offers a different approach because by focusing on sensory elements it places the aesthetic experience at the center of a production and creates an autistic space informed by the audience.

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• May, Shaun. “Autism and Comedy: Using Theatre Workshops to Explore Humour with Adolescents on the Spectrum.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 22.3 (2017): 436–445.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1329651Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Taking as a starting point the idea that autistic people have an impaired sense of humor, which is prevalent within the psychological literature, the paper shows how so-called negative traits can be rethought in terms of disclosing their comic potential. This paper draws upon work conducted in comedy theater workshops, utilizing a stand-up comedian and clown, to reframe anxiety (and social awkwardness), literalness, and repetitive patterns of behavior.

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• Trimingham, Melissa, and Nicola Shaughnessy. “Material Voices: Intermediality and Autism.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 21.3 (2016): 293–308.

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  This article puts forward the idea that utilizing “intermediality” offers a potential holistic pedological approach that educators can embrace and develop. The article argues, via two case studies, that media (puppetry, costumes, cameras, and so on) is integral to experience and that an intermediality approach helps us to understand how children with autism create meaning; and it draws attention to the role of bodily interaction with the surrounding environment.

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• Trowsdale, Jo, and Richard Hayhow. “Psycho-physical Theatre Practice as Embodied Learning for Young People with Learning Disabilities.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 19.10 (2015): 1022–1036.

  DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2015.1031832Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article takes issue with the lack of attention given to embodied learning approaches, particularly in dominant Western tradition and within the discipline of education. It examines interactive, nonverbal, psycho-physical theater practice—named “mimetics”—that has been developed with children and young people with learning disabilities. The article highlights the challenges but also opportunities of developing embodied learning and employing it more widely.

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Cultural and Racial Diversity

Childhood is regularly presented as a universal concept. For example, the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child asserts that everyone under the age of eighteen, wherever she or he is born, has rights such as education, protection, play, and relaxation. Furthermore, research has mapped the child’s development according to typical stages that are understood as being universally applicable. However, defining and subsequently understanding a child by age or stages of biological development may overlook the culturally different interpretations of what it means to be a child, not just globally but also within and between local communities. Childhood studies, in contrast, does not consider the child to be a universal concept or homogeneous group but shifts the paradigm to understanding how social and cultural dialogues inform young lives and how they are perceived. Here the focus is on how a child is influenced by a range of factors, such as gender, ethnicity, religion, culture, class, disability, and sexuality as well as their social and economic backgrounds. In the 21st century cultural and racial diversity has become an important concept and this is reflected in theater for children. Schuitema 2015 asserts that the global interconnectedness of the United Kingdom means that young audiences are, by definition, culturally diverse. The author highlights that there exists a history and a rich contemporary practice of representing diversity on stage. However, research in this area remains underdeveloped particularly when it comes to highlighting the child’s own perspective and experiences. Cultural diversity, racism, and gender studies are particularly lacking in the field (see Disability and Queer TYA. Van de Water 2020 suggests that interest in exploring this topic is growing. Here contributions from around the world focus on various issues coalescing around diversity in theater for the young. Maloney Leaf and Ngo 2020 details the creation of youth production in the context of the Black Lives Matter and the civil rights movements. Grady 2000 focuses on pluralistic perspectives within drama practice and, together with Grady and Zarrilli 1994, these are among the first papers to focus on the practice of interculturalism for young audiences. Garcia 2015 examines the importance of history and cultural memory in productions for young audiences relevant to Latino communities in the United States. Scott-Papke 2017 relates the history of the Harlem Children’s Theatre Company (New York) and its relation to the Black Arts Movement of the mid-1960s and 1970s.

• Garcia, Lorenzo. “From Memory to Action: Teatro Dallas’s Production of Pizcas.” Youth Theatre Journal 29.2 (2015): 105–111.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2015.1078866Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This “brief meditation” looks at the play Pizcas as well as the activities immediately following the production. With specific focus on the Latino community in the United States, but engaging more widely with the concept of latinitad, the discussion analyzes the nature of cultural memory, history, and identity and uses the production and subsequent activities to locate feelings of investment and sites of empowerment within the Latino community.

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• Grady, Sharon. Drama and Diversity: A Pluralistic Perspective for Educational Drama. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Drama, 2000.

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  This book looks at educational drama and offers a pluralistic perspective to innovate practice and offer children and young people the space to develop their own identities. Using examples from practice as well as drawing on multicultural, postcolonial, ethnographic, feminist, and disability theory, the author engages with the concept of difference the presence of unconscious biases is particularly addressed and the book promotes methods to create inclusive classroom environments.

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• Grady, Sharon A., and Phillip B. Zarrilli. “‘. . .It Was like a Play in a Play in a Play!’: Tales from South Asia in an Intercultural Production.” The Drama Review 28.3 (1994): 168–184.

  DOI: 10.2307/1146385Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This essay details the staging of a production with South Asian content for a mixed child/adult audience. The authors highlight three theoretical and practical issues: (1) assumptions and myths associated with performances for the child, (2) issues of representation and enactment when performing content from another culture, and (3) how to create a production that is pleasurable, exciting, and educational for all audience members.

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• Maloney Leaf, Betsy, and Bic Ngo. “‘Fear of What We Don’t Know’: Grappling with Diversity in a Youth Theatre Program.” Youth Theatre Journal 34.1 (2020): 78–94.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2019.1688210Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article follows a diverse group of young cast members and adult artistic staff as they confront issues of diversity and difference while rehearsing, staging, and performing a play about Ruby Bridges (the first African American student to attend an all-white school). The article uses a broad ethnological approach to show how the young cast members developed critical consciousness through artistic practice in an out-of-school (noninstitutional) context.

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• Schuitema, Karian. “A provocation: Researching the diverse child audience in the UK.” Participations 12.1 (2015): 175–190.

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  This journal article argues that the child’s voice is often dismissed in debates surrounding multiculturalism and interculturalism on the stage. Offering a brief history of the representation of cultural diversity, the article suggests that the child is often presumed as a passive audience member who is a bystander in the face of adult political and ideological concerns. Practical research, it is further argued, can highlight and empower the child’s voice.

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• Scott-Papke, Jacqui. “Aduke Aremu’s Harlem Children’s Theatre Company.” Youth Theatre Journal 31.2 (2017): 129–139.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2017.1370760Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article provides a history and analysis of the work of the Harlem Children’s Theatre Company, which emerged under the leadership of Aduke Aremu during the period of the Black Arts Movement between 1965 and 1975. Drawing on interviews with Aremu, the article describes how the company sought to make work that would be attended and enjoyed by whole families, and which communicated a fusion of art and politics in relation to pan-Africanism and black consciousness.

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• van de Water, Manon, ed. Diversity, Representation, and Culture in TYA. Vrygrond, South Africa: ASSITEJ South Africa, 2020.

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  This collection of twelve chapters has its origins in a 2017 ITYARN conference in South Africa focused on culture and diversity in TYA. The contributions include a diverse range of approaches to considering diversity, including through applied theater, trauma studies, and spectatorship. A varied collection resists any single focus, but clear themes include questions of representation across race, gender, and disability.

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Early Years

Also known as theater for babies or the very young, theater for early years is typically defined as performances made for or with children under three years old. A recurring theme within publications in this context is the need to defend and explain the existence of making theater for babies in the first place. In different ways each of Fletcher-Watson, et al. 2014; Goldfinger 2011; Schneider 2009; and Young 2004 all seek to address this existential objection—why make anything as elaborate or formal as theater for children so young they will neither remember nor recognize it as an art form at all? The research responds to this criticism by arguing for the aesthetic complexity and richness of the form and by analyzing how theater-makers respond to and engage with the specific developmental needs of their audience. While largely unknown before the first decade of the 20th century, theater for early years is now a well-established and growing activity, most dramatically demonstrated in the work of organizations such as Starcatchers, Glitterbird: Art for the Very Young, Small Size Network, and La Baracca–Testoni Ragazzi) in commissioning, curating, and presenting performance for young children. More recent research has responded to the established nature of the form and, no longer taking the need for self-justification as a starting point, has increasingly explored different kinds of questions. These range from the aesthetic, such as Hovik 2019, which examines affect and presence; to the ethnographic in Miles 2018, which considers young children’s engagement with the theatrical event; to the psychological in Cowley, et al. 2020, which treats the potential for theater for babies to aid father-child bonding. Theater for early years now represents a dynamic area of innovative performance practice and scholarship, particularly in terms of the potential for research that engages with both child developmental and aesthetic considerations.

• Cowley, Brenda, Anusha Lachman, Elvin Williams, and Astrid Berg. “‘I Know That It’s Something That’s Creating a Bond’: Fathers’ Experiences of Participating in Baby Theater with Their Infants in South Africa.” Front Psychiatry. 11 November 2020.

  DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.580038Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This interdisciplinary article draws upon psychiatry and occupational therapy to examine the potential for theater for babies to create a bond between father and child. The approach is qualitative, presenting the fathers’ subjective accounts of the experience as educative and enjoyable.

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• Fletcher-Watson, Ben, Sue Fletcher-Watson, Marie Jeanne McNaughton, and Anna Birch. “From Cradle to Stage: How Early Years Performing Arts Experiences Are Tailored to the Developmental Capabilities of Babies and Toddlers.” Youth Theatre Journal 28.2 (2014): 130–146.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2013.837706Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article provides a useful narrative for the growth of theater for early years, before examining how performance makers tailor their work to the developmental needs of their audiences. The authors divide the period from birth to three into three age profiles, analyzing exemplar performances designed for each age range. The focus on developmental milestones is a key contribution and of use to both scholars and performance makers.

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• Glitterbird: Art for the Very Young. 2003–2006. Oslo, Norway: Oslo University College.

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  Involving participants from six European countries, Glitterbird was a three-year project that produced and presented art for children under three. The project was accompanied by a series of international seminars presenting both academic and practitioner-orientated papers. The Glitterbird website documents the project, with downloads available of all outputs.

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• Goldfinger, Evelyn. “Theatre for Babies.” In Key Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education. Edited by Shifra Schonmann, 295–299. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2011.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-94-6091-332-7_48Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The chapter addresses the recurring challenge asked of theater for babies: given that very young children can be entertained or distracted by virtually anything, why do they need theater? Is theater made for babies actually theater? Goldfinger presents a short reflective discussion examining some of the recurring debates in response to these questions.

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• Hovik, Lise. “Becoming Small: Concepts and Methods of Interdisciplinary Practice in Theatre for Early Years.” Youth Theatre Journal 33.1 (2019): 37–51.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2019.1580647Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Drawing upon the author’s interdisciplinary performance practice, this paper articulates a series of recurring approaches to making work for early years: play, improvisation, performer presence, musical communication, participation, and interactivity. It argues for the value of the concept of affect in allowing us to think about the arts encounters of the very young.

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• La Baracca—Testoni Ragazzi. 1976–. Bologna, Italy: Teatro per l’Infanzia e la Giovantù.

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  Founded in 1976, La Baracca produces work for young people of all ages. The group has also led two endeavors co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union focusing on early years: “Small Size, Performing Arts for Early Years” (2014–2018), which is now an ongoing network; and “Mapping: A Map on the Aesthetics of Performing Arts for Europe” (2018–2022), which incorporates eighteen partner organizations across Europe focused on developing sensory theater for very young children.

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• Miles, Emma. “Bus Journeys, Sandwiches and Play: Young Children and the Theatre Event.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 23.1 (2018): 20–39.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1396889Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article draws upon a series of visits by the same group of young children (aged three or four) to a series of performances by Polka Theatre in the United Kingdom. Miles utilizes an ethnographic approach to consider theater for early years as a “theatrical event” incorporating not just the performance but everything that surrounds the experience, from the journey to the venue to their sense of agency within the theater building.

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• Schneider, Wolfgang, ed. Theatre for Early Years: Research in Performing Arts for Children. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2009.

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  The only book-length publication in the field of theater for early years, this work is organized into reflections, reports, and experiences. The majority of the contributors are theater practitioners, with a geographical spread from South America, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The book has a practical orientation, asking questions about audience, aesthetics, and education in relation to theater for early years.

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• Small Size Network. 2007–present.

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  Small Size is an international artistic network aiming to develop performing arts for the early years, which they define as 0–6. The network host annual “small size days,” which incorporate performances, workshops, and presentations.

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• Starcatchers. Edinburgh: Starcatchers, 2006–present.

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  Originally launched as an arts-led investigation into making performance work for babies (aged 0–3), Starcatchers, Scotland’s national arts and early years organization, has developed into an internationally recognized leader in work for the early years. The organization has commissioned a series of groundbreaking arts projects for young children and offers a rich set of resources for both scholars and practitioners.

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• Young, Susan. “‘It’s a Bit like Flying’: Developing Participatory Theatre with the Under-Twos; A Case Study of Oily Cart.” RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 9 (2004): 13–28.

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  Published in 2004, this article is perhaps the first academic consideration of theater for the early years, and it is focused on the work of UK theater company Oily Cart (see also Brown 2012, cited under Disability). Young uses observation, interviews, and participation to examine the nature of the experience for very young audiences and their carers. The central argument concerns the dyadic nature of theater for the early years, addressing, engaging, and interacting with both the young and the adult spectator.

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Education

Pedagogical and didactic aspects form a central motif in the origin and development of theater for young audiences, indicative of how children are often perceived as in need of nurture, instruction, and moral guidance. In the Romantic tradition, and influenced by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and William Blake, the child as “innocent” is placed in direct opposition to the knowledgeable “experienced” adult. Historically this idea of childhood as a separate category in life gave rise to literature, theater, and entertainment specifically designed for young minds. Material aimed at children had to protect them from the hard reality of the adult realm as well as prepare them to become responsible moral citizens through education. Some of these sentiments have prevailed and debates in theater for children regularly focus not only on what is appropriate for young audiences, but also on what extent theater should pursue pedagogic and educational aims. Theater’s connection to education is a twofold dynamic: it is considered a great tool for active learning, and through showcasing this aspect, practitioners and companies can tempt those spending money (adults) to bring their children to the theater. Winston 2003, Falconi 2015, and Eluyefa 2017 focus on how pedagogical and artistic aspects can be joined in theater for the young. Nicholson 2011; Lazarus 2012; Jackson and Vine 2013;and van de Water, et al. 2015 focus on the benefits and the need for theater and drama in educational settings. A recurrent theme here is the need for innovation within this field, ensuring that the ever-changing needs of young people are met, and that practice reflects the social and political context of their environment. Prendergast 2004 and Reason 2008 discuss educational strategies of enhancing the child’s experience and engagement with theater, whereby emphasis is placed on children learning to be an audience and to cognitively engage with what is presented in a theatrical production. Finally, Bebek, et al. 2020 shifts the focus even further by looking at how performance can encourage the child’s voice to challenge and disrupt spaces that are dominated by the narratives of adults, such as education and academia.

• Bebek, Carolin, Kate Katafiasz, Karian Schuitema, and Benjamin Weber. “On (In)security: A Conversation on Education and Intergenerational Dialogues.” Performance Philosophy 5.2 (2020): 349–368.

  DOI: 10.21476/PP.2020.52285Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  In response to the way adult voices dominate academia, this article looks at ways in which educational settings and familial structures may be able to make spaces for children’s voices. It presents a question-and-answer conversation held at a performance philosophy conference after three practice-based contributions. The presentation itself was staged as interventions using drama and performance and asked a range of questions about the liberation of (neurodiverse) children as learners.

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• Eluyefa, Dennis. “Children’s Theatre: A Brief Pedagogical Approach.” ArtsPraxis 4.1 (2017): 79–93.

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  This article asks what is children’s theater? It does so to explore the way in which education can be an intrinsic aspect of children’s theater without devaluing it as an art form or diminishing its entertainment value. The article argues that children can learn about social and ethical issues from theater, and practitioners should see themselves as entertainers and researchers and seek to collaborate with children.

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• Falconi, María Inés. “Theatre for Children and Youth: Art or Pedagogy?” Youth Theatre Journal 29.2 (2015): 159–165.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2015.1084828Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This essay discusses differences between artistic and educational approaches to theater for children, suggesting that there is an entrenched assumption that theater for children must have a message and/or pedagogical value. It points out that children’s theater must risk leaving the safe space attributed to adults and connect to the audience through the unstable artistic space of questioning. This fosters collaboration and brings together aesthetic values alongside the learning process.

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• Jackson, Anthony, and Chris Vine, eds. Learning through Theatre: The Changing Face of Theatre in Education. London: Routledge, 2013.

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203116753Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  After the first edition appeared in 1993, this edited collection has been extensively used by those working in Theatre in Education (TiE). This edition highlights the changes in education but also the blurring of the line between TiE and other forms of (applied) theater. The focus on learning through theater is shared throughout the book and contributions include practice from India, southern Africa, and Norway.

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• Lazarus, Joan. Signs of Change: New Directions in Theatre Education. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2012.

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  This book focuses on the necessity of change within theater education. Discussing secondary education in the United States, the author offers a strong argument for evolvement and what is needed to continue to assure best practice. The book gives many examples of learner-centered practice, socially engaged work, and integrated arts education. The revised and extended edition also features invited essays from critical thinkers in the field.

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• Nicholson, Helen. Theatre, Education and Performance: The Map and the Story. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-0-230-34502-7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Nicholson’s monograph offers a detailed discussion of theater education and features a historical and contemporary overview of practice. Focusing on professional theater practitioners and their contribution to the education of young people, it traces the influence of social and educational reforms in the United Kingdom. The book discusses issues such as globalization, national identity, and cultural exchanges, and it maps the changes in the practice to adapt to new young audiences.

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• Prendergast, Monica. “Theatre Audience Education or How to See a Play: Toward a Curriculum Theory for Spectatorship in the Performing Arts.” Youth Theatre Journal 18.1 (2004): 45–54.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2004.10012563Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article focuses on what is required to attend, watch, and study a performance. It puts forward an audience-in-performance curriculum theory whereby the audience is considered to be active rather than passive. This curriculum delivers a series of questions that stimulate audience members to think about their place and role within a performance, as well as promoting dialogue between performers and the audience.

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• Reason, Matthew. “Enhancing Children’s Theatrical Experiences through Philosophical Enquiry.” Childhood and Philosophy 4.7 (2008): 115–145.

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  This article explores the potential of using philosophical enquiry for children (P4C) as a framework within which children’s engagement with theater can be deepened and enhanced. It is informed by research involving primary school children attending theater productions, after which several teacher-led philosophical discussions were observed. The article details the complexities of the P4C approach and the need for children to be provided with the language of theatrical enquiry.

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• van de Water, Manon, Mary McAvoy, and Hunt Kristin. Drama and Education: Performance Methodologies for Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge, 2015.

  DOI: 10.4324/9781315756028Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This book addresses neuroscientific research to argue for the essential role of drama in creative and contextual learning. It provides a historical and theoretical overview of drama as a tool for teaching and learning and sets out specific methodologies, including drama for social justice, process-oriented drama, and performance art. The book has been written as a textbook for students and teachers on applied learning and theater and education courses.

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• Winston, Joe. “Playing on the Magic Mountain: Theatre Education and Teacher Training at a Children’s Theatre in Brussels.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 8.2 (2003): 203–216.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569780308330Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  La Montagne Magique (The Magic Mountain) is a theater venue for children in Belgium, founded in 1995 by Roger Deldime and Jeanne Pigeon. Drawing upon a residency at the venue and interviews with members of the team, Winston describes the unique qualities of the company, including how it positions theater as a “third space” between art and education. See also Roger Deldime and Hamza Fassi-Fihri, Ode à la rencontre du théâtre avec l’éducation: La montagne magique An 15 (Brussels: Lansman, 2001). See online.

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Festivals

Festivals play a significant role across the performing arts, providing audiences and professionals alike with opportunities to experience new work and network. The role of festivals is perhaps particularly pronounced with theater for children, an art form that otherwise largely takes place at a small scale, in low-profile venues, getting little media attention. When performances typically take place in school halls or community centers, the role of the festivals in garnering attention, sharing practice, and making connections, including internationally, has particular significance. While it is impossible to be comprehensive, the examples presented here aim to give some sense of breadth, diversity, and significance of children’s theater festivals. The majority of festivals are curated, featuring selected performances invited by a committee or artistic director. A prominent and unique exception is Denmark’s April Festival, which is unique in being uncurated and “open,” whereby everything and anything may appear. While many are attached to particular host cities, the eldest festival, the ASSITEJ World Congress is held in a different city every three years ASSITEJ: International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People. It is, however, only with the growth of mass, affordable international travel that children’s theater festivals have taken on their current significance within the sector. Increasingly the most prominent international festivals host visiting delegates, who are there to witness and book productions. This, in turn, has started to impact and shape children’s theater practice in subtle and small, but important, ways. Examples include the implicit promotion of an “internationalism,” manifested in the selection and promotion of productions that might tour easily across boarders due to a lack of cultural or linguistic specificity. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021, festivals developed hybrid or online programs, which increased accessibility and attendance. ASSITEJ provide a comprehensive listed of its member’s festivals; examples here are indicative only.

• April Festival. Copenhagen: Teatercentrum.

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  Founded in 1971, Denmark’s April Festival is the largest children’s theater festival in the world. It operates as an “open” rather than a selective festival, with audiences attending for free. Moving to a different municipality each year, the April Festival operates as a shop window for theater companies who perform in a variety of venues without direct payment. The festival is organized by Teatercentrum, which also acts in an advocacy and advisory role for Danish children’s theater.

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• ASSITEJ: International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People.

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  ASSITEJ, the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People, consists of international members, national centers, and professional networks. Every three years ASSITEJ holds a world festival of performance for children and young people. First hosted in 1966, the location moves on each occasion with recent hosts being Cape Town (2017), Warsaw (2014), and Copenhagen/Malmö (2011). Its other activities include publishing an annual magazine and hosting events.

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• ASSITEJ Korea International Summer Festival. Seoul: ASSITEJ Korea.

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  The ASSITEJ Korea International Summer Festival has been running each year since 1993. A distinctive feature is an annual focus each year on one international country, with the objective of Korean young people discovering that country’s culture and society through the performing arts.

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• Augenblik Mal!. Berlin.

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  Founded in 1991, Augenblik Mal! Is a curated festival of theater for young audience that takes place in Berlin. The festival has a commitment to improving accessibility, including through developing a virtual festival.

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• Cradle of Creativity. Johannesburg: ASSITEJ South Africa.

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  Originally part of the first ASSITEJ festival hosted in Africa in 2017, Cradle of Creativity will now take place every two years in different locations across South Africa.

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• Edinburgh International Children’s Festival. Edinburgh: Imaginate.

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  Founded in 1990, Edinburgh’s children’s festival is a curated program that stages one of the most prominent showcases for international performance for children and young people. The festival takes place in May/June, rather than during Edinburgh’s main summer festival period. Outside of the festival, organizers of Imaginate work throughout the year commissioning new work, developing artists, and pushing the boundaries of theater for children and young people through research and creative collaborations.

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• Haifa International Children’s Theater Festival. Haifa, Israel: Haifa Arts Foundation.

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  Founded in 1982, the Haifa children’s festival is a selective festival, which also includes a festival jury awarding prizes in categories such as playwriting, directing, acting, set design, and more. A central and distinct element of the festival is the prominence given to open-air street theater, featuring artists and performers from around the world.

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• International Association of Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY). Philadelphia: International Association of Performing Arts for Youth.

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  The International Association of Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY) focuses on supporting key stakeholders (such as artists, agents, and presenters) in children’s theater in North America. A central part of this is an international showcase, first presented in Chicago in 1979.

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• ricca ricca*festa. Asato, Japan: International Theater Festival Okinawa for Young Audiences.

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  Also known as the International Theater Festival Okinawa for Young Audiences, the ricca ricca*festa first took place in 1994 and has been an annual event since 2005. The festival also incorporates networking programs, symposiums, and workshops for TYA practitioners.

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• Visioni: La Baracca—Testoni Ragazzi. Bologna, Italy: Teatro per l’Infanzia e la Giovantù.

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  Visioni is an international festival of theater and culture for early years organized by La Baracca—Testoni Ragazzi. The festival incorporates performances, training activities, and workshops for children and practitioners along with talks and other events.

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Making Theater

Creating and staging work for children and young people can be discussed with an emphasis on the practical aspects of production or as theoretical inquiry into the creative process. This section features the book written by playwright David Wood in collaboration with Janet Grant, Wood and Grant 1997, which details the process of writing and creating theater for young audiences. A clear example of a practical guide to making theater, it also highlights a process that is very much shaped by the adult practitioner. This is also the case for Schuitema 2011, which focuses on stage adaptations of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials tribology. The other sources in this section shift from a focus on the adult practitioner creating work for children to inviting and including children to participate in the creative process and performances. Taylor and Warner 2006 focuses on the work by practitioner Cecily O’Neill, who promoted the use of process drama to create performative learning opportunities together with children and young people. Andersen 2020 looks at the way actors create theater with and for children and use specific skills related to voice, movement, improvisation, and clowning to interact and connect with young audiences. Glarin 2020 discusses how young people can share their narratives through ethnodramas created through a collaborative process. The article particularly reflects upon the authorship and ownership of work created in this manner, arguing that important ethical considerations and power dynamics need to be negotiated. These performative collaborations between the adult and the child also often form the basis of practical research projects aiming to develop a greater understanding of young audiences, and/or to create work that is innovative. Lundberg 2016 focuses on an interactive research project that has collaborated with children and young people to create two performances. Lundberg uses feminist translation theory and work on norm-critical pedagogy to provide a close reading of a scene of the play Love Machine. Similarly, Gattenhof and Radvan 2009 and Peters 2013 highlight how theater can employ performative environments to collaborate with children to research a range of different subjects. This research is an example of the creation of a new theater in which both adults and children can work together to gain new insights into the world around them.

• Andersen, Jennifer. “Understanding the Artistry of Actors Who Create Theatre with and for Children.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 25.4 (2020): 484–497.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2020.1779586Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article looks at the relationship between actor/performer and the child/audience. It approaches this relationship from the perspective of the actors and does so by focusing on a particular moment in a performance. The article shows that “listening,” “reciprocating,” “imagining,” and “empathizing” are important in terms of the theatrical, pedagogical, and caring relationship between the actor and child.

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• Gattenhof, Sandra, and Mark Radvan. “In the Mouth of the Imagination: Positioning Children as Co-researchers and Co-artists to Create a Professional Children’s Theatre Production.” RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 14.2 (2009): 211–224.

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  This article focuses on the methodological requirements for including children as equal co-creators and artists within the research process, particularly practice-led research. It details a six-month research project in which the children, researchers, and performers worked in a symbiotic relationship within the artistic and aesthetic process. With the aim of adding value to aesthetic outcomes, the article highlights the potential of artistic-led research in developing a creative product.

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• Glarin, Anna. “Whose Story Is It Anyway?: Reflections on Authorship and Ownership in Devised Theatre-Making and Ethnodrama with Young People.” ArtsPraxis 7.1 (2020): 14–24.

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  This article looks at the process of researching and writing with young people to create theatrical work that presents the narratives of young people. Giving examples of the creation of ethnodrama, the article looks at competing tensions involving power dynamics and ethical considerations, which the collaborative process brings to the fore. It highlights how authorship could be shared between everyone involved but that the young people should have the ownership of the work during the process.

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• Lundberg, Anna. “Beyond the Gaze: Translations as a Norm-Critical Praxis in Theatre for Children and Youth.” Nordic Theatre Studies 28.1 (2016): 94–104.

  DOI: 10.7146/nts.v28i1.23976Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Detailing an interactive research project carried out in collaboration with a Swedish playhouse for children and youth (ung scen/öst), this article draws on feminist translation theory to look at a specific moment within a performance. The author utilizes a “close reading” of the scene to highlight meaning-making and negotiations of meaning. This is done by focusing on acts of translation, showing the dynamic nature of meaning and all its transformations.

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• Peters, Sibylle. “Participatory Children’s Theatre and the Art of Research: The Theatre of Research/Das Forschungstheater, 2003–013.” Youth Theatre Journal 27.2 (2013): 100–112.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2013.837693Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article presents work by the German Theatre of Research, an initiative where artists, scholars, scientists, and children come together as researchers. The article gives examples of previous work. Furthermore, it discusses the theory that lies behind participatory theater and focuses on the idea that theater can not only reflect experiences, but can also operate as a forum that can intervene and change cultural practices outside of theater.

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• Schuitema, Karian. “Staging and Performing His Dark Materials: From the National Theatre Productions to Subsequent Productions.” In Critical Perspectives on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials: Essays on the Novels, the Film and the Stage Production. Edited by Steve Barfield and Katherine Cox, 239–266. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011.

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  Interviewing two directors—Steward McGill from Playbox Theatre Company and Lee Lyford from the Young People’s Theatre—this author looks at adapting His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman with and for children and young people. The chapter highlights the difficulties and complexities of moving a popular children’s book series to the stage and discusses the National Theatre’s adaptation in 2003, as well as other productions.

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• Taylor, Philip, and Cristine D. Warner, eds. Structure and Spontaneity: The Process Drama of Cecily O’Neill. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham, 2006.

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  This edited book on process drama developed and promoted by Cecily O’Neill highlights how theater can be created in the classroom through interactions between teachers and children. Focusing on O’Neill’s fundamental role in making the practice accessible to educators around the world, this book celebrates her achievements while also providing a practical guide for those who want to apply process drama to contribute to the educational development of children.

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• Whybrow, Nicolas, ed. Blah Blah Blah: Stories of a Theatre Company, 1985–1995. Leeds, UK: Alumnus, 1996.

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  Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah was formed in Leeds in 1985 and continues to produce participatory theater with and for children, young people, and families. Whybrow’s text includes a contextual article, interviews, and two play texts by Mike Kenny. See online.

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• Wood, David, and Janet Grant. Theatre for Children: Guide to Writing, Adapting, Directing, and Acting. London: Faber and Faber, 1997.

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  This practical guide has been written by one of the most prolific children’s dramatists in the United Kingdom. Although Wood started his career in the 1960s and wrote during the strongly political Theatre in Education movement that dominated the field, his own theater mainly aims to capture children’s imagination and entertain young audiences. This book focuses on techniques to capture children’s attention and other practical lessons he has learned over a long career.

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Political TYA

It can be argued that a tension between politics and childhood exists that can also be found in the field of theater for the young. The Romantic-era idea of the innocence “child” can be traced back to the desire to place the child in a supposedly “nonpolitical realm.” away from the corruption, power struggles, and severe social and economic issues with which adults must deal. In most countries a person is allowed to vote only from the age of eighteen (although in several Latin American countries the age is sixteen) and even though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child includes the right to influence those decisions made about their lives, children are routinely denied their active voice. Children, however, can often be seen to be fully engaged in contemporary issues. For example, the School Strike for Climate started by Greta Thunberg highlighted the passionate social political involvement of young people. The field of theater for young audiences has often engaged children and young people with a wide variety of political questions. Particularly at the end of the 1960s, theater groups in Scandinavia, Germany, and the Netherlands developed performances that were motivated and influenced by the ideological movements of the time. The Theatre in Education (TiE) movement, which was particularly active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, had strong Marxist and/or Trotskyist influences. However, TiE regularly faced criticism that adults were pushing their own agenda onto the (supposedly nonpolitical) child and that overtly political content prevented aesthetic engagement. The texts in this section highlight the development of this political orientation and illustrate how more current social/political issues range over questions about nationality, diversity, and cultural “ownership.” The ideas expressed in Benjamin 1999 have been embraced by researchers, in works such as Zipes 2003, to argue against theater that is presented as a spectacle and to argue for theater that stimulates social change. Brecht has been similarly influential in the field as is highlighted in Brosius 2001. Two journal issues, van de Water 2003 and Lesourd 2020, feature a range of texts on the subject of ideology in theater for the young. Švachová 2016 discusses the work of Unga Klara and, in doing so, charts the development political theater in Sweden. Schroeder-Arce 2019 looks at the question and politics of diversity in teacher training programs in the United States, and Deeney 2007 discusses how citizenship is performed by the National Theatre in the United Kingdom. Omasta 2009 examines the power dynamics between adult creators and young audiences, while Wozniak 2016 examines how Shakespeare’s work can become sites where young people can explore democratic opportunities.

• Benjamin, Walter. “Program for a Proletarian Children’s Theater.” In Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings. Vol. 2, Part 1, 1927–1930. Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith, 201–206. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999.

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  In this essay, which is published in English as part of Benjamin’s collected writing, theater is discussed in terms of its role in bringing up children in a proletarian manner. Using the principles of Marxist ideology, Benjamin discusses the need to counter bourgeois education and theater and sets out the ways in which this can be achieved. Points of focus are children’s collectives and the importance of observation and improvisation.

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• Brosius, Peter. “Can Theater + Young People = Social Change? The Answer Must Be Yes.” Theatre 31.3 (2001): 74–75.

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  This opinion piece written by the director of the Children’s Theatre Company argues that theater should take up a role in bringing social change. It provides a brief overview of the work by the Children’s Theatre Company and mentions Brecht as an influence. Highlighting how children’s voices and interests are often dismissed in the United States, Brosius puts forward the idea that theater helps children to see that there is power in their imagination.

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• Deeney, John F. “National Causes/Moral Clauses?: The National Theatre, Young People and Citizenship.” Research in Drama Education 12.3 (2007): 331–344.

  DOI: 10.1080/13569780701560537Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Looking at the relationship between citizenship and young people, this article focuses on two plays that were commissioned by the National Theatre (NT) as part of a scheme called “Connections.” The article shows that although the NT commissioned plays that might appear to epitomize state-sanctioned paradigms, it has also provided an opening through with the relationship between citizenship (traditionally understood) and young people can be redefined.

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• Lesourd, Sibylle, ed. Special Issue: Expériences théâtrales et idéologies: Les conditions d’émergence du théâtre pour la jeunesse en Europe. Strenæ 16 (2020).

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  This bilingual special issue focuses on the development of theater for young people in Europe in relation to the ideologies of the 20th century. Taking historical and aesthetic approaches, contributors focus on countries such as Russia, Spain, Norway, and France. Some articles focus on specific theater companies and directors, others focus on topics such as fascism, dogmatic approaches, and the emergence of theater from the conflict in Northern Ireland.

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• Omasta, Matt. “The TYA Contract: A Social Contractarian Approach to Obligations between Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) Companies and Their Constituents.” Youth Theatre Journal 23.2 (2009): 103–115.

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  This article considers three case studies conducted by the author to understand the social contractual relationship between TYA and constituent bodies. The article seeks to highlight the unequal power relations between the constituents in which each one operates in its own best interests. Omasta seeks ways of leveling relationships between TYA and its constituents, where each is aware of their responsibilities and obligations and priorities are equally met.

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• Schroeder-Arce, Roxanne L. “(Re)tracing la Pastorela: Performance, Policy, Pedagogy and Power.” Youth Theatre Journal 33.2 (2019): 129–138.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2019.1688744Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article explores the standards being implemented by the Texas State Board of Education, particularly the expectation that students will explore diverse cultures. Championing the need for more diversity in stories and storytelling in theater teaching preparation programs, and looking at how to incorporate this, the article focuses on a particular play, la Pastorela, that has been performed in Mexican American communities since the early 1500s.

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• Švachová, Romana. “The Childish Unga Klara: Contemporary Swedish Children’s Theatre and Its Experimental Aesthetics.” Brünner Beiträge zur Germanistik und Nordistik 30.1 (2016): 51–63.

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  This article highlights the “radical aesthetics of children,” drawing our attention to the need for children’s theater to hold attention but in a way that is enlightening and, crucially, apprehensible for the child audience. It does so by focusing on the experimental productions of Unga Klara, which were rooted in the development of political theater for the child in Sweden in the 1970s.

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• van de Water, Manon, ed. Youth Theatre Journal 17.1 (2003).

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  This issue focuses on ideological forces within theater for and with young people. It contains articles that offer their own perspectives on the impact of ideology on theory and practice within the field and what research in this area entails and/or is required. Examples include the ideological question of incorporating cinematic simulations into live theater and the fundamental (and political/ideological) question of what constitutes a child audience.

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• Wozniak, Jan. The Politics of Performing Shakespeare for Young People: Standing Up to Shakespeare. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.

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  The author uses interviews, performance observations, and workshops to look at the ways young people can engage with the work of Shakespeare. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s work and especially the term emancipation, the author looks at how Shakespeare is constructed as the ultimate cultural capital, particularly in terms of education. The book argues that when Shakespeare’s plays are constructed as theatrical, rather than literary, they can serve as sites where emancipation can occur.

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• Zipes, Jack. “Political Children’s Theatre in the Age of Globalisation.” Theatre 33.2 (2003): 3–25.

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  Following an economic understanding of globalization, this article looks at how theater is turned into a spectacle by global market forces. In analyzing children’s culture in the United States, the author argues that homogenizing forces demand an alternative to “lily-white” middle-class entertainment. Using Walter Benjamin’s writing and drawing on German experimental theater groups, Zipes discusses how plays for young audiences can stimulate social change.

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Storytelling

Telling and listening to stories is central to theater for children, and while “storytelling” is also an art form in its own right, the two have a close relationship. It is included here both as a vital part of theater making and for its frequent appearance alongside theater for children in festivals and other events. As with theater for children, storytelling grapples with whether it is primarily “for” or primarily “by.” Like theater for children, it also can have a close, sometimes claustrophobic, relationship with educational and pedagogical outcomes. Meanwhile, Storytelling with a capital S is sometimes perceived as an oral folk tradition that can almost vehemently assert that it has nothing to do with theater at all. For many, storytelling is firmly located within oral traditions and the unscripted retelling of folktales or culturally significant mythologies. Storytelling within educational psychology often has a strong pedagogical focus on language development or literacy, while in literature contexts storytelling is about narrative form and structure—none of these have much to do with theater for children. In sociological terms, storytelling is about how meaning is constructed and shared within a social world, while for Gersie and King 1990 in therapeutic contexts storytelling can have a quasi-spiritual ability to express inner psychic truths. Wilson 1997 relocates this to the schoolyard, to examine the broad repertoire of adolescents’ own oral storytelling. Both of these strands are implicit in the current upswing of interest in storytelling with young people as a progressive, political, and participatory practice that facilitates young people’s liberated self-expression. This movement is well represented in the journal Storytelling, Self, Society, which, while not exclusively focused on young people, is included here for the valuable work it does in including articles that examine storytelling with, for, and by children internationally beyond the West and anglophone community. The selections presented here lean toward the more participatory end of this spectrum of possibilities. Jack Zipes is a pivotal figure in this world, with multiple publications that have been influential in understanding the potential for storytelling as a tool for young people’s creative and political empowerment (Zipes 2004). Howe and Johnson 1992 presents teacher-led approaches to storytelling within schools that facilitate educational processes while harnessing the open-ended spirit of oral storytelling. More recent work has tended to be located within traditions of applied theater, such as Heinemeyer 2020 and Parfitt 2019, and has a stronger focus on the potential of young people as storytellers exploring their own social world.

• Gersie, Alida, and Nancy King. Storymaking in Education and Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley, 1990.

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  This publication locates storytelling strongly within a therapeutic tradition in which the role of myth is to give voice to fantasy and reality. Within an education context, Gersie and King argue for the role of mythic storytelling in understanding deeply held needs and psychic functions.

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• Heinemeyer, Catherine. Storytelling in Participatory Arts with Young People: The Gaps in the Story. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-40581-6Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This book draws together histories of oral storytelling with young people and the author’s own practice-based research in a variety of contexts (including education, mental health, youth theater). It proposes a “dialogic” model of storytelling, in which the story enables exchange between teller and listener, between reality and fantasy, or between generations.

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• Howe, Alan, and John Johnson, eds. Common Bonds: Storytelling in the Classroom. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992.

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  Presents the case and provides practical suggestions for the use of storytelling in schools in order to support young people in making sense of our world.

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• Parfitt, Emma. Young People, Learning and Storytelling. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-00752-2Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This book examines how young people (aged twelve to fourteen) can learn about the social world, such as ethical, behavioral, and emotional understandings, through the production and reception of oral storytelling. The publication draws upon folklore, sociology, and storytelling practice within three secondary schools in the United Kingdom.

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• Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies. 2004–.

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  Published twice a year by Wayne State University Press, this journal focuses on storytelling as oral narrative in performance. This includes articles focusing specifically on work with children, across many countries in both formal, educational and family contexts and informal contexts. The international scope and engagement with work from non-Western countries is especially valuable, including storytelling practice with children in cultural, applied, and educational contexts.

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• Wilson, Michael. Performance and Practice: Oral Narrative Traditions among Teenagers in Britain and Ireland. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1997.

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  Wilson has published widely on the social and policy applications of storytelling and is a leading researcher in the field. This publication draws upon fieldwork in schools, libraries, and youth clubs to examine the oral narratives of teenagers.

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• Zipes, Jack. Speaking Out: Storytelling and Creative Drama with Children. New York: Routledge, 2004.

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203338803Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Hugely prolific and influential, this is one of several books by Zipes that examines the social function of storytelling and its role in revealing and understanding the world around us. This book is based upon Zipes’s use of storytelling within inner-city schools in the United States as a tool for developing children’s self-expression and creativity.

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Queer TYA

While queer and LGBTQ+ writers and themes are prominent within theater for adults, their presence remains more elusive and unfortunately sometimes controversial in the performing arts for children and young people. A presumption remains in many cultures and countries that children—particularly younger children—are somehow outside of sexuality and that such themes should not be discussed “in front of the children,” Indeed, several of the texts within this section begin with an observation of the absence, erasure, or silencing of queer voices and perspectives in theater for young audiences. The texts here also assert the vital importance of active resisting what Williams 2020 terms adultism, and the importance of theater in providing representation, visibility, and voice for young queer narratives. Giannini 2010 and Simons 2015 examine the presence of queer narratives in plays and productions for teenage (high school) audiences. While welcoming the growing presence of such works, they also critique it for often presenting narrow representations in which homosexuality is deemed always as a problem or state of victimhood. Williams 2020 and Boffone 2020 both examine how queer narratives intersect with race, forming a double invisibility or marginalization. While Boffone follows Giannini and Simons in focusing on play productions for youth audiences, Williams describes the need for a radical queer pedagogy of youth theater participation. It is noticeable that both these texts were published in 2020, and they represent a slow growth of work in this area, echoed in the presence of the theme within a growing number of postgraduate theses and its importance for young contemporary researchers. Amer 2016 and MacAskill 2015–2017 both focus on the potential of queer narratives for younger audiences, Amer through a critical-analytical focus and MacAskill through a practice-based inquiry. While MacAskill’s Gendersaurous Rex project received a perhaps predictable negative news coverage, questioning the appropriateness of combining the topics of sexuality and theater for the early years, its prominent development within a leading TYA organization (see Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, cited under Festivals) indicates that the sector and its artists are increasingly at the forefront of thinking and practice in the representation and presence of queer identities within TYA.

• Amer, Lindsay. “Towards a Queer Theatre for Very Young Audiences in Scotland and the United States.” Scottish Journal of Performance 3.1 (2016): 9–28.

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  The first critical application of queer theory to theater for the early years. The article draws upon Kathryn Bond Stockton’s theories of the queer child and Matthew Reason’s work on young audiences to interrogate how theater productions for very young audiences might offer progressive narratives that challenge stigmas for LGBTQ+ people.

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• Boffone, Trevor. “Young, Gay, and Latino: ‘Feeling Brown’ in Emilio Rodriguez’s Swimming While Drowning.” In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature. Edited by Trevor Boffone and Cristina Herrera, 145–157. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020.

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  This chapter examines how playwright Emili Rodriguez’s Swimming While Drowning gives subjectivity and voice to gay Latino teens as outsiders within an already marginalized community. It is a close, critical analysis of the intersectionality of race and sexuality within plays for adolescent audiences.

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• Giannini, Annie. “Young, Troubled, and Queer: Gay and Lesbian Representation in Theatre for Young Audiences.” Youth Theatre Journal 24.1 (2010): 4–8.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929091003732864Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the presence of gay and lesbian characters in theater for young audiences in the United States, proposing that while a small body of drama now exists, this largely limits representation to a stereotypical discourse of “troubled gay youth.” The article advocates for the need to move beyond the presumption that all homosexuality is inherently a source of problems for young people.

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• MacAskill, Ivor. Gendersaurus Rex. Edinburgh: Imaginate, 2015–2017.

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  Gendersaurus Rex was a practice-based research project funded by Imaginate to explore gender, sexuality, and queerness in the context of live performance for children. Consisting of a blog, workshops, and performances, the project asserted the importance of engaging with and exploring sexuality in and through performance for children.

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• Simons, Sara M. “Teaching Tolerance without Pushing the Envelope: The Laramie Project in High School Theatres.” Youth Theatre Journal 19.1 (2015): 62–72.

  DOI: 10.1080/08929092.2015.1018469Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  First produced by the Tectonic Theatre (United States) in 2000, The Laramie Project is a verbatim theater piece based around the homophobic murder of Mathew Shepherd. It has since become one of the most performed—while still controversial—plays in US high schools. Simons argues that the centrality of the “victim narrative” and focus on tolerance rather than radical change is one reason the play has become acceptable for school productions.

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• Williams, Sidney Monroe. “Learning My True Colors: Race, Sexuality, and Adultism in LGBTQA Youth Theatre.” Theatre Topics 30.2 (2020): 125–132.

  DOI: 10.1353/tt.2020.0019Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This article examines the intersectionality of race, gender, and class in relation to youth theater. Williams articulates their sense of invisibility produced by the absence of diverse texts and representations within TYA and the dangers of an “adultism” or “grown-ups know best” approach, which silences young people’s self-expression. The article models and advocates for a queer pedagogy within youth theater involving creative play and self-agency.

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