Theater for Children and Young People

Abstract

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.