Courtesy, Conservatory of Creative Dance, Salt Lake City, Utah Opportunities in dance drama both for the audience and players. The children are wishing to be something else an ant, a butterfly, or a grasshopper. From the Italian folk tale, White Patch. Opportunities in the Arts.-Many city and suburban children hear great music played by symphony orchestras in an annual concert series for young people. Television and radio have contributed immeasurably to their education in music. Children are taken to visit art galleries and museums. But where can comparable dramatic opportunities for child audiences be found in this country? There are many adults who still look back with a warm feeling of happiness at that memorable occasion when as a child they saw Maude Adams in Peter Pan. Many of today's children will grow up to tell that one of the most thrilling experiences of their childhood was seeing Margot Fontaine in the Sadler's Wells Ballet of The Sleeping Beauty. Theater of this caliber is rare in America, nearly nonexistent. Children who live in England, however, have professional theater. at Christmas time at least, in the "Pantomime," that glorified vaudeville tied together with a fairytale, which the whole family attends. Professional companies in other European countries present plays for children either at holiday time or for a longer season. Russia has one of the finest professional children's theaters in the world, with companies that play during the winter in the cities, and far in the hinterland during the summer months. Believing in "education through art," the government subsidizes these theaters, and sees to it that standards are kept high. Most of the children's theaters in America are amateur, sponsored chiefly by parents who feel a responsibility for providing entertainment of good quality for their children. Several hundred communities produce from one to five or six plays for young people each season. These productions are supplemented by plays from touring companies, most of which have their headquarters on the east or west coast.12 Developments in Children's Theater The Children's Theatre Conference. The national organization for the children's theater movement in the United States is the Children's Theatre Conference, founded at Northwestern University in 1944 as a Division of the American Educational Theatre Association (AETA). 13 The membership of the association (1,500 in January 1960) is drawn from all types of children's theater groups, both amateur and professional. The purposes of the conference are to promote the establishment of children's theater activities in all communities; encourage the raising and maintaining of high standards in children's theaters; provide a meeting-ground for children's theater workers 12 For information concerning these companies, write John C. Walker, Executive Secretary. American Educational Theatre Association, Department of Speech, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. 13 A brochure explaining membership and activities in the Children's Theatre Conference may be secured from the Executive Secretary of the American Educational Theatre Association, John C. Walker, Speech Dept., Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. through sponsorship of an annual national meeting, and of regional meetings and conference committees throughout the year.14 The Annual Meeting, in late August, is a time when the members gather to exchange ideas, to hear distinguished speakers, to attend children's theater productions, and to see demonstrations of creative drama techniques and technical skills. The Children's Theatre Conference (known as CTC) has a strong regional organization, the country being divided into 16 regions, each of which holds an annual conference in addition to the national meeting. Interest in children's theater is by this means carried far and wide, along with a greater understanding of what both formal and informal drama can mean to a community. In the years since it was organized, the CTC has carried on many needed projects, such as formulating standards for evaluating plays. compiling children's theater directories, interpreting the terms used in drama with and for children; making a survey of colleges and universities offering courses in children's theater and creative dramaties; writing a monograph on Basic Principles and Practices in Children's Theatre and Creative Dramatics in the United States. Something Wonderful Could Happen if people in every community would come to realize that children have a hunger for things of the spirit as well as of the body and mind; if they realized that present entertainment leaves much to be desired; that even if the mass media were all that the most discriminating parent could hope, pictures can never be more than shadows on a screen. If parents care enough to take the responsibility for a children's theater, yet fear so big an undertaking as an organized theater with several productions each season, one step may be taken by providing a single play each year. This is not difficult for any community that has one good trained director. The high school drama teacher might be this individual. A person who has had good training in drama but is doing something quite different for a living might also qualify. This might be an avocation, as it is with many people in community theaters-a "live option," as it were. If no such person is available, it is often possible to secure a production from a nearby college which makes a practice of touring one children's play annually. Good professional companies make tours throughout many parts of the country; and one of them may be engaged for several performances of the same play. The principal consideration in securing a professional group is the quality of their performance. It must be superior. 11 From the Operating Code of CTC, Educational Theatre Journal, December 1958. In planning ahead for such a production, secure a good play, the finest director available, and as many capable actors as possible. Do not give a children's play to make money. Do not use it as an opportunity for people to act. Children recognize genuine acting even though they cannot tell how they know. In a performance of The Prince and the Pauper, played by college and junior high school young people of little experience, a substitution had to be made at almost the last moment for the part of Mrs. Canty, mother of the pauper. A skilled actress was called in; and from the moment of her first entrance a dramatic hush fell over the audience and lasted as long as she was on the stage. The children had sensed instantly the difference in the quality of her acting. Even if they had not known, the theater's responsibility for setting high standards would have been just as great. Many players who are not skilled are convincing to child audiences because they themselves believe-believe in their character, believe in the reality of the story they are living. Relation of Children's Theater to Creative Drama Children's theater and creative dramatics are two different aspects of child drama; the first, formal; the second, informal. There is no conflict in ideology between them; rather, they complement each other. Children's theater is primarily for child audiences; creative dramatics is primarily for the children who participate. Plays written by playwrights serve as material for children's theater, lines being learned by the players, action planned by the director. In creative drama, ideas, experiences, and stories from literature and history are the material out of which children create plays. There are no set lines to learn, and the teacher acts as a guide, not director. The children's theater aspires to perfection in order to create the illusion of reality for the audience. Perfection is not the object in creative drama, though children are encouraged to do the best work of which they are capable. In their effect on child players, formal plays are conducive to poise and confidence. If well directed, they may contribute to a child's skill, to his understanding of character, and to his appreciation of theater. Informal drama gives a child a sense of responsibility and much exercise in independent thinking. His creative ability grows from helping in the development of the play and improvising his speeches. His vicarious life-experience is much broader because of the chance to interpret many roles. Creative dramatics is a much more natural form of expression for young children than is formal drama.15 Since it is spontaneous, creative drama comes from their own thoughts and imaginations so that they form the habit of thinking what they say rather than reciting from memory. Older children, with a background of creative dramatics, are capable of playing naturally in either formal or informal drama. In planning for a children's theater, it must be remembered that an experience in the theater can be a significant one. "Each child is a record of all his yesterdays", wrote Charlotte Chorpenning. Every experience counts in making him what he is, for better or worse. Because of Mrs. Chorpenning's feeling of responsibility as a playwright for what "buried memories" may mean to children, she wrote these lines: May we who write for children, not forget To times and scenes we dream not of as yet, Yea, children are the future of the world.16 15 Children's Theatre Conference, "Interpretation of Terms," Educational Theatre Journal, May, 1956. 16 Chorpenning, Charlotte. Children's Theatre Press, 1954. 21 Years With Children's Theatre, Anchorage, Ky., The p. 112. |