Present-day children's theaters have few illustrious champions to give them prestige, but their standards are rising, thanks to the quality of many of the people who are working in this field of the theater. The National Children's Theatre Conference has been steadily carrying on an educational program since its founding in 1944. Playwriting competitions are stimulating young authors to try their hands at writing children's plays. Many colleges and universities are producing and touring one children's play each season, and child audiences in the older established children's theaters are growing more discriminating with each season's experience.

If and when children's theater production reaches a high artistic level and at the same time never loses its appeal to the child— more gifted writers will be attracted to this field just as distinguished authors and illustrators have been entering the field of providing fine and beautiful books for boys and girls. Children in the middle and upper grades could appreciate more mature plays than are now offered them; and authors who can write plays with depth of meaning underlying their easily understood plots contribute not only delight in entertainment to a child audience but help to build a worthy philosophy in the lives of the boys and girls.

This is the most urgent need of the children's theater today. Good scripts always interest the best directors, designers, and actors, both professional and amateur; and when they are well produced, they arouse an enthusiastic response from the parents and children who see them. Great theater for children can only come about with great plays. Both organizations and individuals over the country are working toward this end. They are offering prizes in play competitions, trying out new plays, experimenting with interesting techniques, and arousing a wider and wider interest among adult theater people.

Developing Plans for a Children's Theater

If a community is convinced of the need of a children's theater and is willing to work for one, it would seem advisable to study how such an enterprise has been successfully accomplished in other communities. Some community groups have organized children's theaters with full seasons of plays. Others are merely sponsors who present one or more productions each season. The examples given below a few out of the many which might be named in each category-show something of the wide range of children's theater activity over the country.

Types of Sponsors

Civic Theatres.-Portland, Oreg.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Tulsa, Okla.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Pittsburgh, Pa.

Colleges, Universities, or Professional Schools.-University of Minnesota at Minneapolis; Goodman School of the Theatre, Chicago, Ill.; Northwestern University (co-sponsor with the public schools), Evanston, Ill.

Parent-Teacher Associations.-Wellesley, Mass.; Anderson, Ind.; Detroit, Mich.; Hartland, Wis.

City Recreation Departments.-Washington, D.C.; San Diego, Calif.; Richmond, Va.; Boston, Mass.

Junior Leagues.-Flint, Mich.; Shreveport, La.; Rochester, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N. Mex.

American Association of University Women.-Chattanooga, Tenn.; Rapid City, N. Dak.; Crystal Lake, Ill.; Lawton, Okla.

Community Children's Theatres Sponsored by a Combination of a Few or Many Participating Organizations.-Seattle Junior Programs; Nashville, Tenn.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Omaha, Nebr.; Oakland, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Spokane, Wash.; Milwaukee, Wis.

Plans for Organization

A community group, wishing to found a children's theater, may begin by seeking to interest all organizations concerned with children. Since there is often no trained theater person in the community to initiate a children's theater, it is possible to solicit the cooperation of parent-teacher groups, recreation departments, public libraries, elementary teacher groups, Junior Leagues, the American Association of University Women, and Scout and Campfire leaders. The public school administrators should be among the first to be contacted. Any or all of these community groups may be invited to make up a planning committee for a children's theater organization. From 20 to 30 representatives is a good number with which to start an organization of this kind. Such groups are usually enthusiastic, but uninformed. One of the first steps is to give them some background concerning the value and purpose of a children's theater.

The manual written by the Seattle Junior Programs could be very useful. This group is a strong and efficient organization and may well be emulated by other communities. This particular manual suggests that board members be chosen from a variety of organizations; and that many active members be enlisted for the actual work

of such committees as finance, program, theater facilities, tickets, promotion, and the many educational aspects connected with estab lishing a children's theater.

Choosing Sponsors. If the theater is to be a truly community project, a sponsor or sponsors should be representative of the whole community. A single organization, if deeply interested, can manage the project alone, as so many Junior Leagues have done. The citizens, no matter how appreciative, will not consider the theater their own unless it is a community organization, such as a city-wide parent-teacher association, a community theater, or a city recreation department.

It is advisable in organizing a community children's theater to contact all representative community groups especially concerned with the welfare of children in order to ascertain the degree of their interest. The first of these will be the elementary school administrators. If a vital interest is established with them, they will be the most valuable sponsors of all. Indeed, without the cooperation of the public schools, it would be unwise to attempt a children's theater.

Selecting Facilities.-A suitable auditorium and stage will be one of the first requirements for a children's theater. An ideal place would be a beautiful little theater with 500 or 600 seats, with checkrooms for coats, rehearsal space, workrooms for making and storing costumes, scenery and properties, an efficient switchboard, exhibit rooms, and a large foyer. However, an auditorium or a community theater is usually available. Perhaps, at some future time, some beneficent citizen will offer a theater built especially for children's plays, as was the case in Palo Also, Calif.

Lacking any adequate auditorium, a large room with no stage at all has been found to be entirely satisfactory. In fact, it has some very real advantages over an auditorium with a stage. A considerable number of children's theaters now present all their plays "in the round." These arena stages are often only the floor space in the center of a circle of seats. If plays are given for an audience of not more than 200, it is possible for all children to see if some sit on the floor in the front circle, others on small chairs, and the back rows on ordinary chairs. For a large audience, platforms are necessary to raise part of the seats to levels where every child can easily see the play.

These theaters are much more intimate than the picture-frame type, and children like to be close to the players. Several of the new designs for children's theaters with stages have a semi-circular seating arrangement which brings the whole audience near the stage.

Courtesy, Western Springs Theatre and Arts Center, Western Springs, Ill.

An ideal stage and auditorium for a community theater.

Children's theater directors often find that an arena arrangement makes a between-scene conversation for director and audience easy and natural. Although care should be taken not to dissect the play or production so that the illusion is impaired in any way, the director can make the children aware of aspects of plot or character which will add greatly to their appreciation. Sometimes, too, they like to learn a witch's spell, or sing little songs from the play. In several of the English children's theaters where plays are done in the round, children in the audience often find themselves drawn into the action of the play, as townsfolk, perhaps, or people at a fair.

Although the beauty of setting and lighting which every child should have the change to experience is only possible with a proscenium stage, it is a good thing to know that simple productions can still be effective "in the round," making use of costumes and properties but without any scenery.

Theater Production

Since arena theaters require a different kind of directing from that used for a proscenium stage, it will be necessary to consider first whether the group will be producing its own plays, or engaging outside groups which require one type of theater or another. Many present sponsors produce one or two themselves and supplement them with several programs from other sources.

Such sources may be the drama department of a college if there is one in the vicinity; a high school drama department (in some of the larger communities several high schools contribute one play each); a private studio; a community theater; a professional touring

company.

There are at present a number of touring companies in the country presenting plays, puppets, dance programs, and other types of entertainment for children. Many theaters regularly engage one or more of these each season.3

Staff for a Producing Group

If a group is able to produce its own plays, it will, of course, need a staff. The most important members of such a staff are the director, technician, business and publicity managers, and costume head. Most necessary is a director with theater training. Without a trained director there can be no real theater. But there are few communities which do not have several people who have studied in the theater departments of colleges. The training will probably have been in adult theater, but if such a person knows and likes children, he or she can adapt his knowledge to the children's theater.

There is an advantage in having a permanent director rather than a different director for each play. A long-range view in choosing plays, a working acquaintance with sponsors, staff, and potential players, and a reputation for high standards built up over the years, go far in insuring the success of a children's theater. A permanent director should, of course, be paid.

If the right person cannot be found for this position, a governing committee must take on many of the responsibilities which a permanent director would assume. The program committee should read and evaluate many plays in choosing the year's program and in planning for several successive years. Directors will have to be found and consulted on the plays they are to direct. Players will be assembled for tryouts. When a director is staging a play for the theater for the first time, members of the committee should watch rehearsals from time to time to make sure that standards are being upheld.

Qualifications of a Director. Whether a children's theater direc tor stages one or all of the plays of a season, he needs two qualifi

3 Information may be obtained by writing John A. Walker, Executive Secretary, AETA, Dept. of Speech, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.