Children’s Theatre: play production for the child audience

Description

Includes playwriting, directing, designing, producing, and managing of theatres for children. “Children in this country are deluged with books, magazines, movies, and television programs prepared especially for them, but they rarely if ever have an opportunity to enjoy one of our most potent and stimulating cultural achievements: the living theater. A few children are taken to see plays and musicals intended for adult audiences, but a child deserves the privilege of seeing plays written ( as children's books are written) for a child audience performed by living actors. Parents, teachers, educational and community theaters, and social service groups are sensing their artistic, moral, and cultural responsibilities to children everywhere either by producing plays or by sponsoring productions. For all these groups, the book Children's Theatre by Davis and Watkins, is a welcome guide. The book will be especially helpful to actors, directors, and scene designers because it explains practically and inspirationally the vital differences between producing for adults and producing for an audience of children. The authors assume a certain amount of experience or knowledge in their readers. They do not cover the intricacies of scenery design, costuming, electricity, or stage lighting, for example, but include a list of excellent books in these areas in the bibliography. However, they explain certain requirements of many children 's plays, such as disappearances, flying effects, magical spinning wheels, and transportable scenery, in a clear, clean style. There are chapters in the book covering all aspects of children's theater beginning with a persuasive statement of need, through finding the right play, and ending with the problems of touring and a reiteration of the need for highly trained specialists to lead producing groups. The two chapters of greatest interest to this reviewer were those on the business management of a children's theater, and on the cooperative effort of director and actors to work together with no trace of compromise or condescension to present a play for children. Of especial interest to many readers will be the Appendix, which includes an annotated list of 120 plays written in the twentieth century-all of high quality. The photographs, sketches, and diagrams are carefully selected and illustrate clearly the authors' chief points. Perhaps the authors are overly cautious in several places, but only by pointing out the dangers of misguided enthusiasm and by insisting on high standards can Mr. Davis, Miss Watkins, and others interested in theater for children, develop the kind of theater our children richly deserve. Only one statement can be questioned: "The director surely tempts fate if he allows more than four lines of dialogue to elapse without some kind of movement on stage." A director who follows this advice literally would end the play with an exhausted cast and audience. The authors and the publisher should be congratulated for providing a guide to excellence in theater for children, a guide that is exceptional in form, content, and style”.