Children’s theatre

Children’s theatre

We started children’s theatre by reading a play specifically aimed at children called “The See-Saw Tree” and reading through an extract of a book called “Twice as Difficult, Twice as rewarding.” From reading these in particular I have discovered that children’s theatre was not what I expected. One thing that surprised me the most is within ‘The See-Saw Tree’ script there was the death of animals and animals losing their homes. I didn’t think that, that sort of thing would be suitable to children, however from linking this script to the article it seems to be the right thing to do as it keeps the children gripped just as it would with adults.

Also I found that interacting with the audience is a good thing, getting them involved in the journey of the play, though it cannot be too much like a Pantomime, the audience participation in children’s theatre is more subtle. For example ‘The See-Saw Tree’ is based on a council deciding whether or not they should cut down the tree to build a new park, it then shows what could happen to the animals if they do starting chopping down trees and then it gives the opportunity for the children to be in the deciding vote whether to keep it up or take it down. So in the end there are alternate endings which are inevitably decided by what the children choose to do with the tree.

It takes a lot of hard work to do children’s theatre, as all your energy needs to be put into your characters and you must believe that whatever you are acting is real. So not at all like a Pantomime where you would sort of have a sense of, ‘well I know that you know that this isn’t real’ type effect.  If you do not believe it then the children won’t. Resulting in an unfocussed audience and you won’t get the reactions that are intended.