The Next 200 Years; Children's Theater

and partially in america the professional children's theater and we always think in terms of broadway in new york as our professional career in adult is really not much that we can be too proud that we don't have a little broadway for children's theater ways communication a university of texas austin this is the next two hundred years as the united states looks beyond the bicentennial celebration the next two hundred years explores the american future this week's panelists are coleman a jennings associate professor of drama who heads the department program in children's theater and creative dramatics or and harris leading playwright for children's theater in america and currently a guest member of the university of texas at austin drama faculty and janice all done year graduate student in children's theater and creative dramatics was a candidate for a master of fine arts degree this as rex we're this week we will explore the unchanging world of children's

theater what is children's theater what sets it apart from theaters we know it for adult audiences was start was dr jemmott well children theory is for the child and it is not young children up on a stage performing it is a doll's performing scripts that are specifically written for children so children's theater art theater for youth is the script and the audience plays directed specifically for the young children with adult actors performing for them ms totes will take the words out of my mouth well being a playwright a children's theater to me to me a meat really exactly those two words children's theater it's legitimate entertainment and theater using material for children in a way that they can understand and enjoy mr sabatino an intern mr harris is that in the words of my

ob i see children's theater as a wonderful source of entertainment that in today's world television and movies and other canned entertainment just does not offer because it has lived a child that's a very spontaneous just and thrilling vicarious experience our children's bodies in a specific age group to the four sixth day it directs the year or scraps or if we wanted to look at it from a playwright's view point to the audience what kind of audience are you seeking i have my answer for that now not everyone will agree with me children from up to about those seven yeah i don't think should be included in the audience of what we call children's theater they returned to his ear that i use those children those young children to certain headaches a dramatic experience they should see puppet shows they should

cede too informal shows themselves which we call creative dramatic they should know there is such a thing as we can make believe and have all the enjoyment of that world but they're not really ready to sit in an audience for an hour and a half for a show does that they're not ready to sit in school that long for one period or a television show but then beyond that age going from about seven to teens about thirteen that's the big area where i write my place for children's theater they're ready now for formal theater or i think in school the main emphasis should be on creating direction for more classroom were not for an audience but there should also be the opportunity to see a good formal playing that caught the icing on the cake for me to see something that they can raise or spend as part of our american heritage drama if they are only exposed as jonathan said the television to movies to the canned drama vegas seven there's something wonderful about this give and take an audience you see so georgia state ethics are performing a pungent american children in

that way now the older children repeated the junior high and high school of course they've always had formal drama makes should continue and i used to write plays for the high school there was a former pla unit was boy meets girl no sex no drinking no smoking boy loses girl a second and answered the end once at more girls but that there's no longer a true most high school students don't really want local communities to socialize outside i found my niche i feel in that in children's place july that they're exactly what i like so i write them we were frequently given time creating dramatics and i think it was just time and very well but would you like to expand a little more on that in contrast to the formal play the dignitaries left why would that create drama we think of it as being a very informal activity the children are involved playing out stories we tell them stories we do a lot of improvisations giving them certain ideas and learning and

creates stories to dramatize we do a lot of sense aware of his activities and this activity is designed for the children and it is not designed for an audience they are creating they are having fun and i think fun is so important and just just enjoying this activity and they have a beginning middle and end with your teacher it can be a strictly an art activity that it's extracurricular art can be tied into the curriculum and we were using the drama for a creative outlet our curriculum but we're not performing for an audience and that sets it apart from the children's theater i think this is this is very important and so many times in the school's principal are other people expect these young children to perform a play and this is what we're trying to avoid because we feel that this is not the best thing for the cellist and tears put out and really these children should be doing this thing for themselves and performing for child audience is very difficult and it

takes adults great a lot of training great scale to hold its audience c can expect young children to hold the attention of another group of children this so i added a summary i would say the creator max his informal and participation angeles cedars for more product adults performing for the child's well what are some of the differences techniques in order to tell this audience i think you mentioned one of the critical point because those of us who have experience for their own children course we see others build a child's attention for more than thirty seconds to a minute it was difficult to go to college student's attention in the classroom much much less these young people are full of energy and so what about a job yes that's one of the major differences between children's theater an adult theater in children's theater the scripts are specifically designed to suit the needs and the

interests of children it must be relevant to the child's own world records to hold his the tension and even to get his own imaginations spring he identifies with characters with whom he or she are familiar with and so are sometimes the material can be i'm just like and spirited as mr harrison center please an online or maybe a very sober historical dramas such as steel way home but in both cases there is relevance for the chill for the children and i think mr harris can sort of point out right that we could slip up an hour on the devices one uses in writing or directing to keep jurors' attention but the main thing of course is the story the story of the play must something must happen it's i like to think of is what happened next that kind of like what happens next what happens next in this is it and why you do build up expectation and then something happens but when that happens that's a small crisis isn't the us is going up right along with that do you finally get

the whole act will play but it has to be something happening all the time and this doesn't mean that that many people say what you'd play are are actually course there you don't ever have a hero who is static he's a hero but that doesn't mean a three ring circus going on and it has to be the lawyer fighting are hitting all the time an action play can be a very quiet place but there's something developing that the child like character develops with not problem place not plays like that but he bears a goal he wants or she wants and and that goal is slowly tamed by force that against a force that set equally matched as it does not have violence that has that kind of action but it's a tension that kind of action actually it does result of tension it was and then you relax open and some are are scenes are very short interest rate is one way to gain attention does bring a new character that's when his election gains attention but as you pointed out they have been involved with the

character and he wants to get involved with him and like him identify with and then they'll go right along and walking with him get something and then hold their attention and also i think it's very important that these plays be honest not only in the rioting but in the directing and the acting and i think any time that you can to send our use what is currently happening in the arctic that kind of can be things you know that we were not really doing it for the job were doing at an in joke and laughing and if that doesn't work and home sooner because the children recognize it and they rejected so we certainly strive for honesty and also i feel that the play should it ideal playing time is about an hour and fifteen minutes and this action is ravaging this hairstyle made it moves it was very quickly and we do our shows without emission yes this is the next question i was going the judges but addictive brokered a banana mission and they are continuously flowing which imposes some are interesting no technical

problems doesn't and if you have already use primarily a one set of details supper is it the more impressionistic are weighted various and shallow but every heck i'm working on a show now sacrament fifty miles and one things i emphasize with the designer is that we were there will be no intermission and you've got three locales and you've got to design a simultaneous at our said that can revolve change so that we can go right on to the next scene and you know what we're playing and see it without that a fear that sees a thousand and having emission is a mechanical error of letting those thousand children go out and again back in their seats that's that's a problem itself but what it more than that and that the goal of keeping the play going and some people feel that you can't hold an audience for an hour and fifteen hour an hour and thirty minutes we've proven over and over and we see all the country if the play's exciting and well acted well directed they will seek that but it is that they will be moving to the bathroom which

really tough but that is and then of course they'll make their own information that one was from the pirate point of view there are many relocated localities and producers who really want an intermission they have smaller audiences to begin and also they make quite a bit of money off of selling soft drinks are some of the debris filled in and they'll make their big profit if the information and they would not give it up for anything but it's a summer's worth it and it's nice to go outdoors in the garden hours and that that's an entirely different thing but as a playwright i think that most places there is a one but at least there's a bit of metal climax after which would ordinarily be an intermission at least one sometimes or two so when i write a play i indicate that information i've worked up to a climax to a curtain now there's usually an old saying that if no intermission they don't want it continue the plight and he uses the same setting you go right on sometimes it's the same position as the actors are so you could have the edge along animation or you could just have the car go down and write up again the bee

well made play used to be always in three acts you introduce the characters you that tree in the second that you get him down three and sees a crime show the gun works with now that the producer and the director are here with me was commissioned by the national endowment for the arts it's the first time i should add that the children's theater has been recognized by him down and i mean i feel very honored that i'm the first children's play right to receive it writing fellowship creative writing fellowship from the less about to write a play for children at a brand new play called toby show and i think one reason they gave it to me was that it's by i recreated bit of americana of the old tent shows that had pulled the shows which are children nothing about the toby is the ideal redheaded freckle faced country bumpkin that children will dollar city and i hope to give them a little of americana will tell the shows were always in three acts always been too long in emissions in which they sold candy

and this kind of money was pretty important it may also be a little more blacks in between know the actor doubled in the orchestra he then went on the stage and he was the hero and the sole candidate eventually got back on the air on the second act so i was the author i wanted to and feel that this is a human to a musical family showed many people offended so i caught just a colby show that they're going to build all the show went on that case because i had arrived in three acts gaza are two intermissions that's with it now it'll be played here in three acts but there will be no cause for an intermission the curtain will go down on a very funny i hope situation the end the first act political right back up and joe magnani seat but even that gives them this necessary relief from tension just the thirty seconds laughing and then again already what's going to happen next which i would go back to director know we've heard from the playwright and the producer well the interesting thing that i found about toby shows that i spent the entire past few months doing research just on dr

specifics about a show as you said it is a part of americana they were up rural far smaller dramas which are performed in repertory i think what is so exciting is that they were performed under canvas tents now today unfortunately with inflation we cannot supply tent but that's a challenge that's the challenge for director and decided to come up with a as accurate the reconstruction as possible at the same time maintaining flavor and at the same time getting mr harris has played on stage specifically designed for children and that's the one important thing that i have found out you take an adult form of theater and then r rearrange it and trying to suited for children i find that the script has done that beautifully and if you have the script the right script and production possibilities are endless regimen there's one thing that kind of intrigues me about the children's theater program here to university of texas

over all and though having lived in new york who where i worked on a master's degree or a real was there concern that we held in neon until i am sometimes a moment very culturally and tom and of course my own statement was the most cultured group of ever seen sometimes reside in the military but i know for example that houston they operate in houston points to the largest high school new audience in the united states this is not widely known around the rest of the country now i see you when i'm on campus many dams school bus up their school bus gunmen going to hold auditorium which is one of the for a large local other koreans and i also understand that the children are coming over here to save children's theater how

widely on an audience do you have here in your program at the university we could perform i think at least three times a week every week of the school year if we can get the drama majors out of class currently we have an arrangement with the austin school district which we bring all of the fifth graders to see a play each semester now we're talking about approximately was somewhere between eight and nine thousand fifth graders and we have the form that in that an auditorium for these join andy i'm the school administration keep saying why can't we bring the fourth graders the third graders to six letters as i said before we we would do that if we could get the students out of class so we have two major productions that we do each semester that the fifth grade children say then we have a masters of fine arts program in children's theater in korean drama in which directors such as johnny sutton you present place for children and

once again we work with schools and bring in specific grades a couple years ago we premiered as you know and here says spellman yankee doodle here at the neck and play the same way and then a couple years later and seventy six we did a perfect had a professional touring company will with a professional company we could keep them performing longer and we did present the play to many more ochoa there's also a great market for touring the state than the market an image already and i think they should see at least two children's toys a year at every grade level if we just have the time but let me i a man a minute but let me at least you'd see good children's rights and if the universe to texas and that's gonna be good because this is one of the best children's to the farmer in america and in the card but we do have a few during companies some of them are are good and some them are not and but they've they're the ones that are not still say that we have shown live entertainment until you've never seen an actor and i say yes and they'll never go back to

another plane as it right by the television even honestly unfortunately in america the professional children's theater and we always think in terms of broadway in new york as our professional feared an adult is really not much that we can be too proud that we don't have a little broadway and bagby for each of the professional children's theater in new york in the area they're wanted to again very good companies but most of the other companies do their best but they're not really good the good to the state in america is the regional theater like your texas like in minneapolis like good university of kansas to see the universities now are are really doing great things and tilted anchoring in the states like in nebraska in terms of mining kansas and north carolina you know every day the curtain goes up twice today among much of this makes me very happy and when the united states for instance want to join the international children's theater conference of all the countries they weren't going

to let america and be on stage and at first because our great emphasis was on creating dramatic switch and our professional companies you see we're as good as the european we're in the organization we're getting better with our professionals in their time of professionals is not related to regional theater of course again america is so big that we have all kinds of theaters going geographically big we have all kinds of different localities going on which doesn't i had a very interesting interview in london just a month ago with their leading to live theater playwright and the first question was asked what you see all your productions was that i couldn't possibly physically go out to see the multilingual he can do that what you going as good inside and my next question which was going to be either we stand up in regards to the united states sir now would you like to add just little more unnerved go mum how we compared to these other states in terms

of numbers do you i mean texas oh yes well we have a lot of creative dramatics activity in the state and i think the reason i keep wishing great matches i think these are very integral they they complement each other and fact that the texas education agency is come out with a handbook of created drama for the classroom teacher in this is really an engraved dramas apart the school day along with art and music then as far as john cyr there are several good jealousy or groups in texas quite a few of the universe to groups that i would say that texas is very high in the strong activity at for the young children and also a secondary level texas' is really very it's outstanding indie drama activities johnny what do you look forward to after graduation well there are several positions open that's artist available for in general all creative dramatics in children's theater directors and teachers there is first of all the high school teaching position

which offers a high school director opportunities for producing plays for children and i think this is so wonderful because it can be integrated into the entire school system the high school performs plays for children they contort to the elementary schools which are in the community also in college a little more training more teaching an especially wet because most important more directing i'm not familiar with these specialization that it's not being done with great comics or specialist whether they can go around from school to school and i think what were also learning right now is integrating craig dramatics not only for children but with the handicapped with the elderly the possibilities are just endless and i think that's were great dramatics really makes its mark visited doesn't restrict itself to any special group or category of children is a timeless an ageless we have a rare opportunity to date to have a producer i'm a playwright and a director of what is undoubtedly the outstanding his children's production in

the country at the present time since it has been financed <unk> national endowment of the arts and this gives us an insight into what we can anticipate in the future and our children's theater in i think the definition should help the adults were listening to this program i understand better allen support better this whole area of theaters since it is vital for development of children and two adults on dissidents this as rex we're two hundred years have is a continuing series of weekly conversations about the american future the next two hundred years is produced by katie fm in association with the news and information service and distributed by communication service university of toxins a us tour this is

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