Milestones in American Children's Theatre

It is no small task to paint a clear picture of the forces which first brought American children's theatre into being at the close of the nineteenth century, later salvaged it from the narrowly prescribed form and content which shaped its character in the early decades of the twentieth century, and, later still, prodded it into the more sophisticated and challenging structures, styles, and topics which, by fits and starts, began to emerge in the 1930s, and which now characterize the most notable plays in an increasingly mature repertoire. To trace the history of the children's theatre movement in America is to wade through a web of sporadic developments in artistic quality, conflicting attitudes about the very nature and function of theatre for young people, and, at times, poorly documented efforts and achievements in both play writing and play production. And what makes the task that much more formidable is the lack of a discrete definition as to what theatre for young audiences is or should be: Should the genre embrace only plays written and staged by professionals in legitimate theatres? What then of school-based drama, or the multitude of plays developed throughout this century by and with children and adolescents in cultural and social centers? Must a complete perspective on the genre therefore include plays conceived and performed by children themselves, plays they have had a hand in writing as well as ones written for them?

Several recent publications have helped to bring some order to the plethora of types, changes, and trends in both form and content which have shaped American children's theatre since its modest beginning. In Theatre, Children and Youth (Anchorage, 1982), a hefty handbook for critics and practitioners alike, Jed Vavis and Mary Jane Evans provide, among other things, a historical context for contemporary theories and practices by acknowledging the influence of former philosophical and aesthetic beliefs on current attitudes toward the nature and development of child audiences. Roger Bedard's Dramatic Literature for Children: A Century in Review (Anchorage, 1984) describes the principal issues and developments which have informed the American children's theatre movement from the 1880s to the present. The volume contains thirteen representative scripts, chronologically arranged, which Bedard illuminates with astute commentary on the social, political and artistic sentiments and values in which the plays are rooted. Then came Six Plays for Young People from the Federal Theatre Project (1936-1939) (Greenwood, 1986), edited by Lowell Swortzell, which draws much-needed attention to a short-lived heyday for children's playwrights. Although sometimes forced into allegiance to restrictions imposed by President Roosevelt's New Deal politics, and too easily drawn to obvious moralizing and plot contrivance, the New Deal playwrights produced a remarkable number of plays in a variety of styles and forms which, however dated they may now seem, once attracted thousands of children and adolescents to the theatre. And to fill in some of the gaps left by the preceding titles, there is Nellie McCaslin's comprehensive Historical Guide to Children's Theatre in America (Greenwood, 1988), which offers brief overviews of both the accomplishments of more than 300 commercial, community, and educational theatre companies, and the contributions of America's most significant professional playwrights and most influential theatre organizations and associations.¹

Now Bedard and Tolch have gathered together eleven carefully researched and richly documented essays which chart yet another Cook's tour of some major milestones in the evolution of a distinctly American brand of theatre for, by, and sometimes with young people. Far from covering new territory, however, the essays in Spotlight on the Child offer some fresh insights into, as well as critical analyses of, a variety of plays, playwrights, and theatre companies highlighted in other recent histories of American children's theatre. Here, the route begins in the late eighteenth century with the publication of Charles Stearns' Dramatic Dialogues for the Use of Schools, touted in Jonathan Levy's perceptive opening piece as "the first...