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Summary: Children's Plays

15878
Kelly Burcher
MUSI 730 – Gerber - Assignment #3 - April 11, 2017            How to Produce Children’s Plays (1915) is a comprehensive resource from early in the 20th century that includes the historical significance, sociological aspects, scenery, costumes, and specific directing techniques pertaining to the production of child dramas. Author Constance D’Arcy Mackay goes into much detail about how to tailor the art of stage performing to the child’s mind and heart, motivating them to become active in the performing arts and develop a sophisticated taste for theater.   
     Mackay traces the development of children’s theater to early nineteenth century pantomime in England. She claims children’s active participation in theater began in the mid-nineteenth century, with an unidentified operetta that combined incidents from Mother Goose, a production popular in England and America. In terms of the children as audience members, H.M.S. Pinafore and Uncle Tom’s Cabin were both productions that children attended with their parents. Ultimately, the humor of H.M.S. Pinafore was much too mature for children to completely understand, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin was deemed an ill-advised choice due to the slave whippings and tragic plot.
     Shows that were appropriate and fun for children were sparse, but around the year 1892, social settlements began to recognize the need for children’s theater. Some of the first informal productions included The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Three Bears. The School of Ethical Culture in New York City was the major force in advancing children’s theater, leading to the establishment of a children’s theater in Boston (1903), and later, a children’s theater in New York City owned by the Educational Alliance (also 1903). Mackay paraphrases Walt Whitman: “Train the dramatic instinct of the children of today, and the drama of tomorrow will be great drama because its audience will demand it.” This perspective motivated the children’s theater movement. 
     Mackay lists many helpful techniques for child productions, the first being to ask yourself questions: Where will their performance take place? Will I be working with mostly girls or boys? Do I have a pedagogical scheme? Is the plot doable for this age group? Etc. She claims that a major mistake is to make a child feel “forced,” and if the performance seems “too easy,” the child will not endure. Topics that are beyond the emotional range of children include lust, social ambition, despair, trickiness, vice, money-lust, or power-lust, so they should be avoided when choosing a theatrical performance. Mackay describes that the performance will be most successful if the child is “expressing his or her inward self – not acting in the adult sense of the word.” This creates much more complexity for the director/producer in terms of choosing a cast, and then facilitating a successful performance from the children. Among other details are the length of rehearsal time, cast selection, costumes, scenery, and plots that are more easily executed by children, but are still challenging and meaningful.

This page has paths:

  1. Literature Summaries & Research Abstracts Steven Gerber

This page has tags:

  1. Topic: Musical/Theatrical Features Steven Gerber
  2. Topic: Infrastructure Steven Gerber
  3. Work: How to Produce Children’s Plays Steven Gerber
  4. Topic: Aesthetics Steven Gerber
  5. Topic: Genre/Form Steven Gerber

Contents of this tag:

  1. Participant: Burcher, Kelly