Creating and critiquing children’s theatre

Other than an awareness of the audience’s age, is there any difference in how theatre-makers and theatre critics approach work for young people?
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Patch Theatre’s Me and My Shadow. Image via www.lmnop.com.au

For many theatre-makers, creating work for young people, whether for pre-schoolers or teenagers, requires a different approach than when creating work for adult audiences.  

‘Often the methodology in making it [involves] working with young people in order to do that sort of playback – what’s working for you? Does this sound authentic, do you believe these characters, does the story engage you? Not always but a lot of the time that’s what happens,’ said arts education consultant Meg Upton.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts