Childrens Theatre

What Is Children's Theatre?

Good Children's theatre overall must be entertaining for the children. Engaging them in ways other media cannot. The performances must be silly and light hearted, the actor having full control of their body and voice making sure they are inextricably synched. Doing what the role requires, whether that includes high energy levels or exaggerating beyond whats comfortable, but the actor must always be fully committed to the performance. If not the children will not be engaged, become bored and lose interest in the production.

Good children’s theatre can also educate children through entertainment, through silly humour, basic morals and simple narratives.

What skills does an excellent children’s theatre performer need to poses?

The performer must first learn to mute their self critic, to not care of their appearance whilst playing these potentially over exaggerated characters. The actor must commit to discovery, be open to explore and experiment with energy levels and characteristics. The actor must really feel the performance, learn to not over think anything, preferably not think at all, just feel. Use the sounds you create to influence your movement and your physicality.

The performer must be in full control of their body and voice able to use them to there maximum effectiveness. Using the body and voice in the tasks they have been given, showing full commitment doing whatever is required for them to do.

How would you adapt an issue for delivery to a specific audience?

 The delivery of this issue would vary from audience to audience, it may need to be simplified and made more light hearted for younger audiences or introduced with a more subtle nature with an adult one. How the issue is introduced also needs consideration. Whether it should be low key, never being directly stated to make the delivery more life-like and less preachy. Or directly stated, to confirm that the audience understands the issue and what that entails.