Reviews the 1988 Vancouver Children's Festival. Explores some of the educational implications of this event. (MM)

Asserts that there is a need for more empirical research in the area of theatre for young audiences. Discusses myths about empirical research. (MS)

States that although many theater producers assume that child audiences empathize and identify with stage heroes during performances, some do not believe children can or should verbalize their private empathetic experiences. Presents results from a study of grade school children that challenges theoretical assumptions about emotional learning…

Studies perceptions of and responses to a production of Barry Kornhauser's play "This Is Not a Pipe Dream" from second, fourth, and sixth graders and adults. Finds that production styles need to be more explicit and organically tied to actions so that metaphoric themes become more recognizably visible and audible to young untrained…

Summarizes the author's understandings with applications and further questionings to: (1) Rights TO drama/theatre experiences; (2) Rights IN drama/theatre; and (3) Rights THROUGH drama/theatre. Asks for responses to her ideas regarding children's rights in theatre. (SC)

Synthesizes teachers' evaluations of university productions of theater for children from 1977 to 1995 by analyzing emergent themes and common factors among teachers' perceptions across play content. Compares teachers' interpretations of their students' experiences with children's responses to selected plays to help explain similar and discrepant…

Introduces "Le Theatre de la Marmaille" from Quebec to the American audience and provides brief descriptions of its drama processes, writing workshops, research studies, scripts, and productions. (VLC)

Describes how a "virtual reality" production by the University of Kansas Theatre for Young People provided the opportunity to garner the perceptions and responses of child audiences as a descriptive study. Discusses students' perceptions of results. Provides little evidence of a "videocy" dimension of perceived reality, for it…

To determine children's "dramatic literacy" and the modal sources of their inferences, a study interviewed 45 Kansas third graders in regard to a theater production of "Monkey, Monkey." Two-thirds of the children reported that third graders in another city would enjoy this production "a lot." A majority found the play…

Discusses a teacher in the middle of completely changing the way she teaches drama and beginning again--by having children teach her. Summarizes what she has learned so far about child-centered drama leadership. (RS)

Describes 45 third graders'"dramatic literacy" and the modal sources for inferences. Finds that (1) the more children used visual cues, the more they used verbal and psychological cues; and (2) inferences about the play's theme were related to aural recall of thematic dialogue and what children reported learning from the play. (SR)

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal which examines factors influencing longevity in the career of a particular high school theatre arts teacher. Notes responses of some jurors regarding methodological concerns and theoretical grounding, but appreciates the writer's personal affinity with her subject and welcomes the…

Discusses the 1996 edition of Montreal's Coups de Theatre. Questions whether festival productions should be juried, what criteria should be used, and how to compare new creations against established productions. Describes various festival productions, a total of 19 productions from 6 countries. Discusses what these plays say to young people. (CR)

Describes a four-hour drama session, held one hour for each of four weeks, in which 15 girls and one boy ages six through eight participated with 17 college participant observers in a 1991 Children and Drama course, during which a drama teacher came to a "different" playmaking process, guiding children to direct their own dramas, without…

Two studies investigate the way in which children make sense of a play and the visual, aural, and psychological components of theatre which contribute to this comprehension. In the first study, 32 fifth graders saw "Don Quixote of La Mancha." In the second study, 45 third graders saw "Monkey, Monkey" (about the Chinese Monkey King). The day after…