Describes the development of the Children's Theatre Foundation, a significant source of funding for projects in children's theater. (MM)

Examines teacher perceptions of both the value and status of drama in education. Surveys 184 teachers in 13 elementary schools in the Niagara region of Ontario. Finds that 99% of respondents reported a positive attitude toward the value of drama in education, but 80% reported a negative perception of its status in the educational system. (PA)

Lists nine assertions pertaining to the field of theatre for children and youth. Spurs questions and discussion that provides useful contextualization for all of the papers presented for a symposium--papers which ranged widely over diverging ideological subjects. (SG)

Considers how in the past 15 years, with renewed interest in women writers and education for girls, there has been a revival of interest in the Theatre of Education, a large, coherent body of plays for children written in Europe and America between 1750 and 1830. Discusses plays written for children from the 1500s to the early 1900s. (SG)

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…

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…

Describes how the staff, company, and board of trustees of the Honolulu Theatre for Youth responded when their artistic director contracted AIDS. (MM)

Explores the stories of teachers who were prepared to risk and explore process drama experiences with their students. Considers what influences would emerge as important to them when they began to experiment with drama teaching practices. (SG)

Describes the author's directing experiences in Lima, Peru, and in San Migual de Allende, Mexico. Includes insights gained through work in both Spanish-spoken theater and bilingual Spanish-English theater. (SR)

Recounts the life and times of a pioneer children's theater playwright and fiction author, Nora Tully MacAlvay (1900-86). Points out that her interest in children's theater and children's literature was lifelong and intense. (PA)

Surveys four-year college and university theater departments on the status of child drama programs in the U.S., including child drama academic programs and children's theater productions. Includes specific responses of schools offering degrees or emphases in child drama. (SR)

Looks at the differing production choices and dramatic methods endorsed by two settlement workers, Alice Minnie Hets and Lillian Wald, as witnessed in the opening productions of their settlement houses, where the dramatic arts were among the tools used by social workers to help fledging citizens adopt American ways. (SR)

Examines problems that both professional and university youth theatre programs share, namely, concerns about finances, personnel, facilities, artistic quality, and public relations. Discusses how all of these problems may, in reality, be financial problems. (JD)

Presents a vision of an ideal theatre education situation, states the current status of theatre education in the U.S., and proposes strategies to follow to achieve a balanced curriculum in creative drama and children's theatre for every elementary school in the country. (JC)