Hope.

Here is an excerpt from a little essay I wrote in response to an application for an international exchange for directors interested in theatre young audiences. Leaving it here to remind myself:

“It took me awhile to understand why I loved theatre for young audiences, why I felt compelled to create work for children, why to me, it was one of the few kinds of theatre that was purposeful and meaningful. When I first started, I thought it was about awe and magic and imagination, running to faraway places and having great adventures. To me then, it was about giving kids permission, about possibility and play. 

It was only in recent years, when I began to make theatre, that I began to dig deeper into the true importance of theatre and play in a child’s life. That the theatre is a safe space to talk about things that bind us and restrict us, to unpack fears and desires and discuss important ideas in simple and deep ways. That the theatre was a place to play, so that children can learn about the world and prepare themselves for it. Theatre was a way to see the present differently, and perhaps imagine a better future. 

It was only then that I understood that theatre was a way to address the anxieties of growing up, tempering the darkness that the world has placed on our children, sometimes too early in their lives. The mere existence of TYA has the potential to empower children, to engender hope in them, give them the strength and courage to fight the demons that lurk at the edges, together with their loved ones. It’s because of hope; the idea that scary creatures could be fought, or that one person dared to take a stand for someone else who was bullied, that difference is to be celebrated and not shunned, that children and their adults are not so scared to face the bad things as they both grow. 

Theatre for young audiences protects childhood in a way that encourages children to be as they are, but also readies them for change. It comforts the adults and reminds them of their own eternal child, even as they witness their children grow in strength. It is hope disguised as gentle resistance, against the darkness, against the status quo, against all things that forces them to conform and give up. Every story told is a hope for the future. And that is my politic and my belief, to fight the darkness by giving children light wherever possible.”