Introduction

Among professionals working in the field of theatre with and for young people, myriad definitions of the term "young audiences" abound. Before we can explore how playwrights might approach work likely to be viewed by young people, we must first understand who young people are and what we mean when we talk about theatre for these individuals. This chapter therefore begins by exploring questions that include:

• Who are young audiences?

• What is Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA)? In what ways is it similar to or different from other types of theatre?

• Is it helpful or problematic (or both) to conceive of TYA as a separate type of theatre – a field distinct from or within the field of theatre more broadly?

• In what ways are the processes of actually writing plays for young audiences similar to or different from writing for other audiences?

Who are young audiences?

The question of who "young audiences" are can be a deceptively complex question; the answer varies based in part on cultural contexts. In the United States, for example, for (most) legal purposes people become "adults" at the age of 18, and as such we might consider anyone 17 or below to be an infant, child, or adolescent. However, people must reach the age of 21 to legally consume "adult beverages," and in many states people gain the "adult" right to drive a motor vehicle as early as age 16. Basing a definition of "young people" on arbitrary and conflicting laws is therefore problematic.

Given the conflicting ages associated with adult activities in the United States, it is not surprising that turning to international organizations for a definition of young people is also challenging. For example, the United Nations (UN) offers different/overlapping definitions of children and youth. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by all 197 member nations (except Somalia, South Sudan, and the United States of America), defines a "child" as a "human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier" (46), suggesting that the maximum age of a "child" is 17, but could be any younger age if an individual nation's laws so dictate. The UN simultaneously defines "the world youth population" as "the age cohort 15–24" (Resolution 50/81, 7). Therefore, as defined by the UN, people in most countries between the ages of 15 and 17 are simultaneously "children" and "youth," and (if these definitions are applied to a US–American context), people between 18 and 24 are both "youth" and "adults."

Clearly, there is no "magical" point at which all human beings transition from one presumed class ("young people") to another ("adults"). While people experience biological changes as they mature, most connotations associated with particular classifications based on age are social constructs: they exist because a critical mass within a society has chosen to adopt them. While these socially accepted definitions and classifications based on age may be artificial constructs, they nevertheless have very tangible effects that create divisions between groups of people, often privileging some while oppressing others. As Lee notes:

Chronological age is among the axes of human variability that have been linked to the social distribution of dignity and respect. Children can be marked out as a social group, distinguished by the visibility of their low chronological age. Their points of view, opinions and desires have often been ignored because their age has been taken as a sign that they are not worth listening to.

(1)

Similarly, Clark argues that as adults: "We value childhood. But we also dismiss it. We value the image even as we ignore the reality" (1).

Some scholars (e.g., Aries) posit that the notion of children and childhood was an invention of the twentieth century. Before this time, some argue, children were essentially seen as "miniature adults" who worked adult jobs and did not enjoy a space set aside for personal growth and development that many young people do today. That said, references to children as independent entities from adults (even in the context of theatre) can be found as far back as 2500 years ago in the works of Plato, 2000 years ago in the Bible, and throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as plays specifically for children flourished in some countries, as evidenced by texts such as Stephani de Genlis's 1787 Theatre of Education.

While there are many reasons societies have chosen to "mark out" children as a social group of lower status than adults, Kremar follows the work of Burman to posit that in recent years:

There have been political and economic reasons to assume that children lack knowledge and ability that requires them to have a (female) caretaker for a lengthy time. This results in a freeing of jobs for an adult, male workforce. These social and political forces define childhood, generating assumptions about it: namely that childhood exists, and these assumptions remain embedded in our cultural beliefs about children.

(40)

A number of scholars have analyzed how the arts, including but not limited to theatre, actively contribute to the social construction of childhood. Etheridge Woodson, for example, argues:

While humans must necessarily experience biological immaturity, childhood is the manner in which a society understands and articulates that physical reality. [...] Like early feminists whose work separated gender from sex and deconstructed understandings of "natural," I am interested in unpacking and exploring the ways in which US culture, and the varied discourses and practices of child drama in the US, shape and understand the "child" and the metaphorical geography of "childhood."

("Constructing" 132)

At the same time, not all scholars accept the notion that childhood is primarily a social construct. As Kremar, following the work of child psychologists such as Piaget, notes: "one of the most straightforward assumptions that guides work in developmental psychology ... is the assumption that children are qualitatively different from adults" (39, emphasis in original).

Recognizing that (A) from a biological perspective, children are different from adults, and that (B) most cultures have constructed notions of childhood that distinguish children from adults, it seems important to determine how TYA professionals define the term "young audiences" and what this classification means to...