Ana Alvarado and Patricia Suarez

Scanned with CamScanner

 PROLOGUE

Adults who interact with children on a daily basis feel the need to bring
them closer to art because we know how many benefits it offers them, both in
the immediate present and in the future. Theatre is a phenomenon of great
aesthetic and human wealth, which deserves to be studied and valued
according to its merits. Children who attend theatres enjoy not only the plays
but also the contact with the artists, the music, the scenery, the lighting.
Theatre is also a social, convivial event, one of collective impact and exchange.
Reading drama in the classroom involves many voices, and the classroom
activity with students is very satisfying. When we talk about theatre for children,
we are not referring to those shows put together with an opportunistic sense
based on a television success - the so-called light theatre - but to the creations
of artists especially involved both with the world of theatre and with the world of
children. Nowadays, children's theatre offers an overwhelming range of
possibilities and registers: puppets, object and shadow theatre, black theatre,
circus, dance theatre, clown, musical comedy...
Now, how do you recognize children's theatre? What are the -
differences and similarities between children's theatre and theatre for adults?
Why are Shakespeare's Hamlet or Ibsen's A Doll's House not children's
theatre? Since when has children's theatre existed and who are its main
exponents in Argentina and Latin America? How does the child behave in the
theater? Is he a naive, uneducated spectator, or a spectator with
characteristics different from those of an adult? How to work with theatre in
the classroom? How to build a scale of values that allows for selection criteria
and distinctions in the critical exercise - as T. S. Eliot - between good and bad
theatre?

Scanned with CamScanner

 We have attempted to answer these and other questions in the
following pages. And since we consider it essential that the reader
comes into direct contact with the creators' words, we have included an -
interview with director Hugo Midón - a brilliant figure in children's theatre
over the last thirty years - and three dramatic texts by Ana Alvarado and
Patricia Suárez.
We hope that readers will find in these pages tools and
encouragement to increase children's love for theatre.

NORA LIA Sormani

Scanned with CamScanner

 What is theatre?

* The theatre: a definition

Theatre is one of man's great artistic languages. It is the art of the live
scene, which is embodied in the bodies of the actors, in an encounter of
presences with the spectators. For some historians, its origin dates back to the
6th century BC, when it was born within the framework of Greek religious
festivals. For others, theatricality can already be spoken of in the practices of
the first oral poets, such as Homer, so its birth dates back to the 10th century
BC. approximately. In the East, theatre dates back much further: the ancient
Hindu poem Natya Sastra tells how the gods gave theatre to men at the
beginning of civilisation.
Theatre is different from cinema, television, literature, plastic arts and
music. In his book El convivio teatro, the critic Jorge Dubatti has synthesized the
elements that come together in what he calls the theatrical event, that is, the
singularity, the specificity of theatre with respect to the other arts.
According to Dubatti, the theatrical event manifests itself in three
causally and temporally concatenated moments, in such a way that the second
depends on the first and the third on the previous two. The three moments of
the constitution of theatre in theatre are:

• The convivial event, which is a condition of possibility and

antecedent of...
• The language event or poetic event, in the face of whose advent
occurs...
• The event of constitution of the spectator's space.

Scanned with CamScanner

 43 The convivial event

The starting point of theatre is the convivio, the meeting, the encounter of a group
of men and women in a territorial centre, at a point in space and time. A conjunction of
presences and direct human exchange, theatre does not allow for technical intermediation.
The bodies of actors, technicians or the audience cannot be missing. One does not go to the
theatre to be alone: conviviality is a practice of socialisation of present bodies, communal,
and means an attitude of rejection towards the socio-communicational deterritorialisation - in
García Canclini's terms - fostered by technical intermediations: the telephone, satellite
communications, chat, the Internet, television or radio. As a gathering, the theater does not
agree to be televised or transmitted by satellite or optical networks, nor included in Intérnelo in
a chat forum. It requires the proximity of the encounter of bodies at a geographical-temporal
crossroads. It involves a transmitter and receiver facing each other. Without conviviality there
is no theatre; hence we can recognise in it the principle of theatricality. Unlike cinema or
photography, theatre requires the presence of artists and technicians at the convivial event
and, as it does not admit technical reproducibility, this! empire par excellence of the auratic -
according to Walter Benjamin-. Beatriz Sarlo says in an interview:

"I go to the theatre a lot and there is something about theatre that I learned from
Walter Benjamin: the risk that theatre has fascinates me, the risk of making a mistake,
the thing about actors walking a tightrope. It's what Benjamin calls the aura. He thought
that there are arts that can be reproduced technically and others that cannot. One of
the cases in which reproduction is possible, for example, is photography. A
photographer takes the first plate and from that negative infinite reproductions can be
made. There are also arts from which a photographic reproduction can be made even if
the work of art is an original: plastic arts. I can take a photo of the Mona Lisa and print it
on a poster. The original Mona Lisa has an aura; the photographic reproduction does
not. In the case of theatre and

10
Scanned with cg
-amscanner
 The aura of live music cannot be reproduced: no photo or video recording of
a theatrical performance can restore the aura. In the theatre, the aura is in
the immediate presence of the bodies. This is what makes it so exciting.
There are many people who say they can't stand theatre because of the
actors; what they can't stand is the aura, that magnetic thing that actors'
bodies have, even bad actors.

At the gathering, not only the actors' aura shines, but also that of the
audience and the technicians. The theatre is a gathering of auras, and it is not
lasting, it lasts as long as the conviviality. Consequently, it is also the empire
of the ephemeral, of an experience that happens and immediately vanishes
and becomes irrecoverable. Due to its ephemeral dimension, theatre - like life
experience - is consumed at the moment of its production. The outstanding
Argentine director Ricardo Bartís reflects in his book Cancha con niebla on the
theatrical past as a loss:

"Theatre is a volatile performance, a pure occasion, something that falls

apart the moment it is performed, something of which nothing remains. And it
is good that this happens, because it relates it deeply to life, not with the
realistic idea of a copy of life, but with life as an ephemeral, discontinuous
element. In this sense, theatre seems to contain, at the same time as the
seriousness of death, the ridiculous grimace of death, its pathos, its naivety.
In a hyper-artificial, hyper-visual age, the materiality of theatre remains a
primitive, reduced element, like an obligation of a closed, minority future:
people locked in the dark doing silly things.

In the aura of the theatre, art takes on a dimension of danger that

cinema lacks: the actor can die before our eyes, he can get hurt, the text can
be forgotten, the performance can be interrupted and suspended. The
convivial event is a non-transferable vital experience - not communicable to
those who do not attend the theatre -, territorial,

Scanned with CamScanner

ephemeral and necessarily minority. The latter, if compared to the capacity to attract audiences and
the technical reproducibility of cinema or television, offered simultaneously in hundreds of theatres
and millions of homes.

Item " ' •' YO*. 1 • J* 1 h • - 'f '

8 The poetic or language event

Suddenly, in the context of the gathering, a second event is triggered: poetic language.
Usually, a conventional indicator signals the arrival of this event: the lights in the room go out, the
music is silenced, the curtain is drawn... Thus, within the conviviality, a language event begins and
a different ontological order is established, another world is inaugurated. It centrally engages the
artists' bodies, their full aura dimension. The physical body is transformed into a poetic body. The
materiality of the scenography becomes fictional nature. The work itself begins.
The specialist Hugo Bauza, in his book Voices and Visions, states:

"Through [theatrical] poetry, the word [and non-verbal language] reveals itself as a
demiurgic logos and, through it, the poet - by means of a kind of poetic metaphysics -
while assuming the world, creates another one situated in the sphere of art."

During the performance, the actors' bodies and their representation on stage produce
verbal signs - words - and non-verbal signs - mime, movement, scenery, lighting, costumes,
music and noises, makeup and hair, objects or stage accessories. On the scene everything
becomes a sign.

• ,• ' I j, I r N • * «;*

83 How do signs work in theatre?

These signs have two ways of producing meaning:

12
Escaped with Camscanner
 • Verbal and non-verbal materials constitute signs that establish-name-describe a
world of representation and meaning, a universe of reference! The construction
of that world marks a leap into the fictional world. A universe is created that is
parallel to the world, its "complement" - as Umberto Eco expressed it in Obra
abierta -, another possible world within the world, which participates in the nature
of fiction, the imaginary and the aesthetic.

• An unlimited semiosis occurs on stage. That is, infinite production of meaning

proper to the aesthetic function that organizes all materials, both verbal and non-
verbal. A brief description of a case is enough to point out the otherness of the
poetic event, the leap towards another world. A small spectator, moved by what
happens in the play, tries to get on stage to help the poor victim of the play. In
reality, the child will not be able to protect the character, but will only hinder the
work of the actress who plays him. Because the character happens in another
plane of reality. The most wonderful thing is that the new ontic dimension of the
poetic event produces an amplification of the world, founding new territories of
being.
This is what distinguishes theatre from other forms of spectacle that we can
define as "paratheatrical."
Football, religious ceremonies and secular rites, parties, fashion shows, political
speeches and actions, magic, carnival, non-fictional television, and a good part
of circus skills do not establish a parallel world to the world, but rather occur in
the ontological sphere of reality. The differences between theatricality and
paratheatricality are related to the event of expectation.

The expectational event

Attending the events of this poetic world created by the author and the actors, the
witnessing, contemplation and affection of the universe

1
3

Scanned with CamScanner

Language from outside constitutes the third event or the establishment of a space
complementary to the poetic one: that of expectation. The spectator is constituted as such
from the line that separates him from that other universe of the poetic. But, as soon as the
work begins, the spectator can leave the space of expectation and enter the field of the
poetic event of language, that is, be 'caught' by the work, start enjoying the work and forget
about his own reality. As Dubatti states:

"Awareness of the nature of expectation is a knowledge acquired by informed

and cultured spectators. On the contrary, it can happen among children and naive
adult viewers that there is no awareness of the separation between art and life."

F Dramatic text and spectacular text

Among the discursive forms of theatre, we can distinguish two main ones:

Or the dramatic text: is a type of literary text endowed with scenic virtuality, that is,
representability - it can be brought to the stage or performed - It is made of words, it is an
eminently verbal text. This is what is commonly known as "the work" or "the dramaturgy."
Generally, the dramatic text pre-exists the staging and organizes it, although in recent
years different types of dramatic texts have been recognized: author's dramaturgy, actor's
dramaturgy, director's dramaturgy, or group dramaturgy.

a) Author's drama is that which is written at a desk, before being staged, and
responds to the traditional concept of dramaturgy. Example: the text of El niño
de papel by Ana Alvarado was written before the staging and to be staged.

14

um-- Scanned with CamScanner

 b) The actor's dramaturgy is that which the actor produces in his performance on
stage. Generally, he does not have a previous text but rather a script of actions or
topics that guide the improvisation. Example: scenes of a clown during a show are
recorded and then transferred to paper.

c) Directorial dramaturgy is that which arises from the creative work of the director,
with the collaboration of the creative team. It is a dramaturgy of space, which is
written during the rehearsal process. Example: a good part of the works of Hugo
Midón, Héctor Presa or Claudio Hochman, among many others.

d) Group dramaturgy: the texts result from the work of the team members. Example:
the adaptation of Martín Fierro in Martín le yerro fiero made by the group La Cuerda
Floja or Faust or let's split, the devil is coming, by La Banda de la Risa.

The dramatic text has a fixed structure, rules that distinguish it from other genres. Its
core is made up of characters situated in a space and time. To present them to the reader,
the playwright uses acts, scenes, dialogues and disdascalias or stage directions.

G The spectacular text: is the text of the staging that, unlike the dramatic text - made of
words - consists of a "thickness of signs" - in Roland Barthes' terms - verbal and non-
verbal. According to semiologist Tadeusz Kowzan, they can be grouped into two
categories:

a) the actor's signs: includes the spoken text (words and tone), body
expression (mimicry, gestures and movements) and the actor's external
appearances (makeup, hairstyle, costume);

1
5

Scanned with CamScanner

 b) signs outside the actor: appearance of the stage space (props, scenery and
lighting) and sound effects not vocally articulated by the actor (music,
sounds, noises).

Throughout the book we will permanently distinguish between the dramatic

text, the book that is completed by the reader's activity, and the spectacular
text, the spectacle that is completed convivially by the presence of the actors
and the exercise of the spectators.

Every dramatic and/or spectacular text constitutes a poetics, that is, a set of
formal and thematic procedures that, when selected and combined with each other,
generate a certain theatrical sign structure, carry an aesthetic ideology in their
practice, produce an effect of reception and generate meaning. At least three major
types of poetics can be distinguished:

1. Micropoetics: This is the poetics of a particular dramatic or spectacular text,

of a specific and precise textual individual. Example: the micropoetics of the
show "Narices" by Hugo Midón.

2. Macropoetics: This is the poetics of a set of dramatic and/or spectacular -

texts of a textual group. It results from the elaboration of the common
features of a set of texts by an author, a director, an era, a team, a
generation, etc. It involves working on specific textual realizations or textual
individuals (micropoetics), but includes a mass or thickness of texts (two or
more micropoetics). To define a macropoetics it is necessary to start from
the analysis of micropoetics, and then consider these as a whole. Example:
the macropoetics of Hugo Midón's theatre (the set of his shows); the
macropoetics of Argentine children's theatre in the post-dictatorship (the set
of texts produced from 1983 until today).

16

Yo
Scanned with C'mg
emscanner
 3. Archipoetics: abstract, logical textual model that exceeds concrete
textual relations, whether micro or macropoetic. Example: the
archipoetics of realism, the archipoetics of comic theatre, the
archipoetics of melodrama, etc. Archipoetics are the heritage of
humanity, great international models.

We believe that a complete understanding of children's theatre requires a

detailed study of micropoetics (textual individuals), then the development of
macropoetics based on overall observations and, subsequently, the design of abstract
poetics or archipoetics. We propose, then, an inductive knowledge, from the
particular to the general.

Scanned with CamScanner

 Theatre and children

"A country without theatre for children can be a catastrophe, because it

means the loss of the most interesting part of culture, precisely when
children need this theatrical culture more than anything else."

CARMEN BRAVO VILIASANTE

What do we call children's theatre?

Children's theatre is not just a collection of poetry and performances aimed at

children. It is a more complex artistic discipline. It is a sector of the entire theatrical
field that is related to the rest, that is, to the so-called "adult" theatre, according to
two fundamental categories: community and difference. It shares many elements
with adult theatre and, at the same time, has certain operating rules of its own.
As a sector of the theatrical field, it involves five bands (according to a
reworking of Pierre Bourdieu's intellectual field theory):

G A set of creative agents

□ A set of management agents/agencies
63 A set of creations
Or a set of legitimizing agents/institutions (A flow of public and/or readers

Scanned with CamScanner

 The creative agents are the specific creators of the aesthetic material,
both of the dramatic texts and of the spectacular texts: directors, actors, authors,
set designers, musicians, costume designers, make-up artists, adapters,
translators. In addition, those who, even fulfilling less central functions, intervene
in the processes of constitution of the aesthetic object: trainers, playwrights and
advisors, among others. Representatives of this category are, for example, the
directors Hugo Midón and Héctor Presa, the San Martín Theatre Puppeteers
Group, the writers Adela Basch, María Inés Falconi and Patricia Suárez -of whom
we will speak in detail later in this book-,

O The agents/management bodies are those that connect and insert the
works into an institutional framework of production and circulation and in relation to
the public. Often they are the creators themselves; other times, they are
professionals specialized in theatrical management: entrepreneurs, venues,
representatives, press officers, publicity managers, lawyers, editors, or -
organizations such as Argentares (Argentine Association of Authors), the National
Theatre Institute, Pro teatro, to name just a few.

G We call creations the aesthetic objects in themselves: the dramatic texts

and the spectacular texts, as long as they involve a set of poetics and a specific
language. We are referring to all the works that are staged in theaters, or the
drama books that are published for reading.

4 Legitimizing agents/institutions are those formations in the theatrical field

that work as intermediaries between creators, management bodies and the public.
That is, the press, awards, competitions, festivals and fairs, universities and study
centers, artistic sponsors, specialized magazines and bookstores, museums,
libraries, academies and associations. The actions of these institutions determine
the location of artists and their creations in a hierarchy of values within the theatrical
field, in a scale of prestige or network of legitimation in which the concepts of
"good" and "bad" theatre are defined - with permanent changes and with diverse
perspectives and positions.

G The flow of public and/or readers is the variable mass of spectators and
readers who, based on different stimuli, receive the aesthetic objects.

Or how to recognize the entity and the limits of children's theater?

Children's theatre is the sector of the theatrical field linked to the phenomena
of children's culture.
What is children's culture?
We call culture, according to Eduard D. Tylor, the integral dimension of the

20

Scanned with Camscann'r

life of a society, all the practices and conceptions from which man relates to reality,
builds it and inhabits the world. Tylor wrote in 1874:

"Culture (...), taken in its broad ethnographic sense, is that complex of

knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs and any other aptitudes and habits
that man acquires as a member of society."

In short, "child" culture is all the activities, knowledge, beliefs, etc. of a

people related to childhood. As for "childhood", we define it following the Spanish
sociologist Ferrán Casas, who in his book Childhood: Psychosocial Perspectives
states that this term comes from the Latin, "in-fale" - he who does not speak, he
who has no word -, that is, the baby. Over time, the field of reference of the word
was extended to the denomination of a specific period of the life of man, including
an age interval. This interval is absolutely conventional, so that each culture and
each era determines the age period it covers. According to different criteria,
childhood extends from 0 to 18 years, or from 0 to 15. Researchers in today's world
argue that the number of years has been shortened under new cultural conditions.
We can define childhood as a set of psychosocial characteristics of subjects in

state of development. Every society, throughout its history, constructs a

different representation of childhood, creates different images of childhood. And
the truth is that, whatever the period covered, internal stages can be
distinguished, different "moments" in the child's development.
According to this definition of children's theatre - the sector of the
theatrical field formed by five bands and closely related to the culture of
childhood - it is worth asking how theatre is involved with children's culture.
We believe that children's theatre acquires its identity as such in the
event of children's reception. In the fact that children are the receivers of the
spectacular text or the readers of the dramatic text. It is the public or the child
readership that determines whether a work is for children or not based on its
acceptance or rejection. If children turn their backs on certain theatrical
phenomena, it is because they do not fit into the conventions that each era and
each group redefine as children's theatre. Many theatre professionals maintain
that there are no formal or thematic differences between theatre for adults and
theatre for children. However, why are Shakespeare's Hamlet or Strindberg's
Road to Damascus not children's theatre? The answer requires defining
relationships and contrasts, community and specificity.
If it is the receiver who, in the act of reception, gives the theatre its
"childish" character, we maintain that two different forms of this theatre can be
distinguished, considered according to the interrelation between the creators and

21

Scanned with CamScanner

that specific audience or receiver that is the child:

• Children's theatre through internalisation. These are works in which

creators take into account a priori - from the very moment of their
conception of the shows or dramaturgy - the child who will receive or
read them. In this case, authors and directors work from the knowledge
of the conditions of children's culture and the specificity of the child -
viewer and reader. In this case, the child operates as an implicit
spectator/reader.

• Children's theatre by appropriation. These are works in which the

creators did not take into account the public or reader.

AND

22

Scanned with CamScanner

E.zu ftauurgansonz-zs v,

child a priori and which, however, have been "taken" or "appropriated"

spontaneously, sometimes unpredictably, by the children themselves in
the event of reception. Perhaps the clearest example of this category can
come from literature. This is the case of works such as Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, which were not created specifically for
children, but which they have appropriated afterwards and of which they
have been passionate readers. A recent paradigmatic case on the
Buenos Aires billboard is that of Allegro ma non troppo, by the Clun
Theatre Company, a show designed for adult audiences but which,
however, was seen mostly by children. It was not its creators who
decided that it should be children's theatre, but the child spectators
themselves who went to the theatre. The child operates in this case as a
historical or empirical spectator.

4 To take into account

• The fact that a child or group of children works on a play does not make it
children's theatre.

• There are no specific procedures for children's theatre. Consequently, it

is not the procedures that define it, but rather the combination of these in a
certain poetics, as we will see later.

Recapitulating all the concepts we have been handling, we can conclude

that:

We call children's theatre that which involves the child spectator from a cultural
experience regime that is familiar to him/her.

Scanned with CamScanner

 specific, from its particular way of being in the world, whether through
internalization by the creators or through appropriation by the child public -
spectator or reader.

Or a genre with its own characteristics

As a sector of the entire theatrical field endowed with difference, children's theatre has
a relative autonomy with respect to theatre for adults, manifested in its aesthetic and historical
specificity and in its own rules of legitimation within the theatrical field.

C There are three major problematic cores that define it:

• Its relative asynchronicity with respect to adult theatre. Children's theatre not only
emerged at different historical moments to the stage for adults, but its development
over time presents notable differences.

• The underestimation of children's theatre creations and of the child as a

theatrical receiver. This phenomenon is typical of all artistic activities aimed at
children and is related to the slow recognition that the concept of childhood has
suffered throughout history.

• The tug of war between pedagogy vs. the autonomy of children's theatre as
an artistic expression. This struggle, which is also fought in the field of children's
literature, has its origins in the pedagogical conception that adults must educate
children from a protectionist and utilitarian position. Thus, for a long time, all arts
relating to children were overloaded with "care" that limited their freedom and took
away their artistic essence. In this regard, we recommend the book by the writer
Graciela Montes, El corral de la

24

Escaped with CamScanner

 childhood, and the reflections of Carlos Silveyra in his book Literature
for Non-Readers. Literature and the Initial level.

6 As regards the dramatic text, children's theatre is distinguished from adult

theatre by:

• The concept of simplicity. Every dramatic text for children includes,

implicitly or explicitly, a stripping down, a synthesis and a clarity
necessary to capture the attention of the young reader.

This simplicity is verified in:

a) the linguistic aspect, that is, in the vocabulary and in the sentence and
discursive structures used in the texts.
b) the brevity of the pieces. Synthesis is a necessary condition to keep the
child's attention and not discourage him in his activity as a reader.
c) stylistic procedures. Generally, the approach is a single plot with a linear
development and a clear and finished character design.
d) the topics covered in the works. There is necessarily a cutting of the
topics and worlds represented. Only those topics and issues that may
interest children according to their stage of childhood are used. Creating
a fictional world for a 3-year-old is not the same as creating one for an 8-
year-old. Each age has specific interests and a limited possibility of
particular understanding.

• The uniqueness of the child reader. The difficulties involved in decoding

written language and the subsequent interpretation of a speech
determine that the child is a cautious reader, more difficult to enthuse
than the adult, who already has his reading competence established by
the practice of reading over time. Their intellectual attention span, due to
their psychophysical characteristics, is also shorter.

25

Scanned with CamScanner

• Regarding the spectacular text:

• Specific schedules. Children's theatre performances are usually held in

the evening, especially early in the afternoon - 3, 4 or 5 pm are the most
common. In recent times, especially in the summer, presentations have
been implemented at 7 or 8 pm.

• The seasons. Children's theatre historically has shorter seasons than

adult theatre. In the early days/even years after the dictatorship in
Argentina, children's shows were given almost exclusively during the
winter holidays. Later, both the Teatro San Martín seasons and Hugo
Midón's shows began to appear earlier on the billboards, approximately
around the month of May. These seasons also extended their ending,
generally concluding on Children's Day - in the month of August.
Nowadays, children's shows tend to remain on the billboard throughout the
year.

• The motivation. Adult audiences will usually attend! children's theatre only
for the motivation of bringing a child with you - be it your son, nephew,
grandson or friend. Only after the Ariel Búfano and Hugo Midón theater,
adults began to attend the children's program independently. Many
spectators discover children's theatre only when they have children to -
take along, and not before.

The shortage of specific rooms. There are few specific children's theatre
venues. However, their number has increased in recent years. Some of the
best known are the Sala Alberdi (San Martín Cultural Center), the La
Galera Encantada theater, the Popular University of Belgrano, but this is a
recent trend.

Failure to equip theatres to take into account the physical -

dimensions of child audiences. Even in theatres with a lot of children's
programming, fundamental aspects for the comfort of the little spectator
are not taken into account. An example is the lack of inclination of the floor
of the rooms, necessary so that all children can see the stage well. There
are also no special seats according to the size of the children. These
amenities are already implemented in many theaters in other countries.
The presence of dangerous stairs that could endanger the safety of

Scanning with Cams

 children is also not taken into account. The theatre buildings are designed
for one adult spectator only.

• The uniqueness of the child audience. This very important aspect of

children's theatre will be discussed in detail in Chapter 5 of this book.

*"What is children's theatre for?

Despite its ephemeral nature, theatre does not pass without leaving a
mark. It promotes a positive humanistic formation in children, becoming a powerful
instrument of combat against skepticism, ignorance and mediocrity fostered by this
overwhelming 20th century.
Children's theatre is increasingly making a strong presence in the world of
children's culture. It has become a tool for invaluable contributions. In an
immediate and enjoyable way, it connects the child with the world of art and opens
the doors to aesthetic sensitivity, reflection, the ability to get excited, laugh and -
cry, to understand different visions of life and the world. While entertaining them, it
also develops a humanistic formation in children that makes them more noble and
sensitive beings. Theatre is a language that works with the interrelation of the arts:
it brings together literature, music, painting, dance, singing and mime. In
Argentina, it is considered one of the fundamental intermediaries between children
and literature, since, especially in the case of adaptations, it invites them to
recover what they saw on stage, a posteriori, through reading or rereading those
works that were adapted.

27

Scanned with CamScanner

 Within Argentine culture, theatre - for adults - occupies a "marginal" place
compared to other "central" artistic practices, such as literature, cinema or music.
At the same time, the children's scene has a relegated position within the theatrical
field. Consequently, for Argentine culture, children's theatre is "marginal within
marginality." It's on the edges of the edge. It therefore still needs more legitimising
and protective institutions, more forms of encouragement and improvement, more
editions, historians and critics, more space in newspapers and magazines, on
television and radio, in universities and festivals, in congresses and in grants for
creation and research. The challenge is to achieve the recognition that children's
theatre deserves. It is in our hands to design and implement strategies that allow
us to free children's theatre from the prejudices that still degrade it to a "minor
genre" and to unleash its potential for entertainment and education in national
culture.
Children's culture thus finds in the theatre a rich field of images and
reflections. Ultimately, art, and especially stage art, always forms a man's vision of
the world.
Reading plays and attending shows are the activities through which love of
theatre is exercised. And the child's connection to this ritual can only be explained
as an enigma. What leads a child to require that exercise of sorting or reading a
work? Why does the family group often choose to go to the theatre if it is easier to
access television and video? Is it due to the fictional displays of the imagination, to
the pleasure of words and movements, to the delight of interacting with the actors,
to simple curiosity? Without a doubt, all these explanations are not enough to
define that irrational will, that desire, that bond similar to friendship that is
generated between the spectator and the actors or puppeteers on stage.
There are many different mechanisms of theatre's seduction: the versions it
creates of the universe, the beauty of its plots and images, the possibility of
bearing witness to reality, the mysterious sound power of dialogue, or the dizzying
action of the actors' bodies on stage.
Like love or friendship, theatrical reception is a non-transferable
experience, and the applause and emotion of the audience is a conquest.

28

Scanned with CamScanner

Sometimes more difficult than other goals, because we will never know if we have
come to know its most hidden secret. Like good literature, theatre is the realm of
"uncertainty and conflict," in the words of Graciela Montes.
The habit of attending the theatre is generated because the spectator, in his
devoted frequentation of theatre halls, acquires a competence that increasingly
refines and expands the limits of his experience. Reading plays generates these
same attitudes in the young reader, who is able to enjoy and develop a sense of
humor in relation to the dramatic piece or show created especially for him.

Scanned with CamScanner