Theatre for children and young audiences: the way of experiments

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Edukaciniai projektai; Eksperimentai; Lėlių teatras; Performansai; Stalo teatras; Teatras vaikams; Vaikų teatras; Children's theatre; Educational projects; Experiments; Performances; Pupet theatre; Table Theatre; Theatre for children.

ENIn Lithuania, a country where the prestige enjoyed by theatre in society has always been high, childrens theatre has for a long time been the poorcousin of theatre, and plays for teenagers an absolute terra incognita. There were many reasons for this, but the most important was the approach that children are infantile, ignorant creatures who need to be amused and lectured. Therefore, in Soviet times, musical tales and the staging of classical works prevailed in our theatres’ repertoires. In addition, the directors and actors entrusted by theatre managers with the task of staging childrens plays were far from the best. However, in the puppet theatre, the famous director Vitalijus Mazūras (b. 1934) created a unique world full of original visions, not always understandable by children, but one that surely had a positive impact on the development of their artistic taste. Nowadays the concept of childhood itself has changed: the perception of “childhood as innocence” has been replaced by a look at children as “knowing, choosing an identity”1. And it should be noted that culture and especially the performing arts respond more quickly and sensitively to these conceptual changes than does the education system. [From the publication]