Theatre for Young Audiences

Since my last post, I've read three issues of Eclectic Reading, one issue of OK Magazine, one issue of The Economist, one issue of The New Scientist, and two issues of The New Yorker.

I've also read two interesting books, Philip Pan's Out of Mao's Shadow, and Splendid Exchange by William Bernstein. Pan's book is about the lack of approval for several Chinese people's activities -- a documentary film maker, a doctor, etc. It was clearly written and was a quick read, but it had that superficiality that is so common in books written by reporters. Splendid Exchange is about how trade changed the world, starting with the Ancient World, and culminating with the significance of the Panama and Suez Canals, and the straights of Hormuz and Malacca. None of this was news to me, I just nodded in agreement for about four hundred pages.

I also read a stack of plays for young audiences by Dennis Foon, Dennis S. Craig, and Eleanor Albanese. I thought Dennis Foon's New Canadian Kid was brilliant in its use of gibberish for what is being spoken around the immigrant child. That's the play that stands out the most for me. However, Albanese's Body Image Project, Zak and the Magic Blue Stone, Signe's Lost Colours, and Power of One were also excellent -- unsentimental, treated of issues well, accessible language, interesting characters. Each had a different hook: the Body Image Project I think for all concerned parents and young women, Lost colours for the elderly friend, etc. I'm full of questions for her now!

I read Foon's War, which was not sentimental; Chasing the Money, a play about teen gambling -- I didn't even know teens gambled; Mirror Game, which showed me how to be more inventive with stagecraft; Am I the only one? which I thought was a little trite (easy for me to say); and his screenplay Little Criminals, the first screen play I've ever read, although I did read books on how to write screenplays;

I also read John Lazarus' Chester, You Owe my Bird an Apology. I found it a bit sentimental, but it's possible it's intended for a younger audience that the other plays. The same is true for Foon's The Short Tree and the Bird That Could Not Sing. I also read Lazarus' Babel Rap.

The effect was what I had hoped: I now am full of ideas about plays for young people!!!