CONTEMPORARY FRENCH DRAMA TEXTS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

The aim of this work is to present contemporary French drama texts for children and youth as a tool of understanding ourselves, others and the world. The ambition of the work is not to compare or evaluate the French approach to dramatic arts in education with the Czech one; it rather describes and shows how it works in France. Thanks to the drama text, which is an indispensable part of the mosaic of many different aspects of cooperation, we can look into an almost organic connection of theatres, publishing houses and schools, where these institutions share one common denominator a child. Therefore, in our work we deal with the history of theatre for children and young people, as well as with the first editions of plays aimed at children audience. Next, we analyze selected works and we discuss examples of possible work with children in schools. For better comprehension, we come with an example of collaboration between artists and teachers in elementary school in Saintry sur Seine, who together with children prepared the performance of a contemporary text. In conclusion, we think about the debate on the theatre for children and young audiences in the Czech Republic and France, which took place during the first festival of French theatre in Prague