The Location of Children in the Theatre Landscape

This paper examines constructions of childhood and their implications for the expression of identity in contemporary performance works with children. Drawing on historical perspectives and performance-based research, the paper focuses on the ways in which directorial and design choices might nurture the unique characteristics of child performers. Using a scenographic lens the paper considers recent contemporary performance case studies from Europe and my own practice to reveal where children are currently located in contemporary performance work and the political implications of that positioning. While this study is aligned closely with the ethical intentions and epistemologies of conventional Theatre for Children and Young People, its primary objective is to construct an account of productive relationships between child performers, the stage environment and the director with a view to identifying directorial and design principles that can be generalized and are reproducible when working with child performers