Who Killed Pinocchio?

Today in the TYA class at NYU, we will talk about one of my favorite moments in theatre history: the end of the Federal Theatre Project. The FTP, was a product of Roosevelt's New Deal that put visual and performing artists to work in a series of regional centers around the United States. The program included a series of performance units, as well, including the Children's Theatre Unit. The work produced in this unit was incredible. While the work included traditional adaptations of fairy tales, there were also some new works that explored news and issues of the day. It made the FTP an incubator for new work and new voices... which unfortunately was also the product of its demise in 1939.

The plays that seem to cause the most controversy were The Cradle Will Rock and Revolt of the Beavers, both produced in 1937. These plays explored the plight of workers and decried the greed and corruption that led to unfair working conditions in a steel town and fantasy world, respectively. This fueled anti-Communist sentiment within Congress who eventually defunded the entire Federal Theatre Project in 1939. Both plays are referenced in the 1999 movie, Cradle Will Rock, which serves as an excellent intro to the historic project through the lens of the production process for the titular play. Beavers is briefly mentioned in a scene where two actors dressed as beavers sing and dance for FTP director, Hallie Flannigan. Unfortunately, the movie makes light of the production, casting it off as a cute musical for kids, when in reality it may have been so upsetting to adults that it was the final nail in the coffin for the entire Federal Theatre Project (don't ever call theatre for young audiences "cute" again!).

To raise awareness of the program shutdown, the cast of the children's theatre unit production of Pinocchio in New York City, re-staged the final scene of the play on their closing night in December 1939. As I've heard the story told, the lights suddenly went out and a loud sound - a slam, a bang, or perhaps even a gunshot - rang out through the theatre followed by a funeral scene for the murdered Pinocchio. "Who killed Pinocchio?" the actors cry. In response, the cast reads a list of the names of Congress members who voted to defund the FTP. The cast then led the audience out into Times Square shouting "Save the Federal Theatre!" A Pinocchio puppet was left "dead" onstage in an icon image captured in Life magazine.

It's incredible to think of how widespread and influential the Federal Theatre Project was in its time. I'm also moved by how much a cute, little play for children was able to do. While the result wasn't positive, the incident serves as a strong example of just how power theatre for a child audience can be!

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Mentionable and Manageable

Two years ago, I shared this quote with the TYA class and it became a touchstone for students throughout the year. With Mr. Rogers as our guide, we began to feel more comfortable with the idea of exploring life questions with young people. I did not think to include it in class this past fall, but the sentiments permeated the course and the thoughts and projects generated by the students were similarly contemplative of what can be explored through children's theatre.

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Struggle in Children's Entertainment

What if rather than 18,000 mini-adventures solved in under 30 minutes, there was a longer narrative arc? What would this tell the show's viewers? I don't think PAW Patrol is the cause of all the childhood anxiety we might see, but I do wonder how it may play a part.

Many television shows for young children unfold within the time allotted for each episode. From Sesame Street to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to PAW Patrol, adventures for the youngest viewers are small and contained. Rarely, if ever, does the adventure extend beyond the end credits. Shows for the next age bracket - Dora the Explorer, Elena of Avalor, Liv and Maddie, Danger Force, etc. - also keep the journeys within the confines of each episode.

If we consider the "if you see it, you can be it" mantra of representation in children's media, what would happen when children see their 2D heroes battling over a series of episodes rather than tie up problems in a neat little bow each day?

Does anyone remember Liberty's Kids? It has been a while since I've watched, but I remember narrative arcs longer than just one episode. The characters were on an extended journey where each episode involved a smaller quest that may or may not have implications for the next step. A better example may lie in the narrative structure of video games. Each level works as a new episode in the world of the character. While the landscape and bad guys may change, the hero character is still on a journey to get to the end. Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, even something as simple as Subway Surfers, keep the story going until the absolute end is reached.

I'm a bit out of my element with these musings. My background is in children's theatre, but I've seen plenty of child-centered television while raising my three kids. Please let me know if I am overlooking anything there, or clarify any misconceptions I may have. However, on a meta scale, I think it would be fascinating to see how well children would digest an entire season of a show that really challenges it characters to get to the end of the road. How might that influence their creative and critical thinking? What changes might they make when solutions don't quickly solve a problem? What influence would that have on their self-perception?

Revise and Resubmit

"Revise and Resubmit" is not exactly the comment that a writer wants to receive after submitting a manuscript for publication. I've had my own experiences with this over the summer that I am still trying to parse out (thank you, Reviewer #2), but it helps me to remember that revision is a process of improvement. It is similar to the Stoics' reminder that "the obstacle is the way" and that every challenge, or difficulty, offers an opportunity for improvement. 

I've done a lot of curriculum writing and lesson plan revision this summer. Most of this is for the theatre classes in middle school and high school (some are new, but some is for the potential need to adapt to online learning again). This week, I have turned my attention to the TYA course that I teach for the Program in Educational Theatre. I've been teaching this class since 2014 when I inherited it from a long line of influential people in the field: Dr. Lowell Swortzell, Laurie Brooks, and Jonathan Shmidt Chapman. The course structure has evolved over time and I have continued that tradition by adapting Jonathan's syllabus and making adjustments and tweaks to the course every year since.

About two years ago, I incorporated the 25 year anniversary anthology from the New Visions/New Voices Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. New Visions/New Voices is one of three major new play development programs in the field of TYA currently in existence in the United States (along with Write Now and NYU's New Plays for Young Audiences Series). The anthology was a way to focus on current scripts while emphasizing the importance of new play development in the field. Perhaps most importantly, using the anthology reduced textbook costs for students. The NV/NV plays are serviceable and the last two classes have enjoyed them; however, one of the strongest suggestions received from the classes was a desire to delve into even more current and relevant scripts. I have made that my goal while preparing for the fall.

When constructing the syllabus, it is also important to recognize the variety of students on the class roster and their varied perspectives. The class is typically made of students from freshman to doctoral candidates, Educational Theatre majors to performance majors from Tisch, as well as students from outside the arts who are interested in exploring the world outside of their math and business majors. The students are, or plan to be, theatre praticioners, educators, and producers, or are simply interested in story from a teller and/or audience point of view. All of these perspectives inform my planning and I plan to balance the reading list with scripts that are of historical significance to the field and that are often produced in professional venues and schools. The EdTA 2020 Play Survey was helpful here. I am including some of the titles on these lists with those from the NV/NV anthology.

One text that has not changed from my first courses at both Manhattanville College and NYU is Moses Goldberg's collection titled TYA: Essays on the Theatre for Young Audiences. This is an EXCELLENT book that I could not do without!

I am excited by this changes and look forward to exploring the works with a new group of students and to seeing and hearing their reactions and insights. There are still some areas of the field that I can't quite cover in the time provided for the class. I plan to ask students to explore those topics in their midterm project and see what may come out as the most important aspect to incorporate in the revision for next year.

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Silly and Subversive

"You can entertain younger audiences while still playing to adult viewers [...] you can get away with being a little dangerous, provocative, or just plain deep if you did it with a smile on your face and remembered that entertainment always came first. When done right, it's possible to be silly and subversive at the same time."

From Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones (Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Your Local Library).

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Looking Back at My Earliest Projects

Receiving wisdom from Lowell Swortzell
Rehearsals for Lucky Peter's Journey
February 2000

A few months ago, I was cleaning out an old filing cabinet in the education office at Writers Theatre. In one drawer was a series of teaching artist files and resumes from actors/directors with whom we've worked in the last 20 years. One of the last folders in there was mine, which contained my original letter of application and resume. It was remarkable to look back at some of my earliest work in the graduate program at NYU, particularly two TYA directing projects: a staged reading of Lucky Peter's Journey adapted by my mentor, Lowell Swortzell, and a devised, collaborative piece called The Greenwich Village Project.

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Needle in a Haystack

My first memorable theatre experience was in 3rd grade when a visiting opera company performed a scene called "I Hate Men" in which the main character, a female teacher, shot dead her male colleagues. However questionable the subject matter, I was hooked and began writing my own scripts. Fast forward 15 years and I was working on the nearly defunct NJ Young Playwrights Festival, providing feedback to young writers in grades 4-12.

In conducting research, the history of the field's development has fascinated me. I have written about that history in an article published in ArtsPraxis and occasionally on the blog for the Young Playwrights Map. Yet this writing is limited to a history of programming influenced by the work done within the national young playwrights competition that eventually became Young Playwrights, Inc. (YPI) founded by composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and developed by the late director, Gerald Chapman. While the influence of Sondheim and Chapman's work in the field cannot be denied, there have been instances of youth creation of plays prior to the national program at YPI in 1981.

Child performers, Federal Theatre Project
Gary, Indiana

Most noted of these earlier programs is the Marilyn Bianchi Kid's Playwriting Festival at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland begun in 1979. In fact, Cleveland seems to have been an incubator of early work in theatre for young audiences through the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) and Playhouse Square. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of Showtime in Cleveland by John Vacha to learn more about that. I am also in search of a piece of information that I swear was in my original dissertation research, but can no longer find: evidence that one of the FTP units (Gary, Indiana perhaps) directly engaged students in writing their own scripts. The unit in Gary had children performing work, so it makes the most sense, but correspondence with a scholar who has studied the FTP in Indiana has me questioning that possibility. Learning about Cleveland's history brings my attention to that unit. I also believe there were playwriting programs for youth in Boston and/or Vermont in the 1960s that may have been precursors to the current competitions and festivals in those areas.

I will keep eyes and ears open for that needle in a haystack. Any leads or ideas are most certainly welcome.

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I know what I'm doing

Directing Meeka Rising by Carol Korty
NYU New Plays for Young Audiences, 2013

My life in theatre began at age 11 when I spent my first summer working backstage with the summer stock company led by two of my uncles. This introduction came at an integral time in my life and gave me direction toward the place where I am today.

That means I have spent 30 years in the theatre - 20 of them working professionally as an actor, director, dramaturg, and teacher (not necessarily in that order or in those capacities all of the time). Sometimes it is important to reflect on the past to understand how far you've come.

This also gives me the confidence to say that I know what I'm doing and know that I do it well.

Finding Fairy Tales

Since teaching my first TYA course about four years ago, I've been reading more about the history and critique of fairy tales and their influence on 20th century theatre for young audiences. My two oldest children have also learned to read during this time (the third is getting started) and in a family that enjoys all things Disney, it has brought about some interesting reading and discussion.

Little Red Riding Hood
from
Children's Hour with Red Riding Hood and Other Stories
Edited by Watty Piper (1922)
Retrieved from Project Gutenberg
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11592/11592-h/11592-h.htm

This summer I am revising my curriculum ahead of the TYA course I will teach at NYU in the fall. There was a bit of time between gigs yesterday, so I took a quick spin through the local library to see what I could find by Maria Tatar, Marina Warner, and Jack Zipes (among others). The catalog search (I almost wrote "card catalog") returned a wealth of resources, but only a few at that branch. I made some reserve requests and walked over to the shelves.

As I searched the shelf I noticed something interesting. Fairy tales (at 398 in the Dewey Decimal system) are preceded by books about rituals (holidays, etiquette, and weddings) and followed by books about language. That's a logic location for fairy tales, which I hadn't noticed before. As I get better footing in the world of fairy tales and folklore, I would be curious to learn more about the ways in which these areas relate. And the next time I am in the university library, I will see what precedes and follows fairy tales in the Library of Congress system.

Back on the Boards

My desk during final preparations for NJYPF 2015

Preparations are just about done and this Sunday we begin rehearsals for the 32nd annual New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. This is a program I have run for Playwrights Theatre since I started working there in 2002. For the past two months, I've communicated with the high school playwrights via email and phone, and finally had a chance to meet them in person at the NJ Governor's Awards for Arts Education on Wednesday. These four students have done a remarkable job not just crafting engaging stories, but also a pair of significant revisions using feedback from our contest readers and the festival dramaturgs. The first rewrite was a great way to assess the commitment to the process and willingness of the finalists to make changes to their work. The goal of the second rewrite under the guidance of a dramaturg, is to help jump start the playwrights into the rehearsal process.

The high school playwrights have always been directly involved in rehearsals, but this is only the second year implementing a pre-Festival routine (last year introduced the dramaturgs; this year, the finalist rewrites). A year prior, I noticed that only a handful of playwrights were actively participating in the program. There are a variety of reasons for this, of course, but it seemed that much of it had to do with the playwrights being thrown into rehearsals without any significant orientation. Seeing professionals work on your script can be exciting, but it can also be very intimidating. Hopefully we've alleviated some of that this year. I can't wait to begin working on the scripts tomorrow. What I can wait for is my new role in this year's program.

I've been directing portions of the Festival for many years, but this is the first time that I will perform in them. Festival scripts are often populated by youth, or young adult, characters; however, this year we were surprised that of the 13 total characters in the four high school plays, only five characters were young people. The majority of the actors that I typically hire for young playwrights presentations are in their early to mid-20s, so the challenge became finding the actors needed for the adult characters. We did well, but fell short to the point where a colleague and I will need to step into two roles. That's all well for my colleague who is a professional actor. For me, on the other hand, it is not a typical role. I've performed onstage before, but I haven't since the New Plays for Young Audiences Series in 2007. So, this should be interesting, to say the least!

Our First Experiences with Theatre

When I was eight, an opera company came to my school to present an assembly about their work. I remember sitting on the floor in the middle of the gym completely transfixed by their presentation. Of particular interest was their explanation of how to stay safe on stage. Before one scene, an actor showed us a starter pistol and explained that they used it because it made a realistic sound of a gun, but did not have any bullets, which, obviously would be very dangerous. He further explained that for added protection the person firing the pistol would not point it at another actor, but aim it in the air. And with that, this troupe presented a scene they called "I Hate Men" (which may or may not have included the song of the same name from Kiss Me, Kate). The scene was about a female teacher who had grown so disgusted with her male counterparts that she shoots each of them while singing her song; the men wound up in a cartoon-like dog pile on one side of the stage. I was at once entranced and completely horrified, but not by what had transpired (which was horrible and surprising given the context, even in 1985). Rather what offended me was the idea that firing the pistol in the air was in any way believable. I knew there had to be a better way.

Armed with my retractable four-color ballpoint pen, I opened my Trapper Keeper and proceeded to write my own version of "I Hate Men". I cast classmates in the roles and wrote their lines assigning each character their own color  The plan was to perform the play at recess, but it never happened. But I kept writing: anything and everything that I could. Sometimes I wrote scripts that my friends and I would film using a VHS video camera that the kid up the street had; I loved doing research projects and creative writing assignments. I also wrote short comics based on doodles I drew in my notebooks. Writing also helped me cope with losing my hair just a couple years later and I kept a journal all the way through my freshman year of college. Now, while I write much less, I have built a career around mentoring young artists and writers. It wasn't a conscious decision, but something that progressed naturally as I made my way through the world. And it all stems from that one moment sitting on the gymnasium floor watching an opera company who thought enough to share their work - perhaps more importantly, their passion - with young people.

My oldest son had a similar experience about a year ago when my wife took him to see his first live theatre performance: a touring company presentation of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie - one of his favorite books at the time. There were other picture book adaptations presented that afternoon and the one that he was most excited about was Borreguita and the Coyote. He enjoyed the story so much that he spent the next few days drawing pictures of the it, recreated it with his friends at day care, and eventually set up his own stage in the playroom in our house. One afternoon, my wife and I, along with our two other children, were directed where to sit, handed a program, and treated to a monologue about how the play would work - more a lecture on directing the piece than an actual performance.

This past Sunday, my son told me that he is writing a play about Star Wars (his newest interest) and wants to act it out with his friends at day care. Apparently, he asked his pre-K teacher if they could perform the play there, but he was not satisfied with her response. So, my wife and I have been recruited to help him make the play a reality. He is determined to make this happen and we're considering some ways that might work.

It is fun to think that my son and I had such similar responses to our earliest encounters with theatre. The resulting creativity and passion are wonderful benefits that I hope everyone might experience, if not for themselves then certainly for a child whom they accompany to the theatre. And I encourage all artists, if they are not already doing so, to share their work and their creative process with young people. It has an unbelievable impact and potential to benefit to that young person's life.

So, with that I wish everyone a very happy World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People!

Defining TYA

It can be difficult to discuss a topic when there is little consensus on the definition of the topic(s) being discussed. I've recently been involved in dialogue in which words that seem to have a concrete meaning, but really identify a more general area that allows for multiple interpretations dependent upon individual contexts and experiences that each discussion participant has with the term. One term that often falls into this realm is "theatre for young audiences" or "TYA", which typically defines those performances intended for "young" people. But what exactly does that mean? How young is "young"?

Last year, I was a member of the planning committee for a Forum on TYA (theatre for young audiences) at NYU and considered this topic in the Forum blog ahead of the weekend sessions (link here). The question I still have is "What is TYA?", or as the Forum sought to explore it, "Which way TYA?" The Forum sessions and workshops addressed these questions with a variety of examples of the direction and form that many productions for young audiences can take; however, I am still curious about the definition of the term.

During our planning, a colleague posed the the following questions to the group: "Does the category of 'Theatre for Young Audiences' create more problems than solutions for us? Does it carry a stigma? Are we too separate from the rest of the theatre movement?  In Germany, they talk about Young Theatre - a spirit that pervades young work, young performers, and a young/less conventional attitude to making theatre. This allows repertory theatres and main houses as well as what we would call more traditional TYA to share the same umbrella. And it means that there are fewer preconceptions."

I like this idea of defining the spirit of a theatre movement as opposed to the tangible qualities of the work. It also speaks toward the similarities among the various definitions of TYA as opposed to highlighting the differences. Whether we call it "Theatre for Young Audiences" or "Young Theatre" or some other incarnation of that phrase, what similarities exist among our work? Can we come to a consensus definition? Should we?

These are questions that are likely not new to your work. What similarities do you see in theatre that is labeled as "TYA"? What is your definition?