Des Davis
Theatre for Young People has an uneasy foot in two worlds - theatre and education. Sometimes the embattled practitioner feels that he is welcome in neither. The world of education has had a traditional attitude to the arts as frills and to theatre as merely entertainment, while the world of theatre has had a traditional attitude to education as dull, unimaginative and anything but entertainment. Proponents of the art, struggling both for recognition and survival, become insecure and defensive. They also tend to be dedicated, and out of this can come a kind of self-righteousness. Practitioners and philosophers of theatre for young people are more apparently complacent of their own success and more critical of others' than perhaps any branch of theatre or the arts. There is thus a strange mixture of insecurity and arrogance common among us and perhaps necessary for our survival.
Books such as Joyce Doolittle and Zina Barnieh's A Mirror of Our Dreams may help to rectify the general malaise of ignorance and intolerance by giving the initiated a clearer view of the total picture and more importantly by giving the non-initiated some sense of the extent and seriousness of the work. Peter Hay in the preface to the book admits his shock to discover that about half of all professional activities in Canadian theatre were directed at children and young audiences. He also points out that this half receives only about five percent of funding. Worse, they rarely receive the vital but intangible rewards of esteem and criticism. The book may help to remedy this. Certainly, the authors cry foul on this very point almost to the edge of tedium.
At the same time the authors themselves are not free from some self-righteousness in their pleading as well as some superficiality in their judgment of that part of the work for young people which has little appeal for them. Moreover the book is disappointing in its failure to explore in depth issues that are raised perceptively. The authors excuse this unevenness with their statement of intent - 'to give an overview, and present the main challenges facing theatre for young audiences as we enter the 80s.'
These aims are best realized in parts 2 and 3 of the book. Here the main authors, assisted by Hélène Beauchamp on Quebec, examine sympathetically, if not too critically, the work of a representative sample of Canadian companies.
Part 2 is introduced by an article reprinted from Canadian Theatre Review (CTR 18) 'A Very Merry Unbirthday to You' which tells briefly the sad story of the rise and fall of Holiday Theatre, Vancouver. Later chapters give a fuller treatment of the development of Young People's Theatre of Toronto, Globe Theatre of Saskatchewan, Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia and Alberta Theatre Projects. Thus, although the authors' hearts and better understandings clearly lie in the west, they do make a brave attempt to be fair regionally. The choices are defensible because these four companies have built reputations in their own communities and across the nation, reputations based on quality, service and long-term survival. The latter is no mean feat in view of the obstacles of which the reader is continually reminded.
The authors concentrate on the basic philosophy and a short history of the administrative and financial difficulties of each company. However, one could wish for the balance of treatment to fall less heavily on administration and more on the actual programmes and their acceptance by young audiences. A few indications are given of the authors' attitudes to the artistic work of the companies, as for example in the implied criticism of Susan Rubes' 'pragmatic philosophy' and of Ken and Sue Kramer's long time reliance on the participation play.
They discern a pattern in the evolution of the new companies in their chapter 'Evolving Our Own Ways - Colonial, Native and Pioneer'. Their obsession with the 'waves' of colonialism seems a little excessive: for example, poor old Brian Way seems a popular scapegoat. Now it may be that Brian Way's plays are wrong in content for Canada but more importantly they are not really good scripts on anyone's terms, as most companies quickly realize. However the form he pioneered has been used most effectively and artistically by better playwrights - and in indisputably Canadian ways. The authors' own account of Len Peterson's Almighty Voice, Paddy Campbell's Chinook and Eric Nicol's The Clam Made a Face all prove the point.
Doolittle and Barnieh have sensibly commissioned Hélène Beauchamp to cover theatre in Quebec. Her approach, in Part 3 of the book, is different from theirs in that she attempts a more complete survey, although she still does not include all the companies working in Quebec. She gives an historical sketch and an appraisal of each of these companies. Her histories are instructive and her appraisals reveal a perceptive appreciation of the genre. They can be severe as in the case of Le Théâtre des Pissenlits whose reputation and long survival would suggest higher desserts. She is very concerned with research which she believes should be an integral part of the work of companies and she reserves her strongest approval for companies such as Le Théâtre Soleil and Le Marmaille which are innovative in this sense.
It is Beauchamp who actually articulates the central problem of school touring work: 'wherever theatre is brought into [her italics] the schools an ambiguity arises as to its real purpose. Is it an artistic experience or an educational supplement?' Perhaps understandably, given its avowed intention of 'overview', the book as a whole does not pursue this alleged ambiguity very forcefully. However, there are hints that the authors feel that the presence of this ambiguity means that true 'theatre' will be found elsewhere than in school touring and that the 'limitations' of the school performance make it a lesser art somehow.
One might answer that 'education' and 'entertainment' are not mutually exclusive terms, indeed that in their fullest sense the one always includes the other. Nobody really wants boring education or trivial entertainment. Companies working for young people have to be as aware of the Scylla of didacticism and the Charybdis of triviality as any other theatre company - and they come to grief on one or the other no more often than theatre for 'Adults'. Further, one might cite Brook, Grotowski, Schechner and other contemporary luminaries as proof that bursting the traditional bonds of space and form has produced the most exciting theatre. The school environment can offer a similar challenge both in place and the freshness and directness of audience response for the creation of new forms. It is not intrinsically inimical to art.
Part I is in some ways the most interesting and most disappointing part of the book. It consists of a number of essays covering issues ranging from the broadly philosophical such as 'Changing Concepts of Childhood' to the more specific such as 'Repertoire and Writers'. Some valuable definitions are given of the main challenges to theatre for young people but no clear argument emerges. It is hard to escape the suspicion that these essays are not part of a coherent overview but rather a series of opinions gathered on a variety of issues - some central ('In the Schools'), some peripheral ('Television') to the main concern.
Some of the best insights are in fact quoted from other sources: Dennis Lee, for example, observing that 'the key to writing for children, for me at least, is to get in touch with one of those children in myself and then follow his nose'; or Jonathan Levy reminding us that 'children do not have less of a capacity to feel than we do. Their emotions run as deep as ours do: to the bottom'. There is a tendency for the authors to rely heavily on quotation, some being given weight by their source (both Lee and Levy write for children), but others adding little to the coherence of the argument. This is all the more disappointing since the authors can be very persuasive when they concentrate on an issue as in the all too brief analysis of three myths of the art in 'Lively Theatre', or the fascinating but tenuously relevant chapter on 'Television'.
The authors' devotion to the cause of theatre leads them to much expression of indignation against the neglect of the arts in education, the hardships facing touring companies, and the lack of recognition given to artists in this branch of theatre. All this indignation is justified. Yet it is sometimes stressed at the expense of more important issues. For example the first point in the chapter on 'Repertoire and Writers' has to do with such writers feeling second-class. This is a frustrating experience for playwrights but there are surely more important issues to be discussed under this heading. Such issues would include the special creative energies required by writers for young people and the special problems of understanding the audience and not writing down to them.
Further, this indignation often leads the authors dangerously close to falling into the same trap as those they berate. They give equal weight to the cynical view of actor Jerome Ackhurst, 'it provides experience and money', and the dedicated, but equally practical, view of Barbara Poggemiller, 'I learned that to work in theatre for young people is to have confidence and faith in both director and work, to recognize my own strengths, to realize there are no security blankets.' They suggest that she is among the minority. The truth, I think, is more complex. The nature of our society and its values and in particular the structure of our theatre industry encourages actors to pursue upwardly mobile personal careers. A theatre for young people company is likely to be one of many stages but good serious artists are likely to find it as rewarding as any other stage - often more so. If the work is felt to be worthwhile, then an audience of children can be a most inspiring and satisfying one. This is the common experience of actors in good companies.
A Mirror of Our Dreams is the first serious attempt in book form to come to grips with the story of children and the theatre in Canada. It is a valuable corrective to the ignorance of and indifference to children's theatre in theatre and educational circles and in society at large. It is well written by people who care about their subject and who have observed it over a long period. The frustration a practitioner in the field may feel at the opening up of important issues too easily dismissed or too superficially treated may be itself a result of the defensiveness and self-righteousness mentioned at the beginning of this review. Let us hope more dialogue and more critical attention to the genre will fill the gaps left by this pioneer treatment.