“As a route away from the often unconscious tyrannies which may accompany adult-led arts projects, it is proposed that participatory power structures can be created which grant agency to child audiences to engage on their own terms. This includes the ability to take control of the theatrical event, to withdraw from participation and to have children’s innate imaginative capabilities recognised as comparable to those of adults.”  (Fletcher-Watson, 2015, p. 24)

Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash

This quote from Ben Fletcher-Watson’s provocative article, Seen and Not Heard: Participation as Tyranny in Theatre for Early Years (2015), really resonated with me. My primary research interest is examining infants’ experiences of power relations, often between themselves and adults. Fletcher -Watson acknowledges the hegemonic power structures present in children’s theatre when adults don’t explicitly address them. He asserts that “when children’s experiences are curated and determined by adults, participation may resemble manipulation rather than control” (Fletcher-Watson, 2015, p. 24) and that some “may feel unsettled by a tokenistic experience which appears to legitimise the artist’s hegemonic status” (Fletcher-Watson, 2015, p. 24).

 

The author describes adult-curated participatory experiences as reinforcing adult power, rather than empowering children. When the adult chooses the moment to pass an object around the audience, or when to invite the children into the stage area, the adult still has all the power (Fletcher-Watson, 2015). He also asserts that agency is the counterpoint to this tyranny, and proposes a modified version of Arnstein’s (1969) Ladder of Participation tailored for infant audiences of TEY. Intuitively, at the bottom of the list are the lowest forms of participation.

  • Child-led practices:
    • Playing
    • Reinterpreting
    • Co-creating
  • Adult-led practices:
    • Interacting
    • Testing
    • Educating
  • Non-participation:
    • Therapizing
    • Spectating (Fletcher-Watson, 2015, p. 29)

Fortunately for my purposes, the thrust of my inquiry is toward child-led, participatory experiences. My aim is not to produce theatrical performances for infants, but to have the body of TVY/TEY research inform my co-creation of dramatic experiences with infants.

 

References

Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944366908977225

Fletcher-Watson, B. (2015). Seen and not heard: Participation as tyranny in Theatre for Early Years. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 20(1), 24–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2014.953470