Customer Reviews

Class Acts: Six Plays for Children

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Canadians probably know much more about children's theatre in the United States than people in the United States know about Canadian children's theatre. This volume of six children's plays may go a long ways in reversing this one-sidedness.

The plays in this collection were originally produced in such places as Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver, and Regina. The plays represent a wide variety of styles and approaches, from the innovative adaptation of THE SECRET GARDEN to the absurdist piece BEWARE THE QUICKLY WHO. The collection features several plays aimed at younger children, including MANDY AND THE MAGUS, THE COPETOWN CITY KITE CRISIS, and MY BEST FRIEND IS TWELVE FEET HIGH. It also includes an ensemble-created piece, LOVE AND WORK ENOUGH, which is better suited to more mature audiences.

Each play is prefaced with a brief biography of the author and a brief history of the play's development, which provide the reader with glimpses of children's theatre in Canada. This reviewer would like to see those brief passages supplemented by a preface which would put the plays and playwrights in context and would provide an introduction to the Canadian children's theater profession to readers beyond the country's borders. Since the plays in this collection were originally produced between 1972 and 1991, this reviewer would encourage Playwrights Canada Press to produce a similar collection of Canadian children's plays that were created during the 1990's.

John D. Newman, BYU Children's Book and Play Review