50 Best Plays for Young Audiences: A celebration of 50 years of theatre-making in England for children and young people - Softcover

This useful book is likely to help anyone who wants to stage young audience work. Two people who really know (Ireland is a former director of Polka Theatre and Harman of Cleveland Theatre Company) provide the practical lowdown on plays ranging from David Wood's The Gingerbread Man to Nick Wood's Warrior Square and Peter Rumney's Cosmos. What is the play about? How many actors does it need? Who premiered it? What do they say about it? Where can you get the script from? It's all here along with advice about festivals, resources, sources of advice and a list of companies specialising in plays for young audiences. --Susan Elkin, The Stage

The newly released 50 Best Plays for Young Audiences, edited by Vicky Ireland and Paul Harman... provides a rewarding counterbalance to Wooster's focus on the companies and methods behind TIE, showcasing the diversity and range of writing over the last half-decade. Ireland and Harman have devoted almost their entire working lives to TYA and TIE respectively; their book, while brief, contains some key insights, particularly Gordon Vallins' splendid insider's take on the beginnings of TIE - born on Wednesday 15 September 1965, according to him! --Ben Fletcher-Watson, Research in Drama Education The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance

This is a must-have seminal resource.; stageplays.com This book has information about the variety of children's theatre available in the UK. It is a testament to the vitality of the sector that it is able to continue despite the cuts. Ideal for anyone new to British Theatre or wanting to find out the kind of work on offer from different companies. Children's Theatre is something we excel at and is a major cultural export - this guide gives contact info and other useful info for any would-be programmer. Amazon review Used it for an assignment in uni, now full of notes and scribblings but helped me a lot and just a great read really!; Customer review (Amazon) --Amazon

A book for students and lovers of theatre, parents and politicians, teachers and actors, a guide to progress over fifty years in a field of theatre dedicated to children and young people. There has been wonderful work created all over the UK but this is very much a personal reflection, based on Vicky Ireland's and Paul Harman's working knowledge of playwriting and production in England. At its heart is a detailed listing of fifty plays by English playwrights chosen by their contemporaries which have most influenced those working professionally to make theatre for young audiences in England today. It describes a journey during which many attitudes towards education and the arts have changed, much has been learned and maybe too much forgotten.2015 marked 50 years of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (known by its French acronym, ASSITEJ). From a handful of European countries ASSITEJ has grown to be a presence in over 80 countries in every continent, promoting the right of every child to experience theatre.1 965 was also the year in which a remarkable and unique experiment combining drama, theatre and education, known as Theatre in Education, began in the UK, in Coventry. Today, worldwide, practitioners in participatory or immersive theatre are working with children and young people, exploring their real world with them and helping them to express that experience through theatre.New generations of theatre makers will find this book a useful signpost to sources of inspiration in their future work for young audiences.