Theater for young audiences may not receive the same recognition as productions by Shakespeare or Tennessee Williams, but it deserves its time in the spotlight, says Caelin Ross.
“You can learn so much … from plays written for, with, and by youth,” says Ross, performing arts librarian at Arizona State University (ASU) Library in Tempe, noting that young imaginations allow for more “interesting and experimental” presentations.
Ross oversees ASU’s Theatre for Youth and Community Collection. Founded in 1979, the university says it is the largest of its kind in the world.
The collection, which Ross estimates to be approximately 5,000 linear feet (or the size of 16 football fields), holds research materials like curricula and books, as well as scripts, production design samples, sketches, and costumes. The oldest item is a 1620 collection of dramas called the Tragoediæ sacræ, part of a rare-book set that reflects the ways early European youth theater intertwined with arts, education, and religion.
Other standouts are production items from playwright David Saar’s 1993 award-winning play The Yellow Boat, based on his 8-year-old son Benjamin’s death from AIDS-related complications. They include paintings by Benjamin that inspired the title.
As the holdings reflect, Ross says, adults have realized over the past several decades that kids don’t need goofy characters or moral lessons at the end. They can handle more nuanced, diverse content.
“They’re not human ‘becomings,’” she says of young thespians and theatergoers. “They’re human beings, and they deserve art now for art’s sake.”
