Interview: Tony Reekie

In 2015, Tony Reekie stood down as Director of Imaginate, Scotland’s national art-form development organisation for theatre for young audiences. Tony had programmed the annual Imaginate Festival of performing arts for children and young people since 2000, bringing companies from around the world to Edinburgh each May to share their work. Prior to joining Imaginate in 1996, Tony worked with a host of well-known Scottish theatre companies, including 7:84, TAG and Visible Fictions. In this interview, he reflects on the changes he’s observed within children’s theatre over the past two decades. He discusses taboos, funding, art for babies, nationhood and theatre as a political act, presenting Scotland as a site of distinctive practices and aesthetic modalities.Publisher PD

Book review: Theatre for youth third space: performance, democracy, and community cultural development, by Stephani Etheridge Woodson

Book review of: Theatre for youth third space: performance, democracy, and community cultural development, by Stephani Etheridge Woodson.Publisher PD

Book review: Reasons to be Graeae: a work in progress, edited by Jenny Sealey

Review of: Reasons to be Graeae: a work in progress, edited by Jenny Sealey. London: Oberon Books Ltd, 2018; ISBN: 9781786823946 (£22.50)Publisher PD

Book review: British theatre companies: from fringe to mainstream, edited by Graham Saunders and John Bull

Review of: British theatre companies: 1965–1979. CAST, The People Show, Portable Theatre, Pip Simmons Theatre Group, Welfare State International, 7:84 Theatre Companies, edited by John Bull. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408175439 (£21.99). British theatre companies: 1980–1994. Joint Stock, Gay Sweatshop, Complicite, Forced Entertainment, Women's Theatre Group, Talawa, edited by Graham Saunders. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408175484 (£21.99). British theatre companies: 1995–2014. Mind the Gap, Kneehigh Theatre, Suspect Culture, Stan's Cafe, Blast Theory, Punchdrunk, edited by Liz Tomlin. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016; ISBN: 9781408177273 (£21.99)Publisher PD

"More like a poem than a play" : towards a dramaturgy of performing arts for Early Years

This thesis aims to further our understanding of the emergent phenomenon of Theatre for Early Years (TEY) in Scotland. It interrogates a series of artistic practices – traditional, postdramatic, participatory – with the aim of proposing a possible dramaturgy of arts for the very young. Practice typically precedes theory in new fields of performance. TEY currently lacks a coherent theoretical framework or dramaturgy, instead drawing on interdisciplinary strands of psychology, pedagogy and existing dramaturgical practices from older forms of theatre for children. This study explores artists’ embodied knowledge as a repository of skill, while also recognising external factors that impact on creative production, from belief systems to training, the search for funding and the struggle for recognition. Using Grounded Theory as a method to analyse interviews with 26 leading Scottish practitioners, this project undertakes a qualitative investigation of current practice in the devising and production of performing arts for very young audiences. The thesis also considers debates around legitimation and human rights for the very young, as well as cognitive models of infant development from psychology. The process points towards a Grounded Theory which proposes that Scottish Early Years artists undergo an attitudinal shift towards a belief that children should access high-quality cultural experiences on the same basis as adults. Secondly, it suggests that these artists believe they possess a unique skill-set worthy of recognition. The theory points towards an associated dramaturgy centring on equality, and the generalisability of both is then assessed via an innovatory Practice-as-Research case study converting a TEY production into a digital app. While the project is geographically limited to Scotland, its findings may have international applicability. This study could contribute to a wider praxis of arts for the very young beyond theatre, giving practitioners across the cultural sphere the opportunity to engage with the proposed dramaturgy