Harnessing the power of flight: devising responsive theatre for the very young
theatre, children, audience engagement, Flight: Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Framework
Successful theatre hinges on relationships. In our research, we devised an immersive theatre piece about urban wildlife through key early childhood education concepts outlined in the Canadian document Flight: Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Framework. The project’s guiding question was: How could we better understand audience engagement in the early years demographic by using the reflective process, rights-based perspectives, and holistic play-based goals of the Flight framework to interpret children’s experiences? Our creative team aimed to develop democratic and playful relationships with children during theatrical exploration, and using the Flight framework to analyse what children were communicating grounded our theatre creation and dramaturgy in respectful and agentic relationships between actors, theatrical objects, and young children.
Ayles, R., Fitzsimmons Frey, H., & Mykietyshyn, M. (2022). Harnessing the power of flight: Devising responsive theatre for the very young. In McAvoy, M., & O'Connor, P. (Eds.). The Routledge companion to drama in education (pp. 269-280). Taylor & Francis Group.
All Rights Reserved