Theatre for a young audience: how can we better prepare kindergartners for the experience?

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for preparing children to experience a theatrical performance, theatre semiotics preparation. This programme introduces children to the specific elements of the theatrical performance (music, props, costumes, etc.). In the study we compare the efficacy of this new programme with that of traditional story comprehension preparation, which introduces children to the play's plot and vocabulary. The participants were 61 children (five to six years of age). Following the programme's implementation, all the children, as a group, attended a theatre performance. After seeing the play, the children were individually interviewed to tap their comprehension of the story and their decoding of the theatrical semiotics. The children in the theatre semiotics programme outperformed those of the story comprehension programme in their understanding of the theatrical semiotic elements and connecting them to the features of the performance. No differences emerged between the two programmes in story reconstruction or understanding of the play's vocabulary. These results have educational implications for drawing educators’ attention to the importance of major components of the theatrical experience. Better understanding of theatre semiotics may enhance children's skills in future decoding and enjoyment of the theatrical experience.