TYA in Canada: Navigating the Paradoxes

Abstract

In Donald Barthelme’s hilarious and provocative short story, “Me and Miss Mandible,” a thirty-five-year-old man who has “misread” important cultural signs as an adult finds himself back in grade six, for re-education. This time around, it is clear, he must learn to read the subtext, the messages implied, as opposed to those overtly stated, by his culture. Remembering a surreal but formative experience, the protagonist takes an important first step in this complex decoding: “I kept wondering why. Then something happened that proposed a new question…. I wondered: Who decides?” (60). In many ways, these two questions — Why? Who decides? — are key to understanding the unique culture of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) in Canada. Young theatre audiences, in turn, may be key to an accurate picture of the country itself. As Leslee Silverman, artistic director of Manitoba Theatre for Young People, points out, young audiences have replaced adult audiences as the true cross-section of Canada (Personal interview). Because it tours to all parts of the country, plays to young people and their caregivers and is primarily performed in and for schools whose students are drawn from a wide range of economic, social, geographic, linguistic, religious, ethnic, intellectual, physical and family backgrounds, TYA boasts not only one of the largest but also the most diverse and representative audience in the country. This audience is important. But why is theatre important for this audience?