Emergence of an Anti-Theatre for the Youth in the United States: The Case of Punch and Judy by Aurand Harris
Abstract
The British pantomime, the Punch and Judy puppet show, and the farce are three major dramatic genres that have been discarded by serious adult playwrights to become children's artistic forms in the late nineteenth century. Ironically, these devalued theatrical genres became the very basis for the emergence of an experimental movement in American children's, a movement that peaked in 1970s. A true avant-garde spirit in children's theatre thus bloomed in the United States with children's playwrights who developed new styles drawn from commedia dell'arte techniques, absurdist dialogue and grotesque farce.
References
- Esslin, Martin. Reflections: Essays on Modern Theatre. 7th ed. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969.
- ---------. The Theatre of the Absurd. 1961; Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1973
- Harris, Aurand . Preface to Punch and Judy. Contemporary Children's Theater. Ed. Betty Jean Lifton. New York: Avon Books, 1974.
- Harris, Aurand. Punch and Judy. Six Plays for Children by Aurand Harris. Ed. Coleman A. Jennings. Austin: TX: University of Texas Press, 1986.
- Lifton, Betty Jean. Contemporary Children's Theater. New York: Avan Books, 1974
- Mcpharlin, Paul. The Puppet Theatre in America: A History with a List of Puppeteers 1524-1948. New York: Harpers & Brothers Publishers, 1949.
- Postman, Neil. The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Delacorte press, 1982.
- Pronko, Léonard. Avant-Garde: The Experimental Theatre in France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.
- Segel, Harold. Pinocchio's Progeny. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
- Signorelli, Nancy. A Sourcebook on Children and Television. New York: Westport, CT, London: Greenwood Press, 1991.