Toronto’s Young People Theatre, the largest and oldest professional theatre for young audiences in Canada, is in better physical shape than ever coming out of a two-and-a-half years pandemic shutdown.
“Some of the kids that we get, who are seven, eight, nine years old, have never been to the theatre before,” Barnes says. “It’s been pretty wild to see them enter into this building. And then, at the Q and A at the end of the show, they’re blown away that actual human beings can talk about the show, or show them props, and just be in that space with them.”
“We’re really hoping to hit about 45 per cent now,” Deveau says. “And we didn’t get there on our first show: It was about 32 per cent.” The fact there are even now still significant issues keeping kids away means that time is running out before a whole cohort of potential lifelong theatregoers is lost.
But, of course, class trips are only one way that kids are introduced to theatre. Touring TYA companies such as Roseneath in Ontario and Green Thumb in B.C. do the important work of bringing shows to schools.