The value of live performance for babies and toddlers: investigating parents' perspectives

This chapter shares findings from my research with audiences of Theatre for Early Years (TEY) in Scotland with an emphasis on performances designed for babies and toddlers, i.e. children aged from birth to three, and their accompanying adults. I draw oninterviews with adults, and observations of adults and children, to interrogate how the impact of live spectatorship is valued by those attending. The primary perspective explored in relation to the perception of pedagogic value is that of the accompanying adults (henceforth referred to as parents1) attending with their children. Doubly spectators, the parents witness both the performance and its target audience, an experience through which can occur processes of development and change for themselves, their children, and their relationships. TEY is defined by its audience rather than its form and the argument I make here for its pedagogic potential is rooted in the parent-child relationship, over those of spectator-and-performer or spectator-and-art. It is the experience of sharing in live, communally attended art that is the necessary context for the positive changes described.