The Transformation Goes On, or Who Is the Contemporary Ukrainian Theater Really Speaking to in Productions for Young Audiences?

Theater for young audiences must use a different artistic language than theater for adult audiences. This language is changing due to the emergence of new media, gadgets, transformation of channels and ways of communication between adults and children. The psychology of children’s perception, on the one hand, retains the features inherent in certain age categories, and on the other hand, is rapidly evolving. Therefore, the important functions of theater for children are cultivating artistic taste, socializing the child, and education — a playful explanation of complex physiological, psychological, social, cultural, and political issues. The analysis of the five productions from the long list of the VI Ukrainian Theater Festival and Award GRA made it possible to outline the ways in which Ukrainian theater for young audiences is developing and to explore problem areas that require a broader discussion in the professional community. The topic of the Russo-Ukrainian War is directly or indirectly in the center of attention of theater for young audiences, including productions based on plays of recent years and a newly reinterpreted Ukrainian classical repertoire. Another important trend is the active engagement with canonical Western European texts for children, which become the basis for dramatic and musical productions. The communicative and aesthetic aspects of the children’s repertoire are developing most dynamically. Despite the inertia of appealing mostly to an adult audience, Ukrainian theater for young audiences continues to explore the nuances of child psychology, new realities of our time, and is looking for new performative forms that consider the educational needs of different age groups of children.