Some serious child's play

Though he knows it's a cliché, "flagship" is the word to describe the CTC, says Roger Bedard, who directs the graduate-degree program in theater for youths at Arizona State University in Tempe, one of only two such programs in the country. CTC is the leader both because of the large size of its operating budget ($9.2 million last year) and its influence on the field.

The man behind the CTC's success, observers agree, is Brosius, whose bubbling enthusiasm includes a hint of Martin Short-like playfulness.

The Tony award, he says, "was great to let people who just fly over us know what's going on here. It's also important to let people know what kind of quality is possible.... It should be nothing less than the best theater for adults. You're trying to make work that respects [young audiences], never patronizes, never condescends, assumes their intelligence, their openness."

Brosius is trying to change the way people think about theater for young audiences, says Mr. Bedard. While Brosius mixes in popular adaptations of well-known children's stories, such as the "Dr. Seuss" tales, Bedard says, "he's also trying to use that as a platform to broaden people's perspectives about theater for children."

Next spring CTC will première "Snapshot Silhouette," a play it commissioned about the tensions between African-American and Somali immigrant children in the neighborhood surrounding the theater. It just concluded a run of "Amber Waves," which depicts a contemporary Midwestern farm family struggling to make ends meet during hard economic times.

It includes child actors reacting to an off-stage suicide and onstage tensions between parents, and is aimed at older children.

Brosius likens it to "a Greek tragedy" and says the playwright, James Still, shows "tremendous respect for the intelligence of children."

The play depicts a teenage son and grade-school-age daughter who, despite their parents' efforts to shelter them, understand what is happening to the family and want to help.

Also playing this fall at the CTC is "Honk! The Ugly Duckling Musical," a bright, colorful show full of songs and puns, with a gentle message that says it's OK to be different.

The CTC provides a family guide with detailed synopses to help parents and teachers decide if a particular show is right for their youngsters.

"We take our responsibility very seriously," says Brosius, who is the father of two children, one 10 and one 5. "We provide more information to ticket buyers than probably any theater in the country."

With more room, including another stage, on the horizon, Brosius hopes to expand his core audience beyond 5- to 13 year-olds.

Brosius would like to serve preschoolers with intimate productions in the new smaller theater, perhaps introducing puppetry from Europe, where, he says, children's theater is a more respected art form.

And he has a special zeal for what he calls "underserved" teenage audiences, who have few plays being written with them in mind.

Teen audiences "drift away [from theatergoing] right when they're facing the hardest part of their lives, junior high school and high school, which are terrifically difficult times," he says.

Last spring, the CTC produced a promenade-style (no seats) version of the Greek tragedy "Antigone," with its timely theme of burying the dead, just as the war in Iraq was ending.

In it, Brosius says, actors mingled with the audience.

"Creon might grab you and dance with you" or "soldiers push you aside," he says, calling it a "very vivid, muscular theatrical presentation. That style of theater had never been done in this town."

Teens in the audience, he says, had "eyes as big as saucers."

What he wants to say to young people, he says, is "You think you know what theater is? We're going to surprise you" by pushing boundaries and seeking out works that "speak to their lives," including plays written by teens themselves.

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