TV-theatre: TV Presence in Contemporary Theatre for Children and Young Audiences in Buenos Aires

Abstract

In Argentina, television shows have created their own theatrical shows, which run for the winter holidays, using the same stories, same characters, and same actors but onstage. Many artists who devote themselves all year long to theatre for children see those “TV-theatre” shows as unfair competition, arguing that such huge productions lack actual artistry and cultural value. This paper aims to examine the characteristics of the TV-theatre, including how much theatre and how much TV languages, codes, and messages it contains, using Pavis´s concept of “intermediality.” If one of theatre for children's greatest goals or outcomes is to create future audiences/theatregoers, and to impart in them the love for art and theatre, is TV-theatre able to do so? And if it is, what kind of theatre do these shows intend for children to love?

Notes

¹Although there exists TV-theatre not specifically targeted to children, when I refer in this paper to TV-theatre I intend theatre based on TV programs meant for child and youth consumption.

²All translations from Spanish to English in the current text were made by the author of this article.

³Sometimes dancers or acrobats complete the ensemble.

⁴In my thesis, I divided TYA into five subgenres in order to compare them to TV-theatre. A detailed discussion of these categories falls outside of the scope of this paper, but they include commercial theatre: TV-theatre (based on TV series for children), show-TV (theatre of animation and musical shows), and megashows (megaproductions that are not based on TV shows); theatre of teatristas (theatre of theatre-makers); and educational theatre. As I analyzed and compared different productions, I wanted to place them in these categories in order to understand how certain elements work in each of the different types, and if and why the elements worked the same or different in TV-theatre. One clear example is ruled participation, which I have discovered as one of the key elements in TV-theatre, because it works as a mediator between the actors/characters/idols and the audience. The conviviality in TV-theatre is exalted, becoming more important than the poetic event itself. The actors/characters/idols talk to the audience, ask straight questions, breaking the poetic event and forcing the audience to go back and forth between the poetic event to the real-life dimension. On the other hand, I found that in educational theatre, participation is used as a means to teach the audience. I call it pedagogical participation since it involves a certain game or a teaching of a song, but not necessary a strong order with one correct answer such as, “Did you see him?” or “Answer me loud [sic].”

⁵Jorge Dubatti considers the spectator as a co-creator of the theatrical event. Author Fernando De Toro expresses a similar idea (136). Each spectator affects the play, the actors, and the rest of the audience. It is not the same to see a play with a full house or with many empty chairs. Similarly, a child audience is different from an adult one.