Performing Arts Feature | Chicago Reader: It could have been Lord of the Flies. Filament Theatre was giving over complete control of its space to a young audience for Forts! Build Your Own Adventure, an hour-long experiment in professionally designed creative play. Arming kids with boxes piled high to the ceiling, pillows, sheets, clothespins and flashlights—what could go wrong? Absolutely nothing. Hundreds of performances, and perhaps thousands of forts later, Filament has proven the value of trusting its young people with agency and influence in the world of its performances.
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I had never heard of Filament Theater’s work, but I bet a lot of people also have not. Anyone can be an audience of theater, and I’m impressed by the way Filament actively works to make sure that their theater is catered to people who want to explore these worlds. I think a lot of people dumb down theater for young audiences, and just want them to stay quiet. That’s why you should probably take your child or someone you know to go and engage with a piece of work at Filament, then say, a night in a fancy seat watching the King and I. Reading the article about their specific piece - Forts! I genuinely got excited. I would be excited to take part in it now, and if my parents had taken me to see it when I was younger I probably would have lost my mind. Going to an artistic establishment where they trust you to be yourself, and the more you are a creative, engaged audience member the better of a time you have.
This article warms my heart. I work with children throughout my summers at a summer camp. Children have so many innovative and mature ideas and influences. One aspect of this article that I really liked was when they were talking about how they brought kids in to help work the scripts and called them little dramaturgs. That a) is adorable and b) is so smart on their production end. We had a similar discussion today in my global history class where we were talking about how this author didn’t have much information on one topic so he omitted the topic, but we were saying how he easily could have collaborated with someone who had that missing information. That is exactly what Filament did; they brought in kids to see how kids would react to their work. I also really like how this article features the kids’ opinions. The article literally ends with a quote from one of the kids. Her quote was also super relevant; it was all about how adults need to let kids have some agency. Her statement is something that every adult needs to hear.
This is such an interesting project. I am not familiar with Filament theatre and the work that they do, but this article is extremely intriguing. I have always been fascinated with immersive work, as I am an audience member who gets nervous when I have to do something or present in a piece I am watching. However, I have never thought about it through the lens of a child. Children and adults react very differently when posed with a challenge. In fact, most psychologists study children and how they play as an experiment. The article describes the audience has "multigenerational" and "neurodiverse" which is a super interesting way to describe this difference. Children also, when they are young enough, don't have that feeling of embarrassment or "looking weird" that I think most adults are deadly afraid of. This piece looks super interesting and I think it would be fascinating to be an observer watching all these obstacles.
A lot of the “children’s theatre” that I’ve seen tries to engage with kids in a way that can often be seen as condescending or single-faceted. A lot of children’s theatre assumes that kids won’t understand anything that is too complex, or that topics will need to be figuratively spoon fed to them. Audience participation in any capacity is also a touchy subject, an unknown variable for performers and audiences alike. But from the looks of it, Filament is doing a pretty good job with both. I loved the comment about the audience being the final design element, the final piece of the puzzle that helps everything else to fit together. I do wonder how, then, they rehearse those parts of the shows. Also, the comment about kids being brought in as “youth dramaturgs” during summer camps is brilliant- why not go directly to the intended audience to workshop ideas and concepts?
I really love this idea from Filament theatre. I love how their mission is to connect age groups by using theatre as a medium. What better way to get children involved in theatre than bringing them all together making forts with a storyline to follow off of. I think it is amazing that they get people involved in all age groups by tailoring each experience to something that would work for that age group. I really like how they have such a wide range of really interesting events. I would have loved to be involved in something like this when I was a kid. They give all young kids the opportunity to be in a creative space to just start making different things. What a great way to get children involved in something social while also expanding their creativity and imagination in an awesome space. The work of Filament is really amazing,
I spent my childhood in a countryside about two hours away from the busy city of Tokyo by train. There were so many things and places I had to explore as a kid: a vast extend of rice field, watercourses, a cliff by the factory, the bushes behind our elementary school and so on. Me and my friends, including random neighbors, played pretend every day after school in all weathers. I believe the environment that Filament theatre is providing for kids is very similar to what I had as the natural environment. Aside from the existence of the audience, what kids are doing in the space is exactly what I was doing in the bushes. Now, there are more security and safety issues - especially in urban areas - and other alternatives to playing outside, such as video games, compared to how it all used to be like when I was little. In such an environment, theatre education could play a big part in promoting children’s imagination, certainly adding a little more of educational aspects to it.
I love this. Children’s theatre has a huge stigma surrounding it, especially higher up in the professional chain. Everyone seems to want to avoid it entirely. I think children’s theatre is often approached in the wrong way. We through rowdy kids in a room, with a single crusty old director and we put pre written words in their hands. They come to create and they just read out loud instead. Children have the energy that we don’t. They also see less limitations in what the world can be. Children are the best artists out there because they have no fear to hold them back from being themselves and creating something meaningful to them. They are brutally honest with each other and themselves and their creations show that. Giving them this space of freedom to play, is the best lesson in theatre and humanity that they could ever receive, and this model deserves to be replicated across the country.
I love this so much!! If I were a ten year old kid in Chicago I would absolutely go to Filament’s Forts! Experiment. Giving kids the opportunity to use their imagination and just play is so important! I’ve heard the phrase ‘play is a child’s work but it is so true! The sense of wonder and joy that kids at that age have is infectious and should absolutely be encouraged! I am thrilled that Filament has decided to add children to their board of advisors to help pick what shows they do and give them feedback. Theater is such a great learning tool as well so it is awesome that this is a place where kids can come to become immersed in and learn from theater. Filament is a really unique and awesome theater company made for young audiences in that it encourages outside input from children and young audience participation.
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