Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities

Therese Kearns — co-organiser of Young Audiences and Authentic Representation in Professional Children’s Theatre (May 2025)— shares a reflection and summary of the event which explored the question: How do we authentically represent children and their interests on and off stage?

Last Friday, May 30^th, in the architectural delight that is the French Institute in the bustling heart of Edinburgh, the roundtable discussion supported by the SGSAH Cohort Development Fund took place. This event was led by myself and fellow doctoral candidate Sian MacGregor who is also working on a collaborative PhD with industry partner Imaginate, along with Charlotte Allan (Strathclyde/Starcatchers). This event was part of the delegate programme of Edinburgh International Children’s Festival, providing a unique and necessary opportunity to bring together industry professionals and academics to explore questions around how we authentically engage and represent young audiences. 

The event kicked off with a communal lunch for all the attending PhD students alongside the event’s speaker-facilitators and Imaginate staff, who enjoyed a comforting vegetable tagine, and we all gathered around one of the decadent dining tables. The networking lunch provided a relaxed and informal atmosphere to meet each other; there were many new encounters and PhD students from the University of Glasgow and the University of Ulster as well as students from Queen Margaret University and the University of Strathclyde to name but a few. The atmosphere was filled with curiosity and excitement as we all inhabit the niche and wonderful world of children and theatre studies so the fact so many of us congregated in the one place felt special. Many email contacts were exchanged which was a welcome sign of a happy networking event!

The next phase of the event was in the main hall where the festival delegates joined the PhD students in the audience. The delegates themselves were from different backgrounds and locations, all attending the Children’s Festival in capacities ranging from performers, theatre-makers, to the president of the long-established international organisation for children’s theatre ASSITEJ. We heard five diverse presenters, each linked in a different way to our theme: Therese Kearns, Fiona Ferrier, Gemma Cutler Colclough, Charlotte Allan and Farah Saleh. The event was hosted by the lovely Siân and Belinda, the Chief Executive of Imaginate. The presentations ranged in topics from children’s rights to babies as an audience, from co-creation to clowning, and on to theatre as an intergenerational decolonial practice. They each offered a provocation which would be followed up with a workshop with attendees who chose which group and speaker to join for discussions.

^{Our Wonderful Panel of Presenters: From the left Farah Saleh, Therese Kearns, Fiona Ferrier, Gemma Cutler-Colclough and Charlotte Allan.}

After the presentation section, we all scattered into breakout rooms where the presenters facilitated a roundtable discussion. My table was exploring ‘children’s rights and how to implement the voice of the child in our work’. The international element offered a variety of perspectives from Australia to Sweden that enriched our discourse, and both delegates and researchers had a wide range of experience and knowledge to share. Participants could join another group part-way through to get a flavour of another topic. After the workshop we gathered once more in the main hall to reflect on our workshop discussions as well as enjoying some tea and coffees.

When thanking participants for attending, I was frequently met with word ‘inspiring’. It made me reflect on the importance of curating a space of shared knowledge and expertise. It was as valuable for academic and industry professionals alike and the thought-provoking conversations will hopefully ripple beyond the event and into children’s theatre – in both practice and in research.

---

First published: 2 June 2025