The children of noisy co-op : inquries into youth agency in adapting theatre for young audiences

This MA thesis conducts ‘living inquiries’ (Irwin, 2008) into the ongoing efforts towards increasing youth agency in Theatre for Young Audiences (van de Water, 2012; Schonmann, 2023; Elliot, 2023). Using a framework that examines ‘research-creation’ (Chapman O’Donoghue, 2004; Lymburner, 2004), the study reveals entanglements between the roles of artist, researcher and teacher as well as in-between the process, product and reception of adapting (Hutcheon, 2013) a piece of TYA with a collaborative group of youth dramaturgs and performers. The script for The Children of Noisy Co-op expresses a story based on Astrid Lindgren’s pastoral and impressionistic “Noisy Village” series set against the tense backdrop of the ongoing land lease negotiations in False Creek South, Vancouver. The script also tracks the journey of a “play in-motion” (Hershler & Belliveau, 2025, p. 5), navigating a course within a “community of interests” (Spolin, 1999, p. 360) and a variety of influences and opportunities. Through methods of ‘diffractive dramaturgy’ (Lee, 2020) evoking the metaphor of the palimpsest, attempts at revealing hidden experiences within the play’s text are made, resulting in new lines of inquiry. Whereas initial explorations centred on the ways in which the “direct experience” (Spolin, 2001, p. 155) of the youth actors may contribute to the aesthetics of the play’s text, the inquiry shifts to question the limitlessness of adaptation itself and the essence of cultural creation as shared experience (Bogart, 2001, p. 29).