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.
“Criticism of theater for young audiences focuses on educational value and attention span—was it good for you, were you bored,” Ritchey says. “I find it upsetting and condescending, and that kind of thing is a huge part of the reason why we didn’t expressly say that we were TYA for so many years.”
In conversation with five of Filament’s youth advisors, Drake and Luke Groszek, ages 11 and 7, recalled their involvement in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane rehearsals last year. In addition to acting out different parts, the kids were tasked with bringing specific scenes to life, like the china rabbit Edward Tulane being tossed overboard. “The only material we had was people,” Drake says, which led to figurative representations of the undulating waves and sea creatures. In a camp designed around Luna, Emma Sennett, age 8, built golden benches for their play’s set, a “fancy park,” and journaled daily about new learnings and overcoming past challenges.
For Forts‘ young audience, it was an opportunity to work their imaginations overtime and build connections. Drake waged war, Emma ran covert ops as a secret agent, and Leah Walsh, age 9, built a palace. Maddie Walsh, age 11, appreciated an invitation from some new friends to army-crawl through their “super cool fort.” All agree the hour run time was too short, though Maddie concedes it was probably because they were having too much fun.
Through 3/15: Sat-Sun 1 and 3 PM; adult version Sat 7:30 PM through 2/22, Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee, 773-270-1660, filamenttheatre.org, $9.
