DT:FC plays work like magic — but not the kind with elaborate special effects or fancy costumes. Success comes from something much more powerful: the children’s imaginations!
Less is more: keep it simple and be fearlessly creative
Simple doesn’t mean boring — it means clear and powerful. DT:FC plays are performed on a bare stage, with neither sets nor props, and minimal costumes. Minimal props and sets mean maximum imagination.
1. Choose the story — follow the plot
The beginning is to decide on an old story, a parable, maybe a favourite of yours, that you want to transform into a play. Almost any traditional story can be transformed. The story provides the plot — the sequence of events. Keep the plot simple.
2. Playmaking is in the oral tradition
The goal is to capture the audience’s complete attention by accessing their imagination through their ears. Clarity is an important element in the communication process.
The oral tradition uses:
- Repetition of important information aids clarity. Repetition takes many forms:
- Scene repeats: there are three children, and so three scenes where the first two times the characters fail, but the third child succeeds.
- Theme repeats: various characters refer to the goal or other main point.
- Line repeats, including songs.
- Careful selection of action and effect strikes chords of memory and experience.
- The plot is a Wayfarer’s Journey: the same basic elements occur in every story. See the Archetype of One Story guide for the full pattern.
- The characters are archetypes: hero/heroine, villain, bad or good parent, wise helper…
- Speech followed by action followed by speech followed by action. This pattern allows the audience time to digest each unit of spoken or observed information. Stories should flow naturally like the ebb and tide.
3. Invite wonder with strangeness
Strange and exotic invites curiosity and awakens the mind. Set the story in unfamiliar places — it immediately captures attention. Children love exploring new worlds through story.
4. Invite audience participation
Involve the audience directly. They will provide sound effects, spontaneously or by being asked by the Players. At times the audience is directly invited to make choices for the characters.
5. Handle difficult themes thoughtfully
- Children understand the difference between theatrical reality and everyday life.
- Instead of removing challenging elements from fairy tales — the reason the story exists is to transmit how to survive the problem and thrive.
- Violence is never for entertainment — always stylised and essential to the plot.
- These stories help children understand their own capacity to overcome challenges.
6. Let children make it their own
- The best plays live on in children’s imaginations and games.
- Resist the urge to add a moral at the end — let children discover meaning themselves.
- Trust children to find what matters to them in the story.
DT:FC playmaking isn’t about impressing audiences with flashy effects or non-stop action. It’s about making theatrical moments that resonate deeply. When you invite the audience to use their imagination, you’re asking them to bring themselves into the production — making it their story too!
Each audience person risks becoming committed to the production in the hopes that something useful will be learned through the theatrical experience. When that learning occurs, the person feels pleasure — they risked, they learned something, they feel good about it.
So choose your story and start playing! Remember the DT:FC principle: “Say Yes, and…” Your creativity is limitless, and the children’s imaginations love explorations.