The Children’s Theatre Movement in Early Twentieth-Century London and Birmingham

The children’s theatre movement was a feature of early twentieth-century theatre. London-based activity was high profile, supported and fostered by theatre celebrities, including Ellen Terry. Birmingham was recognised as central to a new direction in the movement in which the roots of Theatre in Education and later for children and young people can be traced. This chapter explores models of children’s theatre provision in London and Birmingham, examining how the advent of cinema, thinking about childhood, and national and local social and educational reform agendas across Britain in the interwar years influenced the growth in the theatre form and its audiences.