No Place For "Cute" In Family Programming | Guest Blogger Mara McEwin on Risky Programming

My mother is a painter. We weren’t allowed to use the word “cute” in the house, let alone when describing artwork. I have grown up not wanting to watch “cute” either. I don’t think we should want it for our family programming. We want work that doesn’t dumb down the audience. We want work that speaks to us on many levels.

Recently I returned from the International Performing Arts for Young People (IPAY) conference. Chrissie went too. Now that we, Treehouse Shakers, have Piccadilly Arts as our arts manager, I don’t think it is so pertinent that the other co-founder and I attend these performing booking conferences. This year I went though, primarily because I wanted the artistic inspiration. Every year I experience a performance that I love, that inspires me on all levels: as a writer, performer, director, and producer. This year wasn’t any different. Towards the end of the weeklong conference, I fell in love with two pieces, one from Italy that was dark, brilliant, and aesthetically juicy. I also loved a piece from Canada that I found more on the fence of performance art for kids and I LOVED it!

I came home inspired. I wrote. I began the production planning for a new project. I even began writing the grants. And then I wrote some more. Risky programming it may be, but I feel alive and excited to make something new.

Treehouse Shakers has always strived to make interesting work. Every time we make something new, we push our own concept of dance-theater, our style of storytelling, and what youth programming can look like. In our nearly fifteen years of making work I have never wanted to make work like other people’s. I also don’t want to watch work that is the same. I want to watch work that is enthralling, visual, and stimulating.

Sometimes my collaborating partner, Emily, jokes that we might as well rename our shows after a famous children’s book title so that we can contract more work. It is indeed frustrating as an artist to see the presenting theater series packed with not so great shows, but sellable titles. I am also beyond bored watching companies that make work following the “rules” on how to tell a story, play a story, and act a story. I am also tired of watching companies “sell-out”. And I am terribly disappointed that other companies use grade B performers because the show is for children. We need high quality work that pushes us creatively as audience members, no matter our age. That makes us think, stirs our thoughts, and makes us go “WOW! That was an experience!” Otherwise, why not just turn on the TV and tune-out to a not-so-good cartoon? Our society, let alone our kids, needs a jumpstart artistically. We are in the triage center when it comes to art. If we don’t do something that heals the situation fast, we are going to have generations of children who think live performance is boring!

C’mon! Live performance should be anything but boring!

Not only do I create work for young audiences, but also I have worked as a professional arts educator for 16 years. I have developed pre-school and elementary curriculums for storytelling, creative drama, and dance. I know kids; I work with them every day. I have one of my own. They are beyond “cute”. They are deeply insightful, even when they might not have the vocabulary to match, they are highly thoughtful, playful, and they are most of all responsive. They want work that makes them feel, think, challenges them, and makes them grow. Children want experiences they can soak up. That is what good artistic programming should do. Leave the tired-out, dried-up, crusty performance work for the birds.

Mara McEwin is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Treehouse Shakers, a dance-theater company based in New York City. She has written, directed and often acted in all of Treehouse Shakers eleven dance-plays. Treehouse Shakers currently has three original dance-plays on a rotating tour across the nation for young audiences and a new dance-play for teens.

Awarded "The Best Storyteller of New York" by the New York Press, Mara has performed throughout the country at schools, festivals, theaters and community events. She has been a featured teller for the Baby Gap Stores, The Tribeca Film Festival and Chocolate Sauce Publishing Company. Since 1999, she has also been a storyteller in residence for the Early Stages Program, working across New York City in numerous public schools and leading staff development workshops for teachers. In 2002 she helped develop Brooklyn Kindergarten Society's pre-school storytelling program for students ages two to five through the Early Stages Program. Mara was also the recent subject for the qualitative study for the inclusion the storytelling curriculum in the classroom by Dr. Barb O'Neill.

As an actor Mara's favorite credits include Bloomsday on Broadway XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV with Frank McCourt and Stephen Colbert, featured on National Public Radio as well as The Sandpiper at Symphony Space, NYC. She has also performed with such notable companies as Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Theater, Eugene O'Neill by-the-Sea-Festival, Todo Con Nada, Cypreco Theater, Cinasphere, Ridicu-Fest, Chekhov Vaudeville Festival, among others. She has worked in films, print ads, television and commercials. She is an adjunct faculty member for the English department at Dowling College, and an affiliate of New York Writers Coalition.

Mara hails from Wyoming and holds a B.F.A in Theatre from Stephens College in Missouri. For more information on Treehouse Shakers visit treehouseshakers.com.