Participation in TYA’ is an online virtual conference that will bring together the Theatre for Young Audience (TYA) community of practitioners and academics from both across the island of Ireland and abroad to reflect on making work for young audiences.

Theatrical performances for young audiences (TYA) is far from a new phenomenon, yet the emergence of a distinctive professional sector has accelerated over the last thirty years in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and globally.

Although informed by and occasionally intersecting with other fields of practice including Theatre for Youth and Theatre-in-Education, it is characterised primarily by the work of adults who make and perform work for children and young adults.

This defining characteristic has come under pressure more recently from a number of sources through innovations in performance practice, and in the processes by which performances are made.

The reception of performance work has also been opened up to children and young adults through the development of opportunities for them to act as critics of the work. However, there is still a significant gap in the field in relation to evidence of the impact of the practices adopted in increasing the agency of young people in shaping the field of practices created specifically for them.

This conference aims to bring together scholars and artists from across the island of Ireland and internationally to address this gap.