ABSTRACT
This Short focuses on two under-represented areas of audience and performance studies: children as audience members and the longitudinal impact of school-based performance. It refutes the suggestion that performance is ephemeral, passing the moment its eventfulness is over. It recognises that the ending of the performance is often the beginning within the child’s imagination and memory. I argue that in the context of children watching live performance, memory should be celebrated as ‘creative,’ an imaginative dialogue between past and present when it is rediscovered after a year or longer.
