Twenty-first-century researchers know that well-documented research is an effective vaccine against false discourse. Children's theatre is an unknown field, unknown to historians of theatre, culture and even education, despite its ability to shed light on determining aspects of the social life of an era. Because determining factors are both the way in which political power organises the theatrical life of a country and the education of children, two aspects that converge in this book.
Cristina Santolaria is very aware of the value of fieldwork, of recovering forgotten data, seemingly humble, but which, brought up in a timely manner, can shed light on unknown aspects of theatre history and become points of support for new approaches and interpretations. This work enters, for the first time, into absolutely unknown territories. Its author has had the courage and generosity to clear the way for researchers who come after her, while allowing today's readers to take a look at a period in the history of children's theatre that has been happily overcome, but from which, if we are able to understand the mechanisms that drove it and surrounded it, we will be able to draw lessons for the future.