Children’s Art is for Everyone

juliany taveras on Children’s Art and Their Recent Award

“It was so wonderful to work with those young people,” says juliany taveras, reminiscing about the process of bringing their adaptation of “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress” to life at the Children’s Theatre Company last year.

Nearly in the same breath, they looked forward: “I love imagining other children getting to play those roles and getting to have those conversations … the process [of creating] itself is just as impactful as the product and the audience experience.”

This look forward is not for nothing. taveras was recently awarded the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) for their adaptation of “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress.” This still-new play is slated to be performed at more theaters soon.

taveras walked me through their artistic journey, described working on “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress” and took a little time to dream about the future.

On Becoming a Playwright

taveras is quick to credit their love of writing to public libraries. Their mother, apparently, loves to say that taveras loves stories because of her many visits to the library while pregnant. It must be true — taveras loved their local library so much that they celebrated at least one birthday there. Their love of reading stories eventually turned into a love of creating them.

“Inevitably when you read a lot you eventually ask yourself — what if I write my own little thing?” taveras explains. “Around nine or ten I wanted to start doing that.”

taveras began writing poetry and fan fiction pretty young, but only once they got to college did they begin to explore playwriting. They specifically found inspiration in Virginia Grise’s “blu,” which is a story that centers two queer women and poetically grapples with issues like state violence and war.

“It wasn’t until I read ‘blu’ that I was like, ‘Wait, you can do this,’” says taveras. “I love playwriting as a medium. The story can live in exciting ways on the page and the stage. I like that I can be with playwriting and extroverted with the playmaking process.”

“Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress”

taveras was honored when they received the Distinguished Play Award for “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress.”

“Even just the title, I’m like, ‘Wow, thank you, I feel so distinguished,’” taveras jokes. They continue: “It can feel like children and children’s art are not super valued by larger culture. I can struggle with feelings of futility … [but art like this] matter[s]. It has an impact.”

“‘Morris’ is a really sweet story — I had the honor of adapting it [from Christine Baldacchino’s book],” says taveras, “and [the award] is affirming in centering the kind of art that I want to put out in the world.”

This isn’t the first time that taveras has adapted a children’s book, and they love doing it.

“Part of the power of a children’s book is that it’s so concise. The ideas are simple and not complex,” says taveras.

When working on their adaptation, they strove to bring the essence of the children’s book onto the stage.

“How do I capture these things that the book evokes in me as a reader? How do I use the medium of theater and the stage to evoke that same feeling in an audience?”

It was magical for taveras to see their story come to life at CTC.

“[The opening night of] ‘Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress’ was so surreal. There were two openings with two casts and … both crowds were amazing. There was so much support. So much love.”

taveras describes the joy of “getting to hear the genuine reaction” of kids sitting near them in the audience, but they were also struck by the reactions from older members of the audience.

“[Some] adults … said things like, ‘Oh my gosh, this healed something in my inner child,’” says taveras. “As a trans nonbinary adult getting to craft this story that’s how I felt, too. It was emotional for me in the best way. Children’s art is for everyone.”

When I ask taveras what they think the future holds for “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress,” they take a moment to let the ramifications of the question seep in.

“I love that question because it invites me to dream,” taveras says. “The commission was for three theaters and I’m excited to see how other theaters and companies work on the same script.”

They pause for a moment before continuing: “Thinking about there being more life to it — it doesn’t just end. I’m thrilled to imagine young people who will get to embody these characters.”

“I’ve never even said this out loud until now, but I’m thinking about access — where can it be as accessible as possible for kids and families to engage with this story? Is there ever a world where it’s translated? I want to write more in Spanish and I could see this being meaningful for immigrant families.”

More taveras

If you missed “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress” when it was at CTC and are interested in seeing more of taveras’ work, they have a diverse portfolio. They have several plays available for free on New Play Exchange.

“Plays are fun to read even if you can’t see them,” they say, although hearing that folks are performing their plays is always exciting.

They tell me about a small arts school in California that found one of their plays on NPX and wound up producing it because “their students resonated with it.”

taveras also wrote a screenplay adaptation for “Julián is a Mermaid” by Jessica Love that has been announced for a release sometime in 2025 or 2026.

“If [adapting children’s books] is my lane, I love it,” says taveras. “[“Julián is a Mermaid” is] really beautiful for fans for ‘Morris.’ [It] is about a kid who just wants to express.”

And if you want to watch something now, they worked on a few episodes of Amazon’s “With Love.”

“Every episode is a different premise. It follows a Mexican-American family and has really queer characters,” they explain.

For anything else, taveras’ website is a great resource to find out what they’re putting out into the world.

“People will sit around and tell a story,” taveras muses. “There is an ancient aspect to [storytelling] — we’ve been doing some version of this forever.”

Whether that story is about a tangerine dress, a Mexican-American family, or something else entirely, taveras is a storyteller you want to pull up a stool for.

www.julianytaveras.com