Lengthy monologues are out. So are long slow songs and extensive flashbacks. Frequent action and changes of scene are required for shorter attention spans. Sounds like a hit Broadway musical to me. But above all, a work for young people must not talk down to its audience because they can always tell.
Kids are tougher than any theater critic.
They will easily expose a playwright who doesn't deliver a story that is tight as a trap but also lyrical, focused while being fast-moving, believable but still fantastic, while it also challenges them and makes them question, just for good measure. A play for youth has to be honest, skillful and every bit as good as anything on Broadway. And it doesn't need to have a happy ending, just a satisfying one. National Youth Theater Symposium. The experience of receiving recognition, respect, even applause from others in the field was indescribable.