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The more freewheeling aesthetic of children's theater--with its openness to fantasy, movement, participatory elements--is also energizing for adult audiences and creators. "You can never take yourself too seriously when the audience is full of young people," says Linda Hartzell, artistic director of the Seattle Children's Theater. "Kids let you know when they're not engaged. I think it must be what audiences were like for Shakespeare." Children's theater isn't always Shakespeare, but it's often such stuff as dreams are made on. --With reporting by Amy Lennard Goehner/New York City