Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) dwells in the margins of professional theatre production, theatre history, and contemporary discourse about theatre at large. Within Canada, such marginalization is pronounced, where scholars have only recently begun to examine TYA in the national context. Through my research and from my professional experience as a former artistic leader in TYA, I have identified a gap that has left many of the defining voices that shape the sector absent from scholarship. Similarly, I have suspected that many practitioners in TYA in Canada do not frequently tap into what little scholarship exists in the field. Drawing upon interviews with the artistic leaders of eleven of Canada’s most prominent TYA companies in combination with my findings from a literature review, this thesis offers insight about the values and views of artistic leaders; the material, practical, and ideological conditions they face; as well as how they navigate those realities. Tapping into emerging scholarship, I posit that TYA is shaped by notions of children and childhood and that, in order for artists to guide the sector forward, artistic leaders must bridge the often-disparate worlds of practice and research. Further, I put forth that TYA shares its paradoxical identity with children – whereby notions that consciously or unconsciously marginalize children do the same to TYA. I argue that those working in the field must strive to stand in solidarity with children by blurring binaries such as adult and child, professional and amateur, and performer and spectator. In doing so, TYA may better serve young audiences by speaking to and with them as they are, and in the process, challenge and reshape cultural perceptions.