My thesis is a critical analysis of social issues with particular reference to selected children'srnplays written in Amharic by different playwrights. I try to deal with the following issues:rnrnFirst, I would like to stress that before this study, there was no substantial research on children'srntheatre play scripts. This seems to me because of the little regard given to this field of study as anrnarea of investigation by those responsible for directing graduate researches. But Dereje Melakurnhad touched on the themes of some of the play scripts in the course of making a survey ofrnchildren 's literature in Amharic. There are also undergraduate theses in the Department ofrnTheatrical arts, which contain a brief description of the play scripts in Amharic. My study;rnhowever, differs from these researches in objective, depth, and scope.rnSecond, there was no substantial survey on the development of children' theatre and theirrnproblems in Ethiopia previously although their theatre is worthy of investigation - as worthy asrnany branch of theatre, theatre activity, or aspect of theatrical production. It goes without sayingrnthat such a survey is necessary, both in order to place children's theatre playwrights and theirrnplay script works in context, and to faci litate and motivate the study of Ethi opian children theatrernin general. Chapter two of this study attempts to survey the state of children's theatre in the worldrnand in Ethiopia.rnThird, Ethiopian children theatre has received little attention as part of Ethiopian literature by therncritics of Ethiopian and African Literature in general. Some foreign writers have attributed thisrnfact to difficulties of language. Moreover, translation is an area that has not yet developed inrnEthiopia. However, an encouraging attempt is made by one of the playwrights though his work isrnnot yet published - Ato Ayalneh Mulatu Abeje, who has started to write or translate his works inrnto English and Russian languages. Nevertheless, my opinion is that the translation of the works ofrnsome of or all of Ethiopian children theatre play scripts in to English or other languages wouldrnnot be enough unless it is accompanied by a parallel development of criticism by Ethiopians,rnwithout which a complete grasp of the works may not be possible. I hope that this study willrnmotivate Ethiopian researchers to do further research and to help a non Ethiopian reader to seernthese play scripts in the context of their social, economic, political, psychological and culturalrnhistory.rnFourth, I feel that a research into a critical analysis of social issues with particular reference tornselected children's plays written in Amharic by different playwrights would be a relevant socialrndocument because art itself can be considered as one of the relevant, and authentic socialrndocuments of their period that existed in human hi story. Furthermore, I believe that childrenrntheatre in Ethiopia did not get proper attention from the concerned scholars and other relatedrnbodies whereas all the future generation may profit directly or indirectly from its properrnfunctioning.Fifth, my study will also attempt to briefly present the background of Modern-AristotelianrnChildren's Theatre in Ethiopia.rnTo summarize, before a critical analysis of social issues with particular reference to selectedrnchildren's plays written in Amharic by different playwrights, I have tried to pinpoint somernproblems of children that dramatists generally deal with. Consequently, my study assumes thatrnliterature has a social function and children's theatre can be a social document through which werncan study Ethiopian children in different social contexts. Drama, as one of the genres ofrnliterature, is an entity that can vividly describe the social reality of Ethiopian children asrnplaywrights use it to explore social and emotional problems that children may experience in theirrnsociety. In doing so, I intend to show that children's drama has a social function. Playwrights ofrnchildren's theater play an important role in society by pinpointing the problems that concernedrnbodies in Ethiopia may not have been aware of.