This article proposes a historical-political view on the encounter between theater and education, considering theater for children as its practical operator. Due to an analytical effort inspired by Foucauldian theorization, the study focuses on the discourses on the theme in Brazil from the beginning to the middle of the twentieth century, making use of two unusual sources in theater historiography: the newspaper Correio da Manhã and the Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos. By pointing out the discursive bond between theater practices and the ideas of Escola Nova movement, the study attributes to theater for children and school theater a prominent role among the pedagogizing strategies of population governance.