<i> As the New Year dawns, regular contributors to Stage Beat and Kid Beat reflect on the best theater they saw in the last 12 months. : </i> : Children’s Theater for Kids of All Ages

“Children’s theater” may be a misnomer. The best of it, though geared perhaps to a certain age, is easily accessible to adults. Good children’s theater is simply good theater--the same rules apply.

This year’s No. 1 offering was “One Thousand Cranes,” presented by the Mark Taper Forum’s Improvisational Theatre Project.

The exquisite drama by Colin Thomas dealt openly with kids’ fears of nuclear war. Peter C. Brosius directed his exceptional cast with a velvet touch, maintaining artistic integrity throughout.

The Taper scored again with two remarkable staged readings at the Itchey Foot Ristorante.

Aimed at adults and at children mature enough to feel its poignancy, Truman Capote’s delicate holiday reminiscence, “A Christmas Memory,” adapted by Madeline Puzo, was presented with aching sweetness by Mary Carver and Michael Tulin. This show, under Michael Peretzian’s sensitive direction, has been an annual Taper institution since 1982.

In the anecdotal “With Alice and Wonderland,” written by James R. Winker and Diana Maddox, Winker not only brought Lewis Carroll’s eccentric characters to life at the Itchey Foot, but skillfully explored Carroll’s complex personality.

Des McAnuff, the Tony Award-winning artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse, came up with “Silent Edward,” a musical inaugurating the playhouse’s new Performance Outreach Program. Touring San Diego schools, the show, about a fight to preserve a historic ferry boat, features a fine cast, a rollicking score and uncompromising professionalism.

San Francisco’s classy, one-ring Make-A-Circus troupe came south again this summer, bringing an outstanding mix of theater and real circus skills--acrobatics, juggling, clowns and high-wire tricks. The Make-A-Circus jazz band was hotter than ever and audience members of all ages got into the act.

J.P. Nightingale’s 3-year-old TAFFY festival provided added opportunity to see some of Los Angeles’ best talent. Besides Nightingale’s own warm and funny storytelling and songs, there was Carl Weintraub’s excellent “We Tell Stories” troupe, silly songsters Dan Crow and Paul Tracey, wacky mimes Schwartz and Chung and the inventive L.A. Moving Van and Puppet Company.

Worthy of mention: Storybook Theatre’s production for tots of “Aladdin and His Lamp” at Theatre West and Little Broadway Productions’ best effort thus far, the musical “Aesop’s Fabulous Fable Factory.”