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I did some research this week about the best family shows for the Easter holidays. I've recently written about why the activity of dance is good for children, but this was more about why visiting the theatre can be beneficial.

In a nutshell, it can boost literacy and vocabulary, encourage communication, imagination and curiosity, and lengthen the attention span. Through theatre we are transported into the hearts and minds of the characters, recognising and understanding their actions and feelings which encourages communication and learning empathy - all within a constructed, safe environment. Plus, it's great fun.

With dance there is even more room for interpretation because of the physical storytelling. As well as elegance and strength, we can utilise analytical thinking, inspire innovation and incite energy. Dance in the theatre can be powerful, hilarious, bold, engaging, surprising.

I spoke to Sue Buckmaster, artistic director of Theatre Rites - a company that makes work specifically for young people and wich is currently showing Rubbish at the South Bank - about why watching work on stage is important.

She said: "The child is equal to the adult. If we go to the theatre it's because we want to self-reflect, to understand ourselves and the worlds we live in better. It might take our mind off things, or educate us too, but ultimately our main aim when experiencing theatre is for self-reflection and well being - that is also vital for the young child. They also have a need, to exercise that muscle to develop empathy and see something from a different perspective."

Sue and I also discussed dance in particular, with her saying: "Immersive work is becoming more key to our cultural experience of dance and theatre - to really feel part of it and connected with it. It's the physical engagement that is so missing in the wonders of going online. There's something about the live or physical experience that does touch self-reflection in a different way. We can do that digitally but there's something missing."

I have to agree that increasingly in this digital era we, and our future generations of children, are missing out on some level of basic understanding of each other through lack of verbal confrontation. It's lost in the way we communicate with each other via text message, on email or social media. Through theatrical physical confrontation there is much to be learned.

I took my girls to see My First Ballet: Coppelia by the English National Ballet at the weekend and they talked about the characters, the movement, the music, and how one character was mean, and why/how any conflict was resolved. They also gasped, laughed and clapped at the pretty dance sequences, highlighting that their experience of the magic of theatre was as important as observing the meaning of the show.

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The benefits of theatre for children | Opinion | The Stage

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I did some research this week about the best family shows for the Easter holidays. I've recently written about why the activity of dance is good for children, but this was more about why visiting the theatre can be beneficial. In a nutshell, it can boost literacy and vocabulary, encourage communication, imagination and curiosity, and lengthen the attention span.

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Want to boost literacy? Teach your child to imagine the unimaginable? Cultivate curiosity? Get thee to the theater, and bring your kids.

The children's theater movement is led by Europe, but the U.S. is not far behind. And we're not just talking about the bustling theater town of New York. The third largest children's theater in the world is tucked away in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Other mid-sized cities-from Dallas, to Tempe, to Nashville, are also cooking up kids' fare in full-time children venues.

With the introduction of No Child Left Behind, many schools that used to round out reading, writing, and 'rithmatic with a yearly jaunt to see Shakespeare in action, or Jack ascending the beanstalk, have now scrapped these field trips in favor of spending more time preparing for standardized tests and drilling "fundamentals". The question is, how can you, as a parent, pick up the slack?

No one would argue the importance of literacy or fractions, but study after study has shown that the arts are more than fluff. Longitudinal data of 25,000 students involved in the arts, conducted at UCLA's Graduate School of Education by Dr. James Catterall, shows that consistent participation greatly improves academic performance and significantly bumps up standardized test scores. Students who make time for the arts are also more involved in community service, and less likely to drop out of school. And we're not just talking about upper middle class kids. These facts remain, regardless of a child's socio-economic background.

Peter Brosius is the Artistic Director of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, which serves up to 350,000 young people and families a year. He says you don't have to believe in the old phrase, "the arts for arts sake", to find compelling reasons to bring your child to the theater on a regular basis. "When you look at the US and where the growth in the economy is, it's evident that there's a need for idea generators. Our country is not necessarily anymore a producer of goods. Our economy thrives because we're a producer of ideas," he says. "Facts are just facts and as a society, with a touch of the calculator or a hit of google, kids can find a factual answer. But that can't teach a mind to be subtle and flexible."

Linda Hartzell, Artistic Director of the Seattle Children's Theater agrees. "I taught for 17 years and I've seen first hand that theater makes for smarter, braver, human beings. Theater helps connect the head to the heart," she says.

Theater also connects to the importance of reading. A play has the ability to jump a story off the page and bring it to life. This can be a revelation to regular bookworms, but also a real boon to reluctant readers. "Part of it is that what's happening on stage is very similar, in a way, to the play acting and role playing all children do. It's live, and good plays are just a little bit 'incomplete', if you will-they need the audience to complete them, and they change slightly with the audience. Films, of course, are static," says Kim Peter Kovac, President of Theatre For Young Audiences/USA (TYA/USA), a national organization for professional children's theaters.

While plays work to jumpstart the imagination, they also lengthen the attention span. At first, Hartzell says, sitting still in a darkened room may not feel natural for children. But that's precisely why it's important. Because TV is such a popular form of entertainment, she says, kids aren't used to focusing for an hour or an hour and a half. "Kids today see a new image every 3-4 seconds. They're used to constant change. And they don't listen as well," she says.

For parents still recovering from their own experiences with theater for kids-slapdash unprofessional productions that lasted way too long, take heart. This is not the children's theater of yesteryear. In fact, it's not even called children's theater anymore, it's called "theater for young audiences." Sure, many of these theaters still do fairy tales and classics, but they're also pushing the boundaries-offering stories about the Holocaust, a musical about teen alienation, or a modernized version of Antigone. Brosius says this vibrant retelling of history makes learning come alive. "When they connect with a play about a particular time period, they're hungry to learn, they're driven to learn," he says.

When should you get your kids started? The sooner the better, says Kovac. "There have long been a lots of shows for 5-years old and up. More and more companies are experiementing with shows for ages 3 and up". In Europe, companies are creating shows for kids as young as 1 ½ or 2.

Brosius says there are definite advantages to starting young. If you inspire a love of theater early on, there's a better chance that your child will develop creative gifts, and maintain a lifelong appreciation for the performing arts. "Kids brains are being hardwired and parents can help spark those neural pathways of creativity," he says.

The good news is, the number of children's theaters in America seems to be increasing, rather than shrinking. And the quality is better than ever because in recent years, companies that produce theater for young audiences have been getting something they've been struggling with for years: respect. In 2003, the Children's Theatre Company, based in Minneapolis, became the first ever children's troupe to win a Regional Tony award.

So take advantage of the boom. Not sure where to start? For a list of the 90+ theaters that are members of TYA/USA, go to www.assitej-usa.org/members.html. Some of the better known companies in the country, in alphabetical order, include:

Adventure Stage, Chicago IL

Charlotte Children's Theatre, NC

Chicago Children's Theatre, IL

Children's Theatre Company, Minneapolis

Childsplay, Tempe AZ

The Coterie, Kansas City, KS

Dallas Children's Theater, TX

First Stage Milwaukee, WI

Florida Stage, FL

Imagination Stage, Bethesda, MD

Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences, Washington, D.C.

Lexington Children's Theare, KY

Metro Theatre, St. Louis

Nashville Children's Theatre, TN

North Carolina Theater for Young People, NC

Omaha Children's Theater, NE

Oregon Children's Theatre, Portland, OR

Orlando Rep, FL

Seattle Children's Theatre, WA

There are also some great festivals such those that take place in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, the Flint Hills International Festival at the Ordway, St. Paul, and the Seattle International Children's Festival.

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Want to boost literacy? Teach your child to imagine the unimaginable? Cultivate curiosity? Get thee to the theater, and bring your kids. The children's theater movement is led by Europe, but the U.S. is not far behind. And we're not just talking about the bustling theater town of New York.

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By Sharon Martell
Community Relations Director, Oregon Children's Theatre

When asked how to create plays for children, Constantin Stanislavski, the great master of Russian drama reportedly replied: "The same as for adults, only better."

Children's theater is an underestimated medium. It's often viewed as being second tier. Perhaps this harkens back to the 1970s when theater for young audiences was an unprofessional mishmash of bad acting, costumes, and a poor selection of plays. But we've come a long way, baby! Pixar and Dreamworks have shown that entertainment for children can also be wildly entertaining for adults. In the last 30 years, theaters for young audiences have proven that as well.

Why should it be different? There is no reason to dumb down theater simply because it is for kids. Just like adults, children have the right to smart, relevant cultural experiences. Stan Foote, Oregon Children's Theatre's Artistic Director says, "I always appreciate the sophistication of a lot of kids. I just think kids want to be challenged. They're intelligent human beings. If you talk up to them, they will meet you there."

Today, live theater is more important than ever. While schools are focused on fundamentals and meeting common core curriculum goals, external children's arts programs are filling the gaps. Studies show that consistent participation in the arts actually increases academic performance. Most recently, The Right Brain Initiative released a September 2014 report showing that by integrating arts education and student learning, students' reading and math scores increase at least 2.5 times more than the average annual rate of increase.

Theater is live and dynamic. There is a strong sense of community, of sharing, and togetherness. If you've ever been to a school show at Oregon Children's Theatre, you'll know the power of hearing 800 children (and adults!) laughing at the same moment. As much as technology makes our world smaller, it also serves to isolate us. Theater does the opposite. And unlike TV or video games, which flash new images every few seconds, theater helps to lengthen attention spans. Children learn to wait (often with bated breath) for a scene to unfold.

But there's more! Theater sparks the imagination. It cultivates curiosity, empathy, literacy, courage, and self-confidence. Kids who participate in theater learn to be great collaborators, problem solvers, and idea generators.

Linda Hartzell, Artistic Director of the Seattle Children's Theatre in an interview with Danielle Wood of Education.com said, "I taught for 17 years and I've seen first hand that theater makes for smarter, braver, human beings. Theater helps connect the head to the heart."

Over the years, the selection of plays for children has been limited, relying mostly on fairy tales or well-worn chestnuts. However, Oregon Children's Theatre (and others like Dallas Children's Theatre, First Stage, Adventure Theatre, and Seattle Children's Theatre) have not been afraid to collaborate nationally, take creative risks, and create new work. In fact, Oregon Children's Theatre has brought 12 world premieres to the stage since 2003, including Lois Lowry's The Giver, which earned us a national reputation for new play development and has been produced at over 250 theaters since it premiered in Portland. The quality of the work led Marty Hughley at Oregon Artswatch to call The Giver, not children's theater, but "humans' theater."

But back to Stanislavski: why does children's theater need to better? For one thing, children make up the most demanding audience, requiring perfect honesty. If they don't like what they are seeing, there won't be any polite applause. Instead, there will be a lot of extra wiggling, loud whispering, and multiple trips to the bathroom.

English playwright, David Wood, told the Guardian that children's theater was "the most important theatre," due to its role in triggering the imagination, and its obligation to produce work of the highest quality. There's little room to fail in children's theater, he argues, "Some children and families will be coming for the very first time, and if you fail it could be the last time they ever come to the theatre." Oregon Children's Theatre takes that responsibility very seriously and works hard to make sure it's a great experience for the whole family.

See for yourself! Join us at our season opener, Ivy + Bean: The Musical. It's the story of two girls who couldn't be more different. They couldn't possibly become friends. Or could they? By getting to know each other better, they realize that first impressions and assumptions can be misleading. Their backyard antics show that you don't need hoards of toys or fancy play places to have fun-all you need is a great imagination.

Kids in the audience will have the opportunity to see other kids acting, singing, and dancing onstage. Many of them are Young Professionals from our mentorship program. Our Young Professionals are dedicated teens who work hard (and have fun!) as they perfect their craft and become qualified professionals in their own right.

Ivy + Bean: The Musical
Newmark Theatre
October 25-November 23, 2014
Information and tickets: www.octc.org

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By Sharon Martell Community Relations Director, Oregon Children's Theatre When asked how to create plays for children, Constantin Stanislavski, the great master of Russian drama reportedly replied: "The same as for adults, only better." Children's theater is an underestimated medium. It's often viewed as being second tier.

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avid Wood is used to people asking him if he is jealous of the success of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the West End. Before the arrival of those mega-musicals, Wood was the premier page-to-stage adapter of the novels of Roald Dahl, with seven under his belt including very successful versions of The Witches (which gave magic consultant Paul Kieve one of his early jobs long before Harry Potter), The BFG and James and the Giant Peach.

Long before Dennis Kelly and Tim Minchin teamed up for Matilda, Wood had a stab at transferring the story of Dahl's super-intelligent poppet with kinetic powers to the stage with musical duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe of Betty Blue Eyes and Mary Poppins fame. It didn't work out, but Wood has no regrets. He hasn't even seen Matilda, although he did slip in to see Charlie, and wasn't entirely impressed by everything he saw. But jealous? He shakes his head.

'At heart I'm an entertainer': Wood's adaptation of The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Photograph: Tristram Kenton

"Of course not. I do what I do, and they are doing something completely different. I may be seen as very old-fashioned, but when I write or adapt I'm always thinking of the children. I don't think what the grownups might want. I don't see that as my job," says Wood, whose Olivier-nominated adaptation of Judith Kerr's classic picture book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, returns to the West End this week for another summer season. It's a show that really has been a roaring success. "Even now when I watch it, I have a silly grin on my face," Wood confesses. "It's got all the things children love in stories: animals, food and a touch of magic or the surreal." They are clearly the things that Wood also loves. He may have recently turned 70, but there's a still a touch of the overgrown schoolboy about him.

Putting children first has sustained Wood over a long career that saw him turn his back on acting (early appearances included roles in Lindsay Anderson's If... and Aces High, a movie inspired by RC Sherriff's Journey's End, as well as playing Bingo in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn's ill-fated musical, Jeeves) and instead co-found the children's theatre company Whirligig in the 1970s. He's written numerous original plays for children including The Gingerbread Man, which is still regularly performed across the world. Simon Stephens may be big in Germany, but so is David Wood.

He accepts that in some ways he has always been unfashionable ("I've never been part of the children's theatre establishment"), neither part of the theatre in education movement of the 1970s and 80s or the more innovative practice of today developed by companies such as Oily Cart, Theatre-Rites and Travelling Light. He admires what others do, but it's not what he wants to do, preferring instead to bring great classics to the stage such as Tom's Midnight Garden. "At heart I'm an entertainer," he says. Nothing wrong in that.

Although he himself has done well out of adaptations, arguing that a good story is a good story in any medium, he regrets the fact that so much of children's and family theatre is based on well-known titles. "There are too few producers who are as interested in what's on stage as they are in bums on seats," he says, "and there is a problem when the artistic content is secondary to the title." But Wood believes that schools and parents can be very conservative too: "Call something The Wind in the Willows, and do it with three actors and a ferret, and they will come."

A BBC interviewer once asked him live on air if he had "sacrificed his career for children". It's those kind of attitudes that make him angry and has led to his role as chair of Action for Children's Arts, which has lobbied for more widespread recognition of Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states: "Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts."

"It makes me annoyed when people see children's theatre as being second division," says Wood. "Children's theatre is the most important theatre, and I don't buy it's important because it's an investment in the audiences for the future argument. I don't see it as my role to prepare Cameron Mackintosh's audiences of tomorrow. It's for now. They deserve it now. We need to be giving children great theatre now, because it's such a great trigger for the imagination."

There is certainly much more family-friendly theatre touring all over the country and even taking up residence in the West End. Sally Cookson's production of Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather, The Elephantom at the National Theatre and Michael Morpurgo's I Believe in Unicorns will all be joining Tiger in the West End this summer. Wood thinks it's a good thing, but says that quantity is no substitute for quality.

"In theatre people talk about the right to fail. If you work at the Royal Court maybe you have that right. But not if you work with children. Some children and families will be coming for the very first time, and if you fail it could be the last time they ever come to the theatre. I take that responsibility very seriously."

The Tiger Who Came to Tea runs until 7 September. Box office: 0844 412 4661. Venue: Lyric theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1.

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David Wood: 'children's theatre is the most important theatre'

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avid Wood is used to people asking him if he is jealous of the success of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the West End.

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Active Audience Guides (AAGs) | Seattle Children's Theatre

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These comprehensive tools help teachers tie the Mainstage experience into their classroom curriculum. Active Audience Guides provide articles, activities, discussion questions, and EALRs for each of our shows.

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~ the differences between an audience full of adults and one filled with children ~

inspired by the book: Theatre for Children by David Wood with Janet Grant

When performing in a theatre, actors can expect an adult audience to remain seated for the entirety of the show (unless they think the performance is SO BAD or need to leave for an emergency). Actors can also expect the audience to clap and possibly give a standing ovation at the end of the show. The cast can also expect the audience will remain quiet and not talk during the performance.

When performing in front of an audience of children - the game changes.
Children will yell at "the bad guy", leave if they think the play is "stupid" or "lame", they will talk to their friends seated beside them when they are excited or don't understand something on stage AND children know what they like. They will clap if they like it and will show their appreciation only when they truly enjoy the play. If they do not enjoy the performance, they won't clap or cheer "just to be polite".

Indeed when it comes to comparing adult & child audiences there is no doubt that children are the honest ones while the adults are the polite ones.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILDREN'S AUDIENCE

﻿#1. Children eagerly respond to Justice.

-when one character wrongs another

-justice prevails and good triumphs over evil

-gives children hope during times when they are wronged

*adults respond to characters responding to justice (good or bad)

#2. Children like to be frightened - within limits.

-being exposed to a negative force or evil character within the safety of a theatre

-the opportunity to interact with evil, stand up and save the day without being caused any trauma

-the supernatural, monsters make-believe or magic

-introduction of evil realities they may have to face in the future or in adult life

*adults have been exposed to more evil than children and need more "umph" to be frightened

#3. Children are healthily subversive.

-anything rude is found funny

-things that are considered inappropriate by adults in polite society are entertaining

-bodily functions, smelly socks, underpants, etc.

-daydreaming, disobedience, talking back, concealing one's thoughts/feelings & making fun of school & family

*adults are repulsed, turned-off or become disinterested if a production is not "tasteful"

[that is, if the adult audience is expecting a professional & serious show -

sometimes adults also like the crude. Surprise.]

#4. Children are logical.

-children do not enjoy, like or understand sub-plots or loose ends

*adults usually don't either but will be polite and say "nice show" even if they wanted to know what the hell happened???!!!﻿

#5. Children act differently and unpredictably.

-children won't always yell out the right answer when asked for

-children may chant something unexpected like "teach him a lesson!" or "not that way!"

-try to predict what they will say & when but know that may not be the results you get

*adults do not tend to yell out or chant anything during a production and are difficult to encourage to do so

#6. Children make noise during productions.

-children may find the urge to copy a character's movement (ie. hop like a kangaroo)

-tip-up seats are NOT recommended for children's audiences

-children will speak with their friends when they get excited or don't understand something

*adults will sit still and silently to be polite...even if they think the play is awful

#7. Children respond to action.

-conversation must be linked with action or some kind of movement

-characters simply sitting and speaking is BORING

-children don't want a debate, they want things to get done!

*adults can remain attentive to a conversation and follow along more easily

#8. Children don't like being patronised.

-don't speak sweetly or down to them like a dog. Kids will TURN OFF

-if you question the intelligence of your audience you are sure that they will not respect you or the show

*adults don't like to be patronised either. Duh.

#9. Children don't like "lovey-dovey" stuff.

-children are more interested in the plight and challenges of two lovers than how they fell in love

*adults appreciate a good romance or a story of intense passion

#10. Children love animals and toys.

-children often imagine their toys or pets are alive with their own personalities & enjoy seeing this concept come to life on a stage

-children feel safer if the characters are animals or toys rather than someone that looks like themselves

*adults prefer stories about human interaction and relationships as our imagination has more limits than that of a child

#11. Children love stories

-play must have a strong, coherent, logical, basic and interesting plot with well-defined focus and characters

-children understand action & reaction better than reflection

-a journey from A to B is a simple concept but the conflicts amongst the characters and the obstacles along the way are what makes it interesting.

*adults love stories too. That's why we have live theatre!

Remember my friends and local thespians that if we do not cater to our children's audiences today and get them hooked on live theatre at a young age - we will not have an adult audience in the years to come.

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Characteristics of a Children's Audience

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the differences between an audience full of adults and one filled with children ~ inspired by the book: Theatre for Children by David Wood with Janet Grant When performing in a theatre, actors can expect an adult audience to remain seated for the entirety of the show (unless they think the performance is SO BAD or need to leave for an emergency).

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This is an edited version of a speech I made at the Unicorn theatre in London last week, on being presented with an award for outstanding contribution to children's arts by Action for Children's Arts

It often feels as if every review or article about children's theatre represents a tiny triumph. It is a tiny triumph, over the kind of outmoded and ignorant thinking that dismisses work for children and ignores it on the grounds that children's theatre is not worth reviewing, that somehow something intended for children cannot possibly be of the same worth as a Tom Stoppard play or King Lear. What rot.

As someone who has dipped my toe into writing novels for children, I'm still astonished by how many well-meaning but misguided people ask: "So when are you going to write a proper grownup novel?", as if writing for children - surely the most challenging of all audiences - counts for nothing. Just as children's literature of the last 15 years has flourished, so theatre for young people has often not just matched theatre for adult audiences but often surpassed it.

Children's novels get a meagre amount of review space, but when it comes to writing about children's theatre, every column inch must still be fought for and over. This lack of coverage matters because it is always the case that what is reviewed in our culture quickly becomes what is valued in our culture. An absence of reviews about theatre that is made for and with children, and a reluctance by arts desks and editors to take children's theatre seriously not only suggests that we do not value that particular area of theatre, but that we do not value children and their experience of the world.

It shouldn't be that way. When the wellbeing of children in the UK is measured against that of other countries we come very low in the league of industrialised nations. Could there be a connection between that and our inability to value and nurture the creativity and imaginations of our children? We worry endlessly about exam results and yet squeeze the arts from the curriculum, so that opportunities to learn an instrument or go to the theatre are not an entitlement for every child, but activities that are only within the reach of the privileged few. As one of the characters in Lee Hall's The Pitman Painters says: "art is the place where you understand your whole life from." If one single child is excluded from art, we are all the poorer for it.

Last week I sat in the Unicorn theatre watching Ellen McDougall's superb production of Henry the Fifth, a play which responds to Shakespeare's play of the same name. Like Shakespeare's play in which the chorus asks the audience to "piece out our imperfections with your thought" so Ignace Cornelissen's play is a call to arms for the imagination, getting a young audience to imagine a different world, a different story for themselves, an alternative narrative and to empathise with another point of view. It is a play about emotional intelligence, not IQ or what level you got in Key stage 2.

At a time when the pressures on young people are perhaps greater than they have been at any time since the second world war, and the challenges faced by massive cultural and technological shifts, climate change, and economic collapse are immense, what we need is a rising generation who can use their heads to solve those problems but also their imaginations. Some time ago I heard a government spokesman on the radio talking about raising standards in schools, and making changes to the curriculum and the arts and humanities in higher education so we generated the skills necessary for a successful 21st century society.

Did that mean, asked the interviewer, that there needed to be more emphasis on skills such as maths and engineering? Yes was the reply. Of course we do need those skills, nobody would argue against their importance. But while we need people with the skills to build - let's say a bridge - we also need the people capable of imagining that bridge in the first place, or thinking how we could create a very different kind of bridge. Or perhaps asking whether we need a bridge at all.

Theatre, particularly theatre for children, fires the imagination, it gives our children the skills and the creativity necessary to face the world, to understand it and perhaps to change it too. We should value children's theatre and take it seriously and that means treating it with the respect that we would any work of art including reviewing and critiquing it.

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This is an edited version of a speech I made at the Unicorn theatre in London last week, on being presented with an award for outstanding contribution to children's arts by Action for Children's Arts It often feels as if every review or article about children's theatre represents a tiny triumph.

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When an invitation to The Ball arrives at the Ash girl's house, from Prince Amir, she can't bring herself to believe that she, like her sisters, can go. With her mother dead and her father away, she must learn to fight the monsters that have slithered and insinuated their way into her heart and mind.

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How is Children's Theatre different from other genres of theatre?

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What is Children's Theatre? Define Children's Theater How does Children's Theatre differ from other kinds of theatre? Historical information and defining characteristics Important people Second Visuals Works Cited http://www.childrenstheatre.org/about-us http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/theater/tya/history.html Regular Theatre Theatrical expression Include a broad range of topics Specifically created for a young audience Children's Theatre These stories derive from folk tails, fairy tails, real life issues, and many historical events.

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Definition, Skills, etc.

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Performed by HS Students

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Here's the children's story Henny Penny acted out in a comedy skit by Northwood High School Advanced Drama Class, starring Theo Iyer and the Crew. This is one of 10 skits that was part of the final play produced by NHS Theater Dept. in 2010.

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Transcript here - https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/children-s-theatre#being-bear

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Episode 116: The Working Actor - Children's Theatr e

It's a little known fact that Theatrefolk's own Craig Mason spent 15 years as a working actor. He has done it all from comedy, drama, musicals, commercials, TV and children's theatre. We're going to talk about his time touring Franklin the Turtle where he played Bear for the pre-school set. We're also going to talk about why he left acting and has never looked back.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Show Notes Episode Transcript
Welcome to TFP - The Theatrefolk Podcast - the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and theatre educators everywhere.

I'm Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk.

Hello, I hope you're well. Thanks for listening.

Welcome to Episode 116! You can find all the links for this episode at theatrefolk.com/episode116.

Today, we continue our Working Actor series on the podcast. What is it like to be a working actor? How did their choice of school help? What is it like to tour? What should you definitely not do?

And I am thrilled as always to welcome Theatrefolk's own Craig Mason to the podcast. Hello!

Craig: Hello everybody!

Lindsay: So, it is a little known Theatrefolk fact that Craig actually spent fifteen years as a professional actor, a working actor, so that's why you're here.

Craig: I think that was a little known fact to the theatre community - not just the Theatrefolk podcast audience.

Lindsay: Okay. Well, that's an interesting thing. We'll get into that in a little bit. But, first, let's talk about how you got started. What school did you go to?

Craig: I went to the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It's not a place that's known for its theatre program. I went there for math and computer science because that's where I thought my calling was and I was in the coop program there. I ended up taking a few electives in the theatre department.

In my very first semester and my very first year, I got cast in one of the theatre department shows and had a blast - I wasn't having a blast in math and computer science - and gradually, halfway through, I did about two years, I guess? I guess two school years. It took me three years to get through those because, like, I took a year off doing math and computer science stuff and then I transferred into the drama department and that's where I got my degree.

Lindsay: What kinds of things did you study? Like, in terms of what kind of school was in for drama? Was it a lot of theory? A lot of practical? What was the focus?

Craig: It's a liberal arts school which means that you're going to be taking a lot of academic courses, too. So, I had to take electives. I took electives in economics, in history, in French. I took an elective in Cold War relations between the US and Russia.

Lindsay: Oh, boy!

Craig: Yeah. Actually, that one was kind of fun.

Lindsay: Okay. And then, what about your theatre classes stood out to you?

Craig: Well, the cool thing that happened actually in my department while I was there is they were trying to transform the department into something more than what it was. And so, they had brought in an outside director by the name of Joel Greenberg and he was coming from more of a professional background so it was really cool because he taught our acting classes and he would take one thing per semester and really focus on it. So, in terms of acting, I got a semester on Commedia dell'arte, a semester on farce, a semester on auditions. So, it was really valuable theatre training even though that's not what it set out to be.

Lindsay: So, you left school and you were like, "I'm going to try and be a professional actor." What was your thought process at the end of your university degree?

Craig: At the end of my university degree, I thought I was kind of set because, before I finished university, I already had my first job lined up for once university was over - an actual acting job that paid. So, yes, that was definitely the goal.

After university, I moved to Toronto which is the big center for theatre in Canada. It's basically Toronto or Vancouver or Montreal. Toronto has, I think, the bigger theatre community, or it did at the time. I thought I'd just started working away in Toronto at becoming an actor.

Lindsay: What was that first job? What was your first professional gig?

Craig: Well, this is cool because my first professional gig was a year before. I was still in university. I was in my third year of university. Because of this guy, Joel Greenberg, he was directing a show at a professional theatre which is actually a really well-respected professional theatre called Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. He was directing You Can't Take It with You There and he needed a few guys because there are some smaller roles.

At the end of the second act, if you know the show, when all the chaos erupts, there are these G-men who come in, these FBI agents. One of them has some lines, and one of them has two lines, and one of them has one line, I think, and I think I was the guy who had the one line. But he needed the non-equity and those are non-equity roles. Those are not roles you're going to cast a full professional union member with so it was just a fantastic opportunity of being in the right place at the right time. The other guy who was in my program, we cast as one of the other G-man roles, he had a car and you needed a car to get to this job because it was not in the same town that our university was so it really was a fortunate lucky experience for me.

Lindsay: What did you learn from that? What was the difference to you from being on a professional theatre set than being in your class?

Craig: Oh. Well, it was wild because, when we walked in to the first day of rehearsal, if there were stairs in the show, there was a mock-up set of stairs on the rehearsal deck. If there were props needed for the show, there were, you know, maybe not the final props but there were rehearsal props there. You can't take it with you. There are some cats I think. I think it was cats - the animal, cats, real live cats - and they had baby kittens there for the actors who were going to be interacting with the cats so they became good friends throughout the rehearsal process. We had kittens, too.

Lindsay: So, when you walked in and you saw all this, what was your thought about this is what professional theatre is like?

Craig: I thought it was awesome because, well, I'll you why - because that show is a show about characters, you know? Everyone is really quirky. Everyone's a real character actor so it was basically, oh, how big is that cast? It must be something like at least a dozen to fifteen people and it was so much fun because everyone was these quirky oddball people. I'm kind of a quirky oddball people myself so I really felt like I fit in and they really were very generous and kind.

There were people in that cast; there was one gentleman in the cast, I think he was fifty or sixty years deep into his professional theatre career. You know, these were not amateur performers. These were seasoned pros and they were kind and they were generous to us little guys and I felt very embraced and I felt like I could speak to anyone about anything. I never felt like, "Oh, don't speak to Miss So-and-So because she's having a bad day," and I think that's how Joel puts his companies together. I got to do another show with him later too and it was a very similar experience. Just great people and so it was a great introduction for me.

Lindsay: So, you went on and you lived in Toronto. What was the life of a Toronto working actor or trying to be a working actor? What was that like?

Craig: For a long time, it was a lot of fun because it was still back in the day where audition notices were posted on call boards and you actually had to go somewhere to get the audition notices. So, you know, I just kind of made a game out of it and I kind of systematized my approach to how I was doing it. I would make sure I would get up. I would always go to, I think there were two or three different places that you could go to for the audition notices. And so, I would go. I would get the audition notices, jot them down, and I would go right home and I would either call or mail my resume in. I wanted to look like I was, you know, on the ball and ready to go. I think that it was a really fun experience and it was nice getting out to those physical locations because I met other people like me, too. You'd always see the same people at these places. So, I felt like I was part of a community.

Lindsay: How long did it take you to get an agent?

Craig: Oh. That's a good question. It was a couple of years. I tried really hard when I first got to Toronto and nothing came of that. And then, I think I maybe gave up for a year or two. I'm going to say it was at least two or three years in Toronto. Do you remember?

Lindsay: I don't. Was that frustrating?

Craig: No, it wasn't frustrating because I wanted to do theatre and I wasn't a union member at the time so I was going out for non-equity stuff anyway and those auditions were really easy to get. So, to me, it wasn't a huge deal that I didn't have an agent because I didn't feel that they would have that much to offer me anyway and, to be frank, I didn't have that much to offer them. It always feels like the agent is hiring you but, really, it's the other way around. You're hiring the agent and their work is going to be easier if you're an established performer. So, it's a bit of a Catch-22 because it's hard to get that experience but you kind of need that experience in order to make it worthwhile to form a team with an agent.

Lindsay: One of the things that you spent a long time doing was a children's tour.

Craig: Yes.

Lindsay: And it was one show, right? That you did for a long time.

Craig: Yes, I auditioned for a lot of children's companies but I always looked a bit older and they were usually casting people who looked like kids. I always looked older. So, yes, I did one big children's tour. It was the very first live production of these beloved books called Franklin the Turtle - well, they were and they still are.

Lindsay: I know.

Craig: Yes. But, at that time, they were only a series of a few books. Now, it's become a TV show and I think there's a million books. But we were the first live people to go out and do the show. It was with a company called Touring Players of Canada and he was a great, great, great artistic director, Norbert Kondracki, because what he would do is he would go out, he would get his ear to the ground, and find out what the popular books were out there. He would talk to librarians, he would talk to schools, and so he would find out. Franklin the Turtle is becoming really popular in the libraries. He would contact the author, he would contact the publisher, and he would get permission to adapt their scripts into a show.

The other great thing he did was, even though he was hiring non-professional actors, he treated us like professionals.

Lindsay: Well, not non-professionals but non-equity.

Craig: Sorry, yes, non-equity. We weren't union members. He wasn't hiring union members but he treated us pretty darn close. I would say little difference between the way I was treated on that tour and the way I'd been treated in any other professional production.

Lindsay: Do you remember your audition for that?

Craig: I believe I did a... it was probably a monologue. You were always doing monologues. I auditioned for a lot of children's theatre.

Lindsay: Do you have to prepare a different kind of monologue for a children's show than if you're doing a "regular" show? It seems the wrong word to use.

Craig: For sure. You're not going to go into your audition doing your deep dramatic monologue from your Mamet, your Neil LaBute, or anything like that.

Lindsay: What do you think they're looking for in a children's theatre tour? Well, children's theatre play.

Craig: That's a good question. A lot of times, they actually ask you to go in and tell them a story. So, if it was a monologue, I would pick something that was more storytelling, something that was physical, something I could do something physical with. And then, of course, all of the other things you're looking for in an audition - a clearly defined character, a beginning, a middle, an end, a change in the course of the character.

I guess I'm not auditioning anymore, I can say the monologue I used to do all the time. I used to do this all the time. It's a great piece and it's actually from Sunday in the Park with George and it's a monologue that was actually cut from the show but, if you buy a copy of the script, it's in there as an appendix. It was great for children's theatre because it was about him, the artist, thinking back as a young person and how he would be fascinated with the light on the street and he would go out and he would run around the streets and trying to record everything that he saw. So, it was very active and it was very apropros, I thought, to children's theatre which is all about energy and discovery.

Lindsay: It's really interesting, I think, that, you know, particularly if you go away to school, that there's all this time spent with the classics and with creating these in-depth characters. But I think quite a few young performers, they get out of school and children's theatre is the thing that they do, you know? Why is that?

Craig: Because those are the roles that are available to us.

Lindsay: Yeah, true enough.

Craig: Certainly, when I was coming out of school, there was a lot of theatre for young audiences activity. I don't think there's quite as much now - the grants have dried up - but that was what was available to us and, as I mentioned before, they were often looking for...

Lindsay: Young performers.

Craig: They were often looking for people who could play kids and so you're going to be looking for younger actors and they were also professional companies. They were paying salaries and so, you know, they also expected a certain level of skill. So, you know, a fresh university graduate was right up their alley.

Lindsay: Now, the role that you played in Franklin, you were a bear, right?

Craig: I was Franklin's best friend.

Lindsay: Franklin's best friend.

Craig: Bear.

Lindsay: Bear?

Craig: Yes.

Lindsay: And you guys all had to perform in full costume. You were the animals. You weren't actors playing the animals. You were supposed to be the animals.

Craig: From my understanding, the agreement they had with the publisher was that we would look as much like the characters in the drawings as possible. It was basically like the costumes you would see at Disney World; it was just a full body costume. When I was Bear, it was fur mitts, fur on my feet, and a big huge full mask that went over my head which is great for Disney World but it was quite a challenge to act in because I think, when we first got the masks, they didn't have any space for the mouth. There was no ability for the sound from our mouths to escape so we kind of sounded like this.

They eventually cut holes in there and I was lucky because I grew a beard for the show and my beard hair kind of looked similar to the costume so, unlike the other actors, I didn't have to wear a chin strap. I think some people also had to wear a chin strap then once they opened up the mouths. It was really warm and they were uncomfortable. But it's the type of thing you really kind of get used to after a while.

Lindsay: I was going to say, like, how do you act in it? Like, how do you communicate anything to an audience?

Craig: Well, you have to be big, you have to be larger than life, you have to be very physically expressive which is another reason that it was so warm in there because we were moving a lot and we were on-stage and we were under stage lights. And so, those challenges were there. I wouldn't want to do it again today. But it was fine then. I didn't really mind.

Lindsay: Were you mic'd?

Craig: Sometimes, we were mic'd. It depended on the theatre but, as a rule, no.

Lindsay: What were those audiences like that you played for? What is a children's theatre audience like aside from loud and crazy?

Craig: It was loud and crazy. No, they were okay, and it depended on the day and it depended on the size of the venue. What was great about this particular tour is that, for the most part, we weren't performing in school gymnasiums which, if you're doing a children's tour, you're usually performing in school gymnasiums. But he would rent out every theatre that he could get his hands on so I got a great opportunity to play, I performed in pretty much every theatre in the entire province of Ontario because of this show so it was a great experience.

How are the kids? They were fine. It's a real adjustment to get used to from doing shows for adults because they are very immediate, they are very expressive. If they don't like it, you're going to know; if they're loving it, you're going to know; and both of those reactions are going to be loud.

But a great tip that was told to us in that show was that, if the kids start getting out of hand and if it starts getting really, really, really loud in there, you'll never ever ever overspeak them. You'll never be able to speak loud enough for them to hear you so, what you do is, you do the exact opposite. You just start talking quieter and quieter and quieter. Soon, the whole situation will start policing itself because people will want to hear so they'll either shut up to listen or they'll tell other people to be quiet. That was actually quite an effective technique. We used it many, many times.

Lindsay: A children's theatre tour is not the same as performing a night show. What is a typical day like on tour?

Craig: Typical day for me for that tour, now, the nice thing is Toronto is very central. A lot of times, we were just performing within driving distance of Toronto so I'd usually have to get up at around 6:00 in the morning - yes, in the morning - and you'd have to take the subway to the meeting spot and then, from the meeting spot, you'd drive to the venue. And then, while you're at the venue, you have to unload the van.

Lindsay: You have to unload the van, right? There's nobody doing it for you.

Craig: There was no crew, no. We were the crew. We unload the van. We set up the set. And then, we actually had a tour manager slash stage manager. She was in-charge with coordinating the lighting with the venue and coordinating the sound. But, sometimes, I think you have to do that, depending on the type of tour. And then, you do the show and then you have, like, a half an hour break and then you do the show again and then you have a half an hour break and then you do the show again.

Lindsay: Oh, my god.

Craig: Yes, we were often often often doing three shows a day. And then, you'd pack the van up, drive back to the meeting spot, take the subway home, have some dinner, and pass out.

Lindsay: How long was the show?

Craig: The show was about 30? 40 minutes long?

Lindsay: Wow. So, that's a full performing day.

Craig: Yes, we would often do 15-show weeks. Again, he was very fair because, if we did over a certain number - I think 12 - then he would pay us extra so we'd often make a lot more money than we were even promised.

Lindsay: Wow.

Craig: And, if we were on tour, if we were away from home, he would always put us up in a decent hotel. From my understanding, that is not what you always get. He stuck with one chain of hotel that was everywhere and it was a decent clean hotel. There were only two people to a room. There was five of us on tour - four actors and the tour manager. The tour manager got her own room and then the four actors split up - two in one room, two in the other - so we always got our own bed. When we needed to cool off from one another, there was always space. There was always a place to go.

Lindsay: Well, let's talk about that for a second. If you go on tour, because you did this show not only all over Ontario, you went out to another province - you went out west.

Craig: Yes, we eventually went out and did a month in British Columbia.

Lindsay: So, what is tour relations like? What is it like to be in the same places with these same people in a very tight, tight confined space like a van or in a hotel room? What is that like?

Craig: First of all, this is in the time before cellphones, before iPods, before we could just completely zone out. As I understand it now from talking to people who have toured, everyone just gets in the van and gets on their phone or their iPod and just zones right out. We did not have that luxury because I'm old and those things didn't exist then.

Lindsay: "What's an iPod?"

Craig: Exactly! So, we kind of had to talk to each other.

Lindsay: Oh, my god, conversation?

Craig: And, you know, you get five people into a van together for four months, there were conflicts here and there, but we were always able to resolve them, I think.

Lindsay: Good. You know, this is the other thing I wanted to talk about with small confined spaces. I remember seeing this show and your set was pretty involved. The whole idea that that was able to break down and actually fit in a van always sort of surprised me. Was there, like, an IKEA floor plan that you had to learn how to pack a van?

Craig: No! See, that was part of rehearsal. So, towards the end of rehearsals, they brought the set, they brought the van and said, "Okay. Now, you're going to practice loading up the van." You know, there was no map on how to do it. So, for the first few weeks, it was really tight, you know? Barely got the door closed on the van. But, as you go along, and I have this brain, I love putting stuff in the fridge, I love packing the trunk of the car.

Lindsay: Yes, I do not pack the trunk of the car.

Craig: So, eventually, by the end of the tour, you could have fit a hot tub in the back of that van - we had so much space. But it's just like, you know, you're just doing it several times. You know, I said that we did three shows a day. Sometimes, those three shows would be in two different venues too. Sometimes, it would be two shows and then a lunch break and we'd drive to a different place and start up again. So, we got really good at packing that van. It became - I don't know - it became a lot of fun. Some of the set pieces were heavy, but you kind of got used to, if you're lifting up the same thing every day, it got easier.

Lindsay: Now, as we sort of end this, you had a really lovely run as an actor. Would you agree? Do you think so? Do you disagree?

Craig: I'm very proud of everything that I did in my entire career.

Lindsay: Perfect! Okay. But you don't do it anymore.

Craig: No.

Lindsay: You walked away from being an actor.

Craig: Yes.

Lindsay: And, as far as I can tell, you're pretty proud of that, too. You're pretty happy with that decision.

Craig: What I'm happy about is that I love Theatrefolk and I love what we do and I love the people that we meet, and that has replaced the love of theatre that I had when I was acting. The great thing about Theatrefolk is I can do it every day; acting, I couldn't. I didn't have that game of acting. I didn't have the drive that made me want to just continue contacting people and networking and connecting with people. That's where I really fell apart as a performer with the business end, I guess.

Lindsay: And I think that's really interesting because it's very specific that I wanted to talk to you, to talk to Craig, as our sort of wrap up of our Working Actor series because each of the three actors who we've had beforehand - Marty Moreau and Steve Ross and Heather McGuigan - that's what stood out to me above all else was that they like the game.

Craig: I remember there's one actress in Toronto who I'd seen a few times and I never really thought that she was as special as she was to get the number of roles she did until I talked to someone who had worked with her and they said, "You know what? Every single break, every single lunch, she is working on the phone to her agent, to directors, to producers." She is constantly working at getting roles and it suddenly made sense. That's how you get roles. You've got to constantly work at it. Even when you already have a job, you have to be constantly working on the next job. That's where I failed as a performer. I couldn't do that.

Lindsay: Well, you don't like it.

Craig: I can't stand it. I can't stand schmoozing.

Lindsay: It's not necessarily a failure if you can look at it and you can acknowledge that you don't like it and, if you don't like it, you're not going to do it and, if you're not going to do it, then something has to be done. You have to make a choice.

Craig: You're right. Steve, Marty, and Heather all talk about how much they love doing that stuff.

Lindsay: Steve really said this is a business where you're selling yourself and I think, for anyone out there who's listening to this, who is a beginning actor or has beginning actors; that is the thing that, above all else, you know, talent and ability are key. But, if you don't have a drive to do that - to get the jobs yourself, to work yourself, to be your own sort of marketing agency - then you really have to think long and hard about this job, don't you?

Craig: For sure. The mistake I think I see a lot of kids make is that it's not that you want it. It's not that you're going to work hard at it. It's that you are working hard at it. It's that you are doing this and it is a 24/7 job. The successful people, the successful actors, the people you see on TV, they are working it hardcore 24/7. It's an illusion when you see them at the Oscars. It's an illusion when you see them at the Emmy's. Those are not fun times for them. Those are hardcore working hours for them. When they're on that red carpet, they are auditioning for their next roles. They are playing characters. Any time you see an actor who is working a lot, it is the result of a lot of drive on their part. Talent for sure, but also the work hustle. If you don't have that, if you aren't right now, if you're in high school and thinking of becoming a professional performer and you've never contacted even your local community theatre, you haven't contacted any local summer stock companies who might hire you over the summer to intern or to play a small role or to help out with props, if you haven't done that then you're already far behind because that's what you need to be doing - even in high school. You need to get that habit of getting out there and just constantly being in people's faces. That's how you become a successful actor.

Lindsay: And it's not even about it as a punishment, I think, and I have to tell you, the other three - Marty, Steve, and Heather - are they or are they not the three nicest people in the world? In the professional actors that we know.

Craig: They're certainly among the three greatest people that I ever worked with and I would work with, I would do a show with the three of them in any time.

Lindsay: And so, it's not about being - bitter is not the right word that I'm looking for; "hard" I guess is the word I'm looking for - it's not about that, but it's a part of the job. If you want to be a working actor, the business hustle is part of the job.

Craig: If you want to be an actor, I think you should take a business class or marketing class, actually, and consider yourself as a product and develop a business plan, a marketing plan for yourself.

Lindsay: My last question was going to be what do you think, if you want to be a young actor, the thing to do? And I think you're right. I think that it's not just the dancing, the singing, and the acting, and we're talking about being professional. Like, if you want to get out there and make this your job, and that's the other thing I think that a lot of beginning students mistake, that they have so much fun with being an actor in school that they miss that little thing where this is actually a job. If you want to make it your job, having a marketing class under your belt would be an excellent thing to do.

Craig: Yeah, how to write a cover letter, how to write a resume. Actually, that served me well because, when I was in coop in university, we had to take these classes each week on resumes, on cover letters, on interview skills, and that actually served me well when I began my career.

Lindsay: And then, if listening to this, you're starting to think, "This isn't my cup of tea," I think it's important to not think of it as a failure. Like, you said, "I failed that way as an actor," I don't think you need to think of it as a failure; you need to think of it as a choice, and making a choice to leave a profession like acting, people always see it as, "Oh, they couldn't cut it," and I'm not sure that's right at all. I think it's all about the choices that you make and I look at the choice that you made, Craig, and, from my outside perspective, and that's always been a question that I've asked because, you know, quite frankly, when Theatrefolk, we moved in a new direction and that was one of the first things that happened - we moved away from the center where you could work. I always was like, "Is that going to be okay? Is that going to be okay?" and this choice that you made seemed to be okay with you.

Craig: But the hard part about leaving a profession like that is that I don't feel like I ever really made a final "I'm gone." I mean, there are no ties to sever. There's no job to quit. If a director I had worked with previously called me and offered me something, I'd probably take him up on it. It's not like leaving your job at IBM. You just don't put yourself out there anymore. So, I guess I don't want to say I'm on the fence, but I'm certainly more than satisfied with what we're doing and, if I never step on a stage again, I'll still be happy and have led a fruitful, fulfilled life.

Lindsay: Awesome. That's what we want to hear.

Okay. So, as we wrap up here, just with our other podcasts this month, if you want in on the written reflection and listening quiz for this Working Actor podcast and this Working Actor series, make sure you join our email list. You can get the link in the show notes for this episode - theatrefolk.com/episode116.

So, before we go, let's do some THEATREFOLK NEWS.

It's a play feature! It's a play feature! It's time to feature a play! And I think it's only right that we use the Theatrefolk news slot today to talk about a children's play and one that Craig has written.

So, Craig adapted The Tempest into modern English. Craig, you and I actually toured this show in a former life because not only did you do children's tours on your own, Theatrefolk used to be a production company and we used to tour very small but we did do some tours.

Craig: How do you feel about leaving the world of being a production company?

Lindsay: Being a production company? Oh, there was never a better decision I ever made in my whole entire life. Oh, my goodness. I was not meant to act and I was not meant to tour children's theatre.

We did a Romeo and Juliet and as a shadow puppetry and we did The Tempest with a life-sized puppet for Caliban that we recycled. We did another children's show called Joe Mufferaw and the Nipissing Fling and we turned that big puppet into Caliban.

Craig: Okay!

Lindsay: That's where Caliban came from! So, we're going to read a little bit from The Tempest where we first meet Caliban.

PROSPERO: I thought I told Caliban to come fetch us some word. Caliban! Caliban, I say!

CALIBAN: Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.

PROSPERO: Caliban, come out here this instant! You know we're out of wood.

CALIBAN: There's wood enough!

PROSPERO: There's no wood at all. I see none.

CALIBAN: A southwest wind blow on ye and blister you all o'er!

MIRANDA: Now, Caliban, be nice.

CALIBAN: I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax, my mother. You took this island from me! When you came here, you were nice to me. You gave me water with berries in it and taught me the names of the stars and so I like you and showered you with all the secrets of the island. But then, you made me your servant. All the charms of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bat, light on you!

MIRANDA: Oh, you know that's not true. You were just a monster when we came here and could not even talk. Why, Caliban, I did spend many hours with you teaching you how to speak. You were taught all the words for everything.

CALIBAN: Yes, you taught me how to speak and I thank you. Now, I can say this to you, "The red plague rid you for learning me your language!"

PROSPERO: Get us some firewood.

CALIBAN: Ha!

PROSPERO: If you do not do what I command, I'll rack you with old cramps, fill all your bones with aches, and make you roar that lions will be afraid of the noise.

CALIBAN: He speaks the truth. I must do what he says. Prospero is much more powerful than I. Grumble. Grumble. Grrr and grumble again.

Lindsay: So, that's The Tempest and I will put a link to that in the show notes. Literally, I'm sitting here... Now, Craig and I used to do these shows...

Craig: Speaking of professional, do I get paid for this?

Lindsay: I'm literally sitting here going, "Okay, there were two of us, there were three people in that scene, and you played Prospero. Where were you on-stage?"

Craig: I know. How did we do that?

Lindsay: I don't know! Now, I know we used a lot of puppets. Like, later on...

Craig: But Caliban wasn't a puppet, or he was a puppet but he was life-sized.

Lindsay: But you had to get into him and I played Trinculo and Stephano, and I did those as two different puppets. Well, I think that's just going to have to be a mystery of the past.

So, that's The Tempest.

And now, finally, where, oh, where can you find this podcast? Where can you direct students to find this podcast? We post new episodes every Tuesday at theatrefolk.com and on our Facebook page and Twitter. You can find us on YouTube.com/Theatrefolk and you can find us on the Stitcher app. You can also subscribe to TFP on iTunes. All you have to do is search for the word "Theatrefolk."

And that's where we're going to end. Take care, my friends. Take care.

Thank you, Craig.

Craig: Take care.

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It's a little known fact that Theatrefolk's own Craig Mason spent 15 years as a working actor. He has done it all from comedy, drama, musicals, commercials, TV and children's theatre. We're going to talk about his time touring Franklin the Turtle where he played Bear for the pre-school set.

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Show Nov 2017!

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Book, music, lyrics by Daniel Tenney

Theatre BONBON

17 - 19 November

Hope to see you there!!

Friday Nov 17 at 6.30pm

Saturday Nov 18 at 12 noon, 3pm and 6.30pm

Sunday Nov 19 at 12 noon and 3pm

Free under 2 years old sitting on an adult's lap

¥2,500 Elementary school children and younger

¥3,000 for big kids

金曜日 11月17日 - 18:30
土曜日 11月18日 - 12:00, 15:00, 18:30
日曜日 11月19日 - 12:00, 15:00

¥3,000 中学生～大人
¥2,500 お席が必要な未就学児～小学生
¥0 ２歳以下のお子様 (保護者様のひざの上でご観覧ください）

For queries and for group reservations of over 10 people, please email:

ttfc.japan@gmail.com

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"THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN STARBLASTER" Book, music, lyrics by Daniel Tenney Theatre BONBON 17 - 19 November Hope to see you there!! Friday Nov 17 at 6.30pm Saturday Nov 18 at 12 noon, 3pm and 6.30pm Sunday Nov 19 at 12 noon and 3pm Free under 2 years old sitting...

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Student work - FYI

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Lexington Children's Theatre is pleased to provide you with electronic Play Guides designed especially for enhancing the experience of attending an LCT production. The electronic version of our Play Guide includes information and activities for each of the plays in our season. Our goal is to provide a valuable resource for the production you attend, as well as an educational tool for planning drama activities in your classroom.

Within these web pages, you will find information and activities to help extend the LCT experience. The activities offered are tailored to the age and skill of your students. Each activity is designed to help you achieve the corresponding Kentucky Core Content (KCC). As always, we rely heavily on your input, so please look for Performance Evaluation forms after our performance. We are excited that you are bringing your students into our audience, and we hope this resource will assist in bringing our production into your classroom.

Your role in our play...

You may wish to have a discussion with your class about your upcoming LCT experience and their role as audience members. Remind your students that theatre can only exist with an audience. The actors onstage are affected by your students' energy and response to their work. The quality of the performance depends as much on the audience as it does on each of the theatre professionals behind the scenes and onstage.

Young audiences should know that watching live theatre is not like watching more familiar forms of entertainment ‐they cannot pause or rewind us like a videotape, there are no commercials for bathroom breaks, nor can they turn up the volume to hear us if someone else is talking. Your students are encouraged to listen and to watch the play intently, so that they may laugh and cheer for their favorite characters when it's appropriate. Sometimes the audience has older and younger students mixed together and they may react to the play in different ways. To ensure everyone's enjoyment, students are encouraged to respect those differences.

At the end of the play, applause is an opportunity for your students to thank the actors, while the actors are thanking them for the role they played as an audience.

Each play guide is posted approximately three weeks prior to opening. If a title is not yet active, it will be soon!

Download our Play Guides

Play Guide - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Play Guide - The Ugly Duckling Play Guide - Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook

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Teacher Play Guides - Lexington Children's Theatre

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Lexington Children's Theatre is pleased to provide you with electronic Play Guides designed especially for enhancing the experience of attending an LCT production. The electronic version of our Play Guide includes information and activities for each of the plays in our season.

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First part of this paper has "history" of Children's Theatre