Natalie Wilson, Theatre Centre’s Artistic Director, gives AYT an idea of what to expect from its forthcoming conference…

On 20 June, Theatre Centre will host Write Lines, a conference on new writing for young audiences for writers and industry professionals. Guest speakers include playwrights Amanda Dalton, Rob Evans, Bryony Lavery, Philip Osment and Evan Placey, and industry representatives Anthony Banks (NT), Jonathan Lloyd (Polka Theatre) and Purni Morell (Unicorn Theatre).

Theatre Centre is celebrating 60 years of working with writers to produce outstanding theatre for young people, and Write Lines is inspired by my experience of running our Skylines writers programme. Over the past 12 months, Skylines has encouraged 47 emerging writers to develop work for audiences aged four to 18.

I noticed how much energy was generated when writers came together, exchanged ideas, listened, questioned and debated. These moments of reflection and learning seemed to be cherished by the writers, and I want to present this opportunity again but on a bigger scale. New writing for young audiences is a niche area but the beauty is that it is open to all: experienced, emerging, young or old.

The Write Lines conference is designed to bring together writers, artists, commissioners and producers, and to harness a sense of shared purpose and best practice to produce quality new plays. The contributors offer an extraordinary and diverse wealth of experience and perspective which I hope writers will find immensely valuable.

Our contributors will galvanise debate on collaborative working with young people, cross-artform inspirations and making extant stories fresh for a contemporary stage.

Writers will be able to meet like-minded artists and hear from the commissioners about what they want from the plays they stage. TYA-England’s series of debates, Whose Title Is it Anyway?, will take a new turn with Evan Placey (winner of the Brian Way Award 2012) presenting a provocation to four leading new writing commissioners on what writers can offer the programmes of our theatres and companies. Write Lines aims to bring writers and producers together, and perhaps a few new collaborations will be seeded by the end of day. Each delegate will arrive at Write Lines with questions and curiosity. I hope each will leave with some answers, a new question, fresh vigour and a strong line to pursue in their individual practice.

With this in mind, acclaimed playwright Rob Evans whets our appetite by telling us why he writes for young audiences…

Children have not yet had the link between their imagination and their physicality broken. They move and fidget and squirm, and if you get it right they lock on tight to your play with eyes as wide as saucers and they really, really watch. This is so satisfying to me as a writer because it’s how I feel when I’m writing.

Writing is a visceral thing; it can make me cry or explode with laughter. I think this very strong physical reaction is why I work a lot on plays that get performed to young people and their parents and teachers.

The reaction of young audiences in turn affects adults who watch the shows. Adults often think of plays for young people as a kind of babysitting service, then find they get sucked into the story. Theatre that engages both adults and young people equally is something to strive for. When you see young people and adults (their parents or teachers) enjoying the same story, the boundaries we might perceive between young and old seem made of the flimsiest stuff.

Visit the Theatre Centre website for details of the event.

You may remember the Unicorn Theatre’s production of Something Very Far Away from when it was on last year. You may also remember how much we loved it (read Jake Orr’s review of it here!). And you may know that the show is now back and that there is a special late night performance for adult audiences. Now, because we think that this is a great idea and because we would LOVE you to experience this touching tale of love, loss, space and time for yourself, we have a pair of tickets to give away for the show on Fri 24 May at 9pm. Scroll down to see how to enter…

Something Very Far Away 2013
21 May – 2 June | Unicorn Theatre
unicorntheatre.com

‘A production of epic proportions told in miniature puppets and animations’
Jake Orr, A Younger Theatre – read the review here

Five star, award-wining show Something Very Far Away returns to the Unicorn after a UK-wide tour with special late night performances for older audience members with a bar and live music on Friday 24 & 31 May at 9pm.

Watch Trailer

Enter the competition
To win a pair of tickets for the performance of Something Very Far away on Fri 24 May at 9pm, simply fill in the form below by 4.00pm on 13 May.

By entering the competition you agree to have your email added to the A Younger Theatre 
E-Newsletter. AYT never passes your details onto other third parties – we keep them safe!

High-End children’s theatre can be a tough nut to crack; I think back to a performance of 1001 Nights I saw at the Unicorn recently, in which the constant shrieking and wailing coming from the audience all but drowned out the performance on display. Fortunately for Old Saw, its production of Tomten, on for a very limited run at the Little Angel Theatre as part of the theatre’s FIRSTS festival which showcases up-and-coming puppetry talent, is hypnotically charming and hauntingly captivating enough to maintain the attention of even the most fidgety of toddlers.

Old Saw has chosen to bring to life Viktor Rydberg’s Swedish poem Tomten. Despite being written in 1881, Old Saw presents the story with such fresh imagination and beauty that it could easily have been written for modern audiences. Tomten is an elf-like creature, complete with long pointy hat and an equally long pointy beard, who visits all the farmyard animals at night. No human has ever seen Tomten but his footprints in the snow are a sure enough clue to his existence. Unlike all other life on the farm however, Tomten lives on, and sees foals turn into horses, calves turn into cows and so on. Tomten is therefore a genteel and poetic telling of the life-cycle; seasons and life may come and go, but Tomten is permanent. Indeed, life and death, summer and winter, light and dark, all of this is “stirring his ancient spirit”. This is children’s theatre with an intelligent and coherent message, akin to the recent A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. (How much of the piece’s message is picked up on by an audience averaging 6 years old remains to be seen, however.)

Greta Clough, Mark Esaias and Tom Larkin’s puppetry is a joy to watch. They are soothing and charming, intricate and calming, as proven by the frequent gasps of delight coming from the 5-year-old girl sat next to me. Indeed, a highlight for me was witnessing how the squealing from the pigs was matched only by the gleeful squeals of a clearly mesmerised audience. Clough, Esaias and Larkin include wit and wonder in their work; note the two chickens which lay half a dozen (presumably free-range) eggs, complete with egg box. Equally delightful is the audience’s ability to meet the puppets in the foyer post-performance, with the friendly and playful sheepdog receiving most attention.

It is unfortunately too late to catch Tomten at the Little Angel, but if this is the calibre by which to measure the rest of the pieces in the season, then it is clear that the FIRSTS Festival has stumbled across some very talented children’s artists indeed.

Old Saw’s Tomten played as part of the Little Angel Theatre’s FIRSTS Festival on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 March.

1001 Nights, which is currently showing at the Unicorn Theatre, is a play that hits you in the gut from the get go. The story follows a young girl named Shahrazad (Danusia Samal) and her father (Thomas Padden) as they escape their war-torn country in The Middle East and head to England, but she has to leave her mother (Ritu Arya) behind, as she does not have a passport. The stories help Shahrazad deal with the heartache of not knowing where her mother is, but she also helps another kid from her school (also played by Arya) deal with bullies.

The play itself is very story-driven, using the tales from the classic Persian and Arabian stories and adapting them for a younger audience. Douglas Rintoul has managed to take these stories and give them a fresh new sound, appealing to the young audience today.

This three-strong cast do not have a lot of time to win the audience over, but within the first few minutes, with a rather crude but very funny story of a man who farts at his wedding and banishes himself to India, it becomes very apparent that the audience were willing to enjoy the ride.

It could have been easy to make the stage extravagant but they make a very bold choice in using everyday items as the main props. James Perkin’s very lavish imagination shows the younger audience that it is OK to be imaginative. The greatest thing about it that the half term crowd were in awe of it too. It is essentially actors on stage running around with brooms and paper bags pretending that the objects are demons and magic carpets. It takes a special kind of company to keep this great illusion, and the cast and crew of 1001 Nights capture it so brilliantly.

The cast have a great unity on stage, which is probably even better due to the fact that they also perform together in the Unicorn Theatre’s other play, Liar Liar. After seeing her perform in both shows, it is becoming quite clear that Arya has a great career ahead of her, earning the biggest laughs of the show with her comedic retelling of Cinderella. The whole cast are great and, with the success of this double-bill at the Unicorn, I hope to see them in the future.

1001 Nights is a very compelling story of family and friendship that has enough imagination to win over its younger audience and has enough heart and nostalgia to win over the older audience. If this does not warm your heart then I don’t know what will.

1001 Nights is playing at Unicorn Theatre until 17 March. For more information and tickets, see http://unicorntheatre.com/1001-nights