Play with Pictures
Hagley Open Stage, Christchurch
18/04/2011 - 29/04/2011
Production Details
The Best kids show in town… well… the only kids show in Christchurch these April Holidays!
You draw the pictures, we tell the story!
Ever draw an awesome picture and wish it would just come to life?
Come along to Play with Pictures and watch exactly that happen! Kids draw pictures and three of Christchurch’s most hilarious improvisers turn them into live stories right in front of their eyes.
Come along, sharpen your crayons, draw some pictures and get ready for big laughs and crazy surprises straight out of YOUR brain!
Live music and improvisational comedy combine to take your mind off the day and visit a realm of dinosaurs, princesses, amazing pets and rocket adventures; if you can draw it we can act it out!
Running time is roughly 45- 50 minutes. Brought to you by professional actors and directors with back grounds from around the country including The Court Theatre and The Court Jesters.
Performances:
The Open Stage,* Hagley Community College, 510 Hagley Avenue, Christchurch
Monday 18 Apr – Friday 22 Apr 2011 @ 11:00am & 1:00pm
Monday, 25 Apr – Tuesday, 26 Apr 2011 @ 1:00pm & 1:00pm
Wednesday, 27 Apr – Friday, 29 Apr 2011 @ 11:00am, 1:00pm & 3:00pm
ALL TICKETS $6.50, pre bookings on:
http://www.dashtickets.co.nz/event/h015gz642
BOOK NOW! Sure to sell out!
*The Open Stage has newly installed seating for 101 and we will be adding cushions for the kids to sit right up close to the action. There is plenty of free off street parking right next to the theatre.
Set to be a winner
Review by Lindsay Clark 18th Apr 2011
Bright notions for children’s theatre so often involve a miserable tussle between representing a traditional tale and providing something appealing for today’s fast set. How satisfying then to roll up to The Open Stage and find a genuinely fresh idea at work.
“If you can draw it, we can act it,” runs the promo and indeed the performance is soundly based on brightly coloured drawings completed by the audience in the minutes before the laboratory session opens.
For we are witness to a series of daring scientific experiments, set up to find out what happens when pictures are brought to life and conducted by an enterprising team in white coats and spectacles. Our drawings have been sorted into promising categories, such as The Best Pet Ever, Pirate Picnic, Trucks Versus Tractors, The Amazing Shop and Fairy Forest. All tastes are catered for.
Finished drawings are carefully strung at the back of the playing area. From there, they are selected, with audience approval, for enlargement on a large central screen, and category by category pictures are brought to life in cheerily improvised scenes. As each ‘experiment’ is completed, the team pronounces its findings: “Size matters”, “Rhythm is inside your head” – that sort of thing.
Of course it’s not the conclusions we are so interested in, but the challenges and solutions the brave souls launch into with unflagging energy and inventiveness. Elsie Edgerton-Till, Hamish Parkinson and Ben Allan pounce on the opportunities and minimise the tricky bits with assured team work. On the side Chris Finnerty, the muso, is right on the ball with supportive or suggestive sound.
The young audience and their minders were well entertained at the opening session and as a format for improvised performance this seems set to be a winner. With ample free parking available right beside the theatre, the experiment should be a highlight of these school holidays.
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