Today is ASSITEJ World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People, celebrated worldwide through the campaign Take a Child to the Theatre.
This is a special date in the calendar for those children, parents, teachers, grandparents and friends who know the joy of going to the theatre together. For Darlington based The Hullabaloo, this year’s World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People has extra resonance with the continued success of their children’s theatre venue.
Recently The Hullabaloo celebrated having over 17,000 children and their grown-ups through the doors of their innovative Gillian Dickinson Creative Play space since they opened in December 2017. The free installation, which changes throughout the year, has been a fantastic accomplishment for the venue, bringing together artistic development, creativity, and children from every walk of life.
After the fantastic success of Dreamland, the winter installation for ages 0-4 years, Monday 25 March will see the return of Enchanted Forest to Creative Play. Inspired by the ideas of local children, the forest is a magical interactive space with storytelling trees, luminous fairy ponds and musical lily pads. It is designed for a child to play in with their grown-ups and there are elements for crawlers and toddlers right up to children around 10 years old.
The Hullabaloo are passionate about making taking children to the theatre accessible and magical for everyone.
Miranda Thain, Artistic Producer at Theatre Hullabaloo says:
“Theatre is the act of coming together to tell stories. Those stories which inspire the imagination and challenge the mind and the space for child and grown-up to share them have never been more needed than they are today. We are proud to not only support World Day of Theatre for Children but to make theatre going part of children’s lives throughout the rest of the year.”
The global Take a Child to the Theatre campaign invites artists, companies, theatres, and the public to give children and young people access to the theatre on this day, or at any point through the year.
ASSITEJ president Yvette Hardie says: “Children need to be offered to enjoy moments in community where they are reminded of what we share, and where they are able to appreciate the multiple realities of what it means to be human.”