Arts Rocket Friday Finds

It's been a while since we posted our Friday Finds - so we have added a few extra:

• Sydney Film Festival - How to Train Your Dragon 2 - Cate Blanchett will also be at the screening to present the film.  Also don't go past catching My Neighbour Totoro on the big screen. We have listed all the films that are classified for under 18's to attend.
• BIG kids magazine are launching their latest issue at the MCA Zine fair this Sunday (25 May) - they are also running the Mother Artist Network forum.  We love the Zine fair - lots of inspiration for your kids to make their own zine.
• Michelle Schoeps will be hosting intimate cooking classes in her home. If follow Michelle's website - you would know that she makes the most beautiful and delicious organic meals for her kids. She is also interested in running a class for teens.
• The Way Out Festival for Children hits the Casula Powerhouse again -  this exciting event for families includes film, workshops and performances - all events are free but bookings are essential
• Arts classes for kids at Culture at Work in Pyrmont.  Their program generates curiosity, investigation, experimentation and ideas. They also run school holiday workshops.
• If you have children that love making their own movies -  they may be interested in AFTRS Trop Jr filmmaking week.
• Vivid lights up Sydney again - jump on public transport and make an evening out of it.
• Catch Captain Underpants this weekend at The Sydney Writers' Festival 
• The Violent Outbursts that Drew Me to You written by one of our favourite playwrights  - Finnegan Kruckenmeyer will be performed at Griffin Theatre this June/July - for teens.
• And one for  teens who love books - Penguin Teen Australia are touring PTA Live. Bookings are essential
• My kids are reading Cherub by Robert Muchamore (10), Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green (12) and Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (15 - almost 16)
• And it is ok if you want to do absolutely nothing this weekend - let your kids get bored! 

• This year we turned SEVEN! - take a look at our very first posts!  

Kids at the House 2014 - Sydney Opera House

The Kids at the House have announced their 2014 program. I was delighted to see some old favourites and performances I have been waiting patiently to arrive in Australia. My kids are getting older now (15, 12 and 9) and we have outgrown the Babies Proms but the 2014 season looks after everyone.

These are our picks:

Illusionists 2.0 - My youngest son is obsessed with magic - as most nine year olds are. We have already secured our tickets for his upcoming birthday.

The Magic Flute - This kid friendly performance of The Magic Flute is a wonderful introduction to opera and worth saving up for. My daughter and I went to this in 2012 and we both loved it.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy  - Everyone in our house eats books and this is also a favourite book when the kids were younger.

Leo  - This looks like fun and physical theatre is wonderful for all ages.

The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly  -  Finnegan Kruckenmeyer  is one of our favourite playwrights - he knows kids theatre!  

Hans Christian, You Must Be an Angel - My eldest son and I have seen Gruppe 38's performance of Hansel and Gretel in 2010 and a reworking of Little Red Riding Hood - A Sonatina and The Little Match Girl in 2007. When I saw that their latest production was featuring  in the Dublin Theatre Festival - I urged our family in Dublin to go.  I am booking our tickets now!


Of course, there is more to explore - but I will leave that up to you.

Interview with Finnegan Kruckenmeyer

After going along to Escape from Peligro Island  last month within the Kids at the House program my kids huddled together over the dinner table to come up with some questions  to ask playwright Finnegan Kruckenmeyer  .....

Are you writing a new kid’s play now? Can you give us clues on what it is about?

Hi Arts Rocketers – thanks for coming to the show and for sending me these questions. To answer number one, I am indeed writing three shows for kids at the moment:

‘Shadow Dreams’ is about two kids who wake one morning to find they’ve accidentally swapped dreams. ‘The Boy at the Edge of Everything’ is about one boy on Earth, and another out in Space who head for each other’s houses, and on the way go Universe-adventuring. And ‘Zachary Briddling Who Was Awfully Middling’ is about a wonderful grump who hates how normal he is. So he goes off adventuring, to lands filled with ogres and hairy things and flying things, places where he’ll be the strangest thing ever.

Then I’m also writing some plays for teenagers, and some more for adults – my head is feeling very full!

Where do you get your ideas for your plays from?

I think that my brain (just like anyone else’s) is full of hundreds and hundreds of ideas, and that if I sit long enough at a computer, eventually one shows up. It’s like how you draw a picture maybe – you start with a blank piece of paper, but you always end up with something unexpected. Writing’s a bit the same.

When you were a kid, did you want to be a writer? When did you start writing?

Yes – it’s something I’ve always enjoyed. And that’s partly because I’ve always enjoyed reading as well. Words are probably my second favourite thing (behind a few humans who I love very much) – and the way that you can play with them, and create worlds with them, and inspire laughter with them, and make people cry with them, is a very real magic which I am still trying to understand.

Favourite play when you were a kid? And your favourite play you have written?

My favourite play when I was nine was ‘The Postman’ by Theatre Velo. A man has to deliver the mail, but instead he rips open all the parcels… and whole worlds come out! I’m not sure if it’s only my favourite play as a kid, or my favourite play still to this day.

My favourite play of mine is always the one that I’m inventing at the moment, because even more than seeing a play performed, I love writing it. So Dream-sharing, Universe-adventuring and Zachary-Briddling-ing are my favourite things right now.

Are you scared of getting a bad haircut?

It’s a horror that I’ve experienced so many times, I don’t even really mind it anymore! Although nowadays my hairdresser is Renee, and she does a really good job. 

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In August, my eldest son and I will be heading along to see Finnegan's play Man Covets Bird.

Image from Man Covets Bird - Slingsby Theatre Company