A creative school holidays

The Peasant Prince, image:  Heidrun Lohr

School holidays are upon us. We have selected some fun creative activies that will have you covered.

The Peasant Prince at Monkey Baa Theatre (until 20 April) brings the beautiful story of Li Cunxin’s iconic autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer to the stage. If you have a child who just can not sit still throughout performances, the theatre has a special relaxed performance and is described as “the opposite of the quiet carriage on the train” on the 14th April. 

Sherman Contemporary Art Gallery – Introductory workshop to mobile photography with photographer Markus Andersen. Participants will be introduced to picture-taking and processing apps, as well as basic photographic techniques before applying this expertise “in the field” in the local Paddington area.
Saturday 23 April, 10–12pm.

$20 | Recommended for ages 12+

Pull out the paints and paper and inspire them to start working on their entry to the Little Things Art Exhibition to be exhibited at Saint Cloche Gallery in Paddington.

  

Get your musical on at the Art Gallery of NSW screening of An American in Paris (rated PG). 20 and 24th April 2016. Free.

While you are at the gallery pop in to see Art Express - Featuring a selection of outstanding student artworks developed for the artmaking component of the HSC examination in Visual Arts 2015. Free.

Got creative teens? Smart ARTS workshops and talks will be right up their alley running from the 8 – 17^th April 2016.

The Sydney Comedy Festival brings on the laughs for kids with Comedy for Kids over the 2016 festival. 

The Secret Life of Suitcases | Monkey Baa Theatre

My children are no longer little (17, 14 and 12). When they were younger we went to see a LOT of children's theatre. We still do but they also see a lot of adult theatre with me.  I  now keep my eye out for children's productions that I feel will carry across all ages. When my eldest son (17) was in the foyer of Griffin recently for The Witches he was not impressed to be surrounded by children running under his feet.  But after he saw Guy Edmonds on stage he quickly changed his tune. He loved it.

We were invited to the production of The Secret Life of Suitcases and I took along my youngest son(12) and his best friend. I was concerned they may be too old, but I was wrong.  The Secret Life of Suitcases had everyone in the audience drawn in from the beginning.   It was wonderful to sit in the audience to hear parents and children (of all ages) laugh, gasp and 'get' what was going on -  every element of the production worked.

The story follows Larry (in an almost George Orwell 1984 setting) - Larry is busy working, VERY busy. He has no time for anything outside work.  One day out of the blue a suitcase arrives that changes the course of his life. That is all I will reveal in this adventure as you will need to experience it for yourself.

Created by Lewis Hetherington and puppeteer Ailie Cohen (with a collaboration with Unicorn Theatre) The Secret Life of Suitcases is delightful  - please go see it with your kids - young or old.

The Secret Life of Suitcases
28 Sept - 2 October 2015
Monkey Baa
Darling Harbour Lend Lease Theatre
Sydney

suitable for  4 years of age (and older!).


Learn more about this production here.
There's an app you can interact with after the performance!

Sydney Festival 2015 for families

The 2015 Sydney Festival opens next week and has again another wonderful year for families with young and/or older children. Masquerade will be on the top of most families list  and Tabac Rouge will be magnificent.
Ali McGregor's Jazzamatazz! will knock the kids socks off and The Luck Child looks like fun.

This year we will be catching The Kitchen - in 2010 we all went as a family for Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction and we were all wowed.

There are plenty of free options across the city to keep you busy over the school holidays as well.
The Vegetable Plot - Melodies and vegetables
Hotbed Designs - Blocks prints and fabric paint
Dear Hope Street - A modern day message in a bottle
Australian Museum in the Village - Discover Hyde Park as a scientist
City of Sydney Lawn Library - Books take a holiday outside
Cool down with the Waterfall Swing at Darling Harbour
More free options.

To explore the full family festival program visit: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2015/family

Sydney Festival
8 - 26 Jan 2015

The Tiger Who Came to Tea | Sydney Opera House

The Tiger Who Came to Tea was my daughters favourite book growing up. We would read it over and over again - even though she is now 13 we have pulled her old copy out and it has been wonderful to revisit.

Sophie has an unexpected guest and tea-time mayhem ensues. The Tiger Who Came to Tea is based on Judith Kerr’s picture book and includes magic, sing-a-long songs. It is playing at the Sydney Opera House from December 10 to 28. On behalf of the Sydney Opera House, we have one family pass (2 adults, 2 children) to giveaway to the 10.30am performance on December 10. To enter, email info@artsrocket.org and let me know who you would like to invite to tea - the more imaginative the better! Competition closes Wed, December 3. Good Luck! CLOSED
(The winner will be notified by email)

Our school holidays

• The Walking Neighbourhood at Art and About Sydney. 
• The Witches at Griffin Theatre - the marvellous Guy Edmonds made this Roald Dahl adaption his own.
• Stop Making Sense - My youngest son and I celebrated the 30th anniversary of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense at Golden Age Cinema
• Paper Planes film preview - which inspired paper planes being made throughout the holidays. If you walk past our house you will spot the paper planes left scattered along our street (our review will be out closer to the films release).

Sydney Children's Festival | BIG

Our friends over at BIG will be at the Sydney Children's Festival today..... say hi to them at the Lawn library from 12pm.  Join them in making a tiny inside/outside portrait or create a response on a side by side postcard.

Also on todays list of fun things to do at the festival includes Hula hooping, KAPOW!, Paper, Torch Torch! workshop, Disco - Au Go Go  ++

The festival runs until the 28 September at the Seymour Centre.

The Walking Neighbourhood | Art and About Sydney

The Walking Neighbourhood is a concept that premiered in Brisbane in 2012 and involved children leading tours in their own neighbourhood - giving people a rare insight into the world of kids living in inner city suburbs.

 

Today we took The Walking Neighbourhood tour in Kings Cross that is running within the Art and About program. We all met in the Departure Lounge in the Rex Centre and selected which tour we wanted to take.  The departure lounge is an interactive waiting station where you can view the gallery of found items from previous tours, draw on the large map of Kings Cross, learn more out the tour guides and share what you love about Kings Cross. We all decided that the Underground Mystery tour was the one for us. (There were many other tours to choose from) Our tour guides Finn and Nick (aged 11) were confident and proud of their neighbourhood as they lead us around their underground hangouts.

The Walking Neighbourhood moves to Redfern next week. To  book tickets (free) or to get more information visit: Art and About Sydney.

Thanks Finn and Nick for sharing your world.

Leo - Sydney Opera House

Dancing on the ceiling like Fred Astaire, scaling the walls like Spiderman and floating mid-air like an Indian guru – escape with Leo into an impossible world, where perception and imagination are turned inside out and upside down.
Through an ingenious combination of staging and video projection, Leo rockets you to a world where the laws of gravity are thrown out the window.


We have two family passes to give away (2 adults and 2 children) for the 28 June - 3pm performance of Leo. For your chance email info@artsrocket.org with your child's favourite dance scene from a movie.
Entries close Friday 13 June. ENTRIES CLOSED

LEO
28 June - 13 July 2014
Sydney Opera House
Ages 8 and over



Arts Rocket is not responsible for prizes once they have been dispatched to the winner. Tickets are are not redeemable for cash. Full Terms and conditions

Youth Block Party

From the team that changed how Sydneysiders interacted with The Australian Museum with Jurassic Lounge  are back with a youth event for the celebrations of Youth Week - Block Party. There's a great buzz already surrounding the event that will be held at the Hyde Park Barracks.
Expect a interactive extravaganza!

For more information and to book tickets visit
http://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events/22552-block-party-hyde-park-barracks

Sydney Festival 2014 | Family

image: Joshua Morris

Ok - we have been busy so this is my first chance to go through the Sydney Festival 2014 program in detail.  The festival starts this week and is a great way to fill in the last few weeks of the school holidays.

There is a lot to choose from this year -  a wonderful selection of performances and activities for families - and if you still want more, it is also fun to beyond the family strand (especially if you have older children) to discover some interesting finds.

If you are a family of four - the festival also has family packages for some performances. For families on a budget these holidays but still want their children to be involved in the festival -  check out the free performances and activities on offer.

We love everything in the program but we are looking into these performances:

Othello - The remix: My eldest son (15) would love it if this is how Shakespeare is taught in school.
Band of Magicians: Magic is extremely popular in our house at the moment with my youngest son (9) and this performance is number one on his list!
Ockham's Razor: Looks absolutely amazing - Circus meets storytelling.
The Piper: Limited tickets to be involved and on stage of this intriguing retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.  The Piper incorporates multimedia, puppetry and stagecraft.
Tom Thum: Beating the Habit: I caught Tom at Tedx Sydney in 2013. Kids of all ages will love Tom Thum.
Jazzamatazz!: Cabaret singer Ali McGregor does jazzy beats for kids.
Lao Qiang: Expand the music your children are listening to with ancient Rock'n'Roll from the East.

To  browse the full family program visit: http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Family/

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.

Arts Rocket Friday Finds

• BEAMS art festival...wander through the lane ways of Chippendale for installations, workshops and music
• Thinktank workshops for tech crazy kids at Powerhouse 
• Teens - Zine making workshop with Vanessa Berry
• Last weekend we watched The Rocket  - kids gave it 10/10
• Relive the magic of early cinema with The Adventures of Prince Achmed
• Kid Contemporary at Contemporary  Sydney 

Arts Rocket Friday Finds

image via Underbelly Arts - Tableau Vivant

School holidays are over - but there is still fun to be had if you look a little closer:

• Underbelly Arts Festival have a great kids/teen program(kids under 12 are free) - jump on a ferry and head over to Cockatoo Island on the 4th August.
• Pop up book workshop with Tony Flowers at Sherman Gallery on 3rd August
• Kiddley is back!
• We have been playing with Poster Candy and Origrami to showcase our family images
• Beautiful bag for kids that love to draw - anywhere - anytime 
• Youth courses at Metro screen in filmmaking and video game design
• We have rediscovered Scratch - my youngest son loves it. 
• For teens - Tavi at the Opera House 
• My kids are reading: JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye (15), R.J. Palacio - Wonder (11) and Emma Cameron - View from the 32nd Floor (9)

Arts Rocket Friday Finds

image via http://www.ryojiikeda.com

• This installation looks unreal!!!!!!! Japanese audio-visual artist Ryoji Ikeda  at Carriageworks from the 7 June until 1 July.  Very excited about this one.
• Under 13, got big ideas - this your chance to take over Time Out Sydney and become Australia's youngest editor. 
• Love the $20 tickets at  Sydney Theatre Company - Suncorp Twenties. Family/youth performances coming up - Storm Boy, Romeo and Juliet and Laser Beak Man.
• Instagram fun.
• My Story - My Content - film competition open to students - "Why do I love movies" 

(A little early) Arts Rocket Friday Finds

Posting our Friday Finds an evening earlier  to share some exciting events happening over the school holidays and beyond.

• 13 rooms - Kaldor Public Art Projects - Fantastic kids workshops over the school holidays all inspired by 13 rooms (curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Klaus Biesenbach).  Animation, sculpture and movement.
• The MCA have some fun drop in Contemporary Kids workshops - Cardboard City   and  Junior Art School. They also encourage families to come along to their annual Zine fair on the 26th May
• If you didn't catch Olafur Eliasson last time - make sure you don't miss him this time at the Sherman Gallery.  Especially if you have kids that love lego!
• This school holidays you can't go past seeing The List Operators 6D within the Kids at the House program.

Sydney Festival 2013 with kids

Sydney Festival program time again.... I already have my tickets for David Byrne and St Vincent (I will be taking my teen son with me!).
This is what we are also looking forward to:

The Listies  | Earworms   The List Operators performance at the 2012 Sydney Festival was one of the hottest tickets for families.  Another  must see show for 2013. Jan 15th - Jan 19th 2013

School Dance This looks great! Teen awkwardness at a school disco, a new work by Windmill Theatre. Jan 10th - Feb 3rd 2013

It's Dark Outside   From the creators of  the beautiful The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer  (Sydney Festival 2011) this performance tells the story of an old man venturing out into the wild. Jan 11th - 15th 2013

We got to see a few Francis Bacon pieces in Italy so I am excited that the Art Gallery of NSW  will be exhibiting him as part of the festival (recommended for older children).

This is only the tip of the iceberg on what will be presented over the festival: Visit http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2013/ to see the full program. If you have older children don't be afraid to explore outside of the family program - there are some gems to be found.

Our adventure

image: Leigh Russell 2012

We are back from our wonderful adventure. Highlights included:
Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice... a beautiful home transformed into a celebration of art. The collection is amazing. Kids favourite was the wish tree in the garden by Yoko Ono.

Francis Bacon at the Strozzina in Florence (my favourite). Discovering the eerie woven threads of  Chiharu Shiota. Italian Art in the 30s beyond fascism at Palazzo Strozzi.

Finding and photographing the  love padlocks collectives on the bridges throughout Italy.

Taking new members of our  family in Dublin to the Dublin Theatre Festival for the production of White for some first time theatre experiences. The Ark located in Temple Bar is a cultural centre for children with a fantastic programme.

Now we are back in Sydney we are looking forward to what the summer months will bring!

Treasure Island Adventure

ENTRIES NOW CLOSED Our friends at Darlinghurst theatre would like you to  join 12 year old Jim Hawkins on his hunt for buried treasure. But watch out.......there are double-crossing pirates all around, led by the notorious Long John Silver. Will Jim make it from his home in a small seaside village to the mysterious Treasure Island?

For the chance to win a double pass to the 6.30pm performance on Saturday September 1, email your contact details to theatre@darlinghursttheatre.com with ARTSROCKET in the subject.
http://www.darlinghursttheatre.com/treasure-island.html

Entries close 25th August 2012 and the winner will be notified by Darlinghurst Theatre via email.

Don’t miss this new interpretation of the classic children’s tale showing at Darlinghurst Theatre, August 28 – Sept 1. 

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. 

-----

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

Lord of the Flies | New Theatre

Artist: Amy Baxter 

My eldest son was visiting his grandparents in Brisbane and although I wanted to take him as my companion to the Lord of the Flies at New Theatre in Newtown, I thought it was good chance to check it out to see if he could handle it.  I had not read the book or seen the movie previously but  I had heard that bad things happen on the island filled with school boys left to fend for themselves.

The set, costumes and props  for Lord of the Flies are simple allowing room for the story to be told without any distractions.  The actors playing the roles of children are not patronising - we have seen productions where some actors over play the role of a child.  The focus is on the relationship of boys thrown together through a tragedy who at first think a world without adults is ideal but turns into a nightmare. A few scenes within this production could be disturbing for younger children but teens would be fine dealing with the themes of bullying, murder, madness and the loss of innocence.  I am going to make the effort to see the production again this weekend  with my son.

This evening my family (aged 13, 10 and 8)  and I enjoyed  the 1963 film and I am now reading the book ready to pass onto my children.  The book is discussed from  Year 10 in the NSW curriculum but I think it should be introduced earlier to discuss the array of themes that are still relevant in todays society.

Lord of the Flies runs until 12 May 2012
New Theatre
King Street Newtown
more info