Kids' play list

Little Seraphina Koh was a little tense when she watched her first theatre production, The Gruffalo, last year.

"She was very scared as it was dark and she didn't know what was going to happen," says her mother, Mrs Micki Koh, 33.

Thankfully, Seraphina, now four, soon recognised the characters from the books she had been reading with her mother, which dispelled the jitters.

"Now, she looks forward to going to the theatre, like she's going on an adventure," says Mrs Koh, an educator.

She plans to take Seraphina to two shows this year - The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Canada, and presented by Act 3 International; and Stick Man presented by ABA Productions and Britain's Scamp Theatre.

With 12 shows and festivals catering to children aged two and up opening in the next six months, parents such as Mrs Koh will be spoilt for choice. There were about nine such shows or festivals held during the same period last year.

But the spike in numbers is a double-edged sword. Industry players tell Life!Weekend they feel the heat from the growing competition, but are also thrilled with the more lively scene.

"We're all competing for the same family time and there's always an exam coming up and other commitments. We just have to keep delivering," says Ms Charlotte Nors, 47, executive director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT).

Its children's theatre arm, The Little Company, stages five shows a year, including the current Mandarin run of The Nightingale.

Brian Seward, 57, artistic director of I Theatre, which is presenting four shows this year on top of the annual ACE (Arts and Creativity for Everyone) Festival, echoes this sentiment: "It does cause me to lose sleep - if we don't sell tickets, we will die. There's an awful lot of competition from overseas as well."

Overseas productions include those brought in by players such as ABA Productions and Base Entertainment Asia, which are usually held in Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.

Tickets to such shows go for about $50 to $200 each, compared with home-grown shows which usually charge $15 to $40 a ticket, besides family packages at discounted rates.

To stand out, companies here strive to offer something different for the pint-sized crowd. These include using puppets, visual effects and different techniques to encourage audience participation.

Adults watching such shows for the first time may suffer from culture shock.

Talking during the show is not only tolerated, but in fact encouraged, with characters addressing the audience directly and getting them to do singalongs or even "dancealongs".

Besides keeping the little ones engaged, these shows often weave in educational messages and life lessons too.

Ms Diah Mastura Roslan, 33, recently caught the English version of The Nightingale with her three daughters, six-year-old twins and their older sister, aged seven.

Staged by The Little Company, it tells the story of how the Emperor of China learns the values of friendship and freedom after his new friend, the Nightingale, lost her ability to sing when he insisted on keeping her in a cage.

"Before I could even ask, my elder daughter told me what the moral of the story was. I was quite surprised," says Ms Diah, a full-time blogger.

While English productions for the young are a dime a dozen, shows staged in vernacular languages are now sharing the limelight.

SRT first put on a Mandarin production last year. The Three Little Pigs was staged in English for six weeks in 2012 and then in Mandarin for four weeks last year. The two shows shared a similar storyline, with a different cast save one or two actors.

The experiment paid off - it sold 90 per cent of the tickets for both runs.

The Mandarin show also drew a new audience, based on the customer lists and bookings from schools that had never booked SRT shows previously.

The success has prompted SRT to do the same this year with The Nightingale.

Though the sales figures are not out yet for the English version of The Nightingale, which ended its six-week run on Sunday, SRT expects it to have done similarly well. The Mandarin version opened yesterday.

Last month, the Esplanade also staged a Malay-language children's play during its annual Pesta Raya - Malay Festival of Arts.

The Esplanade declines to reveal figures, but says both performances of the play, called Kuat Ketam Kerana Penyepit, Kuat Burung Kerana Sayap (The Strength Of A Crab Is In Its Claws, The Strength Of A Bird Is In Its Wings), were nearly sold out.

Dedicated children's theatre festivals, which offer a slew of plays and workshops for kids and parents, are big draws too.

Octoburst!, the Esplanade's annual festival of arts and culture for children aged two to 12, opens next month, coinciding with Children's Day on Oct 3.

ABA Productions, which also presents theatre shows for adults such as last year's Woman In Black, is bringing back KidsFest too from January to March next year for the fourth time.

Mr Matthew Gregory, 41, executive producer of ABA Productions and founder of KidsFest, says response to the festival has been "truly impressive", with audience numbers growing by 40 per cent on average each year.

He attributes this to parents who are "starting to recognise that children's theatre is not just an engaging platform to nurture a child's interest in the language but it also presents a wonderful opportunity for a family to have a shared experience together".

This may explain why even with the buffet of choices, the five industry players Life!Weekend spoke to - SRT, I Theatre, Act 3 International, Esplanade and ABA Productions - still report good response to their shows.

SRT, I Theatre and Act 3 International sell about 80 per cent of their tickets on average, with school packages chalking up about half of the sales. The other two organisers decline to reveal attendance figures.

Steps are being taken to further nurture the industry, with the National Arts Council announcing plans to set up a dedicated Children's Arts Centre in its recent Performing Arts Masterplan.

Although no date has been set for this, a series of children's theatre shows will be held in interim venues next year as a pilot project.

These moves are a recognition of the role that children's theatre plays in shaping young minds.

Specifically, the masterplan acknowledges that children "are a key demographic whom artists need to capture imaginations of, as they will be the future audience, supporters and even patrons for the sector".

Indeed, for practitioners such as Act 3 International, whose shows cater to the young, putting on a show for kids is a chance to cultivate their tastes for the performing arts. This is an endeavour it takes seriously.

Its upcoming show, The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites, features three stories from award-winning children's book author Eric Carle and takes the form of black light theatre, which uses UV light and a dark environment to bring out colours on stage.

Says its artistic director Ruby Lim-Yang, 58: "Anyone can do puppetry, but the question is, 'What is the artistry?'. We help children see things from different perspectives - to be open to new ideas and new ways of looking at things. This is not TV, it's about firing the imagination."

nabilahs@sph.com.sg

Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus!

What: It's a battle of wits as the feathered fowl tries to outsmart the bus driver to get behind the wheel. This adaptation of Mo Willems' children's tale is presented by I Theatre and Britain's Big Wooden Horse Theatre Company.

When: Till Sept 28, Tuesday to Friday, 10am and 2pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10.30am and 2pm Where: Alliance Française Theatre, 1 Sarkies Road

Age: Two to eight years

How much: $30 a person, $114 for family package for four persons, $135 for family package for five

Info: www.itheatre.org or www.facebook.com/ITheatre

Octoburst!

What: The 11th edition of this festival of arts and culture for children returns with shows such as Something Very Far Away by Britain's Unicorn Theatre, which deals with issues of loss and love. Catch a variety of non-ticketed shows such as The Fat Emperor by Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts & Cultural Troupe. The Mandarin production is about a rotund emperor who has to go on a diet.

When: Oct 3 to 6 (various timings)

Where: Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive

Age: Two to 12 years (varies according to show)

How much: $10 to $28. Most are free

Info: www.esplanade.com/octoburst/2014/

Once Upon A Peacock's Tail

What: This English-language production, commissioned for Kalaa Utsavam, Esplanade's Indian Festival of Arts, tells the story of how a peacock gets its beautiful markings. Based on a Rajasthani folk tale, it combines narration with music, dance and live drawing.

When: Nov 22, 11am, 2 and 5pm

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio, Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay, 1 Esplanade Drive

Age: Four to eight years How much: $15 a person; $25 for a pair of one parent and one child (below 12 years old)

Info: www.kalaautsavam.com/2014

Disney Live! Presents Three Classic Fairy Tales

What: Produced by Feld Entertainment, this crossover tale sees Mickey and Minnie enter the world of fairytale classics such as Beauty And The Beast and Cinderella. Expect to sing along to familiar tunes such as Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo and Be Our Guest.

When: Nov 22 to 30, Saturday and Sunday (Nov 30) 11am, 3 and 6.30pm; Wednesday to Friday and Sunday (Nov 23), 3 and 6.30pm

Where: MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Avenue

Age: Five years and below

How much: $35 to $120

Info: www.marinabaysands.com/ticketing

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites

What: This returning favourite presents three stories from children's author Eric Carle, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Canada, and Act 3 International.

When: Sept 27 to Oct 5, Monday, 10am and 2pm; Wednesday and Thursday, 10am; Saturday, 10.30am, 2 and 4pm; Friday and Sunday, 10.30am and 4pm

Where: Drama Centre Theatre, 100 Victoria Street, Level 3 National Library Building

Age: Three to six years How much: $25 to $28 a person on weekdays, $32 to $35 a person on weekends, $109 to $119 for a family package for four

Info: www.act3international.com.sg

KidsFest

What: The festival, presented by ABA Productions, brings together eight theatre productions from countries such as Australia and Britain over five weeks. The line-up includes Erth's Dinosaur Zoo, an Australian production that uses large dinosaur puppets to deliver educational nuggets about the prehistoric creatures; and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, a show for the younger ones that brings the Judith Kerr book of the same name to the stage.

When: Jan 21 to March 1 next year (various timings)

Where: School of the Arts Drama Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Drive

Age: Three years and above

How much: $42 to $62 a person

Info: www.kidsfest.com.sg or www.facebook.com/Kidsfestsingapore

The Nightingale (Mandarin)

What: Following a successful English-language run by Singapore Repertory Theatre's The Little Company, this adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen classic returns in Mandarin, complete with a toe-tapping pop and hip-hop score, as well as lessons about friendship and acceptance.

When: Till Oct 11, Tuesday to Friday, 10am; Saturday and Sunday, 11am and 2pm

Where: DBS Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Road

Age: Two to six years

How much: $22 or $25 a person on weekdays, $32 or $35 a person on weekends and public holidays, $85 to $131 for a family package for four

Info: www.srt.com.sg or www.facebook.com/singaporerepertorytheatre

Stick Man

What: Separated from his family tree while out on a jog, Stick Man goes on an unexpected adventure which sees him being used as a flag mast, a cricket bat and even firewood. This story by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler cycles through the seasons and culminates in a Yuletide reunion.

When: Oct 9 to 12, Thursday and Friday, 5pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11am, 2 and 4.30pm.

Where: School of the Arts Drama Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Drive

Age: Three years and above

How much: $42 to $62

Info: www.aba-productions.com

Hop and Honk - The Ugly Duckling And The Frog Prince

What: Written by I Theatre's Brian Seward, this musical imagines a world in which the two fairytale characters set out together to discover themselves and find acceptance.

When: Oct 29 to Nov 15, Tuesday to Friday, 10am and 2pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10.30 and 11am and 2pm

Where: Drama Centre Theatre, 100 Victoria Street, Level 3, National Library Building

Age: Four to 18 years and families

How much: $30 to $32 a person, $114 to $121.60 for a family package for four, $135 to $144 for a family package for five

Info: www.itheatre.org or www.facebook.com/ITheatre

Peter Pan, The Never Ending Story

What: It is the classic J.M. Barrie tale of the boy who never grows up magnified with swashbuckling action, visual effects, stunts and a soundtrack of pop tunes by Matt Dunkley, the man behind the music of Hollywood hits such as Pirates Of The Caribbean and Moulin Rouge.

When: Nov 27 to Jan 20, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8pm; Saturday and Sunday, 3 and 8pm.

Where: Resorts World Theatre, Resorts World Sentosa, 8 Sentosa Gateway

Age: Four years and above

How much: $58 to $168

Info: www.rwsentosa.com

Junior Claus

What: After Santa falls into a deep sleep, his son Junior and his friends Pengy the penguin and Chipper the elf have to battle a villain in order to save Christmas. This musical is written by Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond and presented by Singapore Repertory Theatre's The Little Company.

When: Oct 31 to Dec 14, Monday to Friday, 10am; Saturday and Sunday, 11am and 2.30pm

Where: DBS Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Road

Age: Five years and above

How much: $32 or $35 a person on weekdays, $42 or $45 a person on weekends, $119 to $165 for a family package for four

Info: www.srt.com.sg or www.facebook.com/singaporerepertorytheatre

Hairy Maclary And Friends

What: Follow furry protagonist Hairy Maclary as he embarks on an adventure with fellow canines such as dalmation Bottomley Potts and dachshund Schnitzel von Krumm. Based on the children's books by Lynley Dodd, this official stage adaptation was performed at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

When: Oct 10 to 12, Friday, 5pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11am, 2 and 4.30pm

Where: Drama Centre Theatre, 100 Victoria Street, Level 3, National Library Building

Age: Two years and above

How much: $35 to $62

Info: www.aba-productions.com

This article was first published on Sept 19, 2014.
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