Special Programme for Kids at the NZIAF

Special Programme for Kids at the New Zealand International Arts Festival in 2010

Kids on Sundays is a special programme for kids and their families at the New Zealand International Arts Festival on 7, 14 and 21 March next year.

From Roald Dahl stories set to chamber music, theatre, dance, kids’ films, workshops and storytelling, Kids on Sundays offers loads of fun for kids of all ages.

Locations include the Wellington Town Hall, Soundings Theatre at Te Papa, Capital E, the Embassy Theatre as well as the Riverstone Recreation Centre and Ascot Theatre in Upper Hutt, the Masterton Town Hall and Kuranui College in Greytown.

Discover the weird and wonderful world of Cheeseboy, who lives on a planet made of cheese. When a meteor crashes into his planet and turns it into a bubbling fondue, Cheeseboy’s adventures begin as he searches for his missing parents.

Magical storyteller Stephen Sheehan and composer Quentin Grant create a whimsical universe for The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy – a richly imaginative production that includes puppetry, projection and ingeniously simple theatre.

From France’s Arcosm Company, Echoa is spirited dance and percussion with a selection of drums including marimba cleverly organised on scaffolding. Echoa is dance intertwined with rhythm by artists who make the drums dance and play their bodies like instruments.

As part of the Festival’s Chamber Music Weekend Kids on Sundays includes, Dirty Beasts & Other Stories, a concert by the Zephyr Wind Quintet and New Zealand’s acclaimed pianist Diedre Irons. Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts, Little Red Riding Hood, Rebecca (who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably) and Three Tolkien Miniatures are included in the concert.

Kids’ Flicks includes Short Films for Square Eyes - award-winning animated and live action short films from around the world; The Ugly Duckling & Me – a 3D animated adventure comedy; and the family favourite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with its live sing-along.

New Zealand Post Young Writers and Readers Day is filled with workshops and stories. Kids can Make a Crooked Man with illustrator Gavin Bishop, craft characters with Fifi Colston, make words come alive with Paula Green’s Picture Poems, and listen and chat with one of New Zealand’s most celebrated writers, Joy Crowley as she reads from her children’s stories. Gold Partners: New Zealand Post Group, TV3, Clemenger BBDO, Pacific Blue. Funders: Absolutely Positively Wellington, Creative New Zealand

For exact times and venues check the New Zealand International Arts Festival website www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz, the Dominion Post and your local newspaper.

ENDS

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