Theatre Fun

Night one back at Loose Moose Theatre. How long has it been? About a year. Well, maybe not that long — I was in there a few months ago being interviewed for a documentary about the theatre. But let's call it a year, since the last time I directed a show there. It was "The Three Mooseketeers."

Tonight I was back running auditions for the next Theatre for Kids show I get to direct: "The 3 Pigs."

There's a lot to love about theatre in general, but Loose Moose's Theatre For Kids is my favourite thing. Imagine building a 55-minute play collaboratively – performers, theatre technicians, costumers, backstage hands, stage managers, producers, and a director – over the course of a month.

I'll be writing a lot about this over the next month and a half. For now, suffice to say I'm in the warm glow of casting, finding the right people to populate the world we're building. There are three pigs, of course. A much maligned wolf. A farmer and an assortment of other characters.

There will probably be houses made of straw, sticks, and brick. There may be a talent show rap-battle-dance-off. There will likely not be a dead mouse. Maybe Dead Mau5. We don't know. We're making it all up.

When the show goes up it runs 12 shows over four weekends, each audience a mix of 150+ four-to-twelve-year-olds plus older siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and family friends.

There will be yelling at the bad guy (sometimes cheering them on) and cheering for the good guys (sometimes jeering) and always interacting with the story happening in front of them. The show is scripted – we write the script together – but you never know what's going to happen on a given day. No two shows are the same. So the actors and the tech booth need to be on their toes (hooves? paws?), ready to pivot, dodge, weave, and rewrite the thing on the fly.

It's magical.