NURTURE
If Theatre Be
The Food Of Learning,
Entertainment, education
and exhilaration in one
package! Family & Life
goes backstage and
discovers how theatre can
be used to not only delight
but teach our young ones
about the world.
All the world’s a stage and all the men
and women merely players. What
Shakespeare accidentally omitted from
his famous line was that the stage is
also a great educational tool for young
and impressionable children!
Okay, we’re kidding about the Bard’s
mistake. However, the latter is definitely
true – theatre is an alternative and
fun learning platform for kids, and is
slowly gaining popularity in Singapore
schools, thanks to the efforts of
drama production companies like the
Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT).
In the past, theatre was perceived
as a luxurious and pricey experience
and although such mindsets have
slowly changed in the past decade,
there’s still a lot of work to be done
to convince parents that theatre is an
educational and accessible form of
learning. However, SRT’s Education
Manager Claire Yang is optimistic about
the future. “We’re working together
with different academic organisations
to make theatre a part of children’s
everyday life, the way they would go to
the Science Centre or the Jurong Bird
Park,” she explains.
The key, according to Claire, is to
select themes like bullying or sibling
rivalry that would resonate with
children of different age groups. It’s
also important that the young audience
can relate to and are familiar with th e
stories being staged, although most
theatre companies like to keep things
interesting by adding a few twists and
turns to the plot.
And despite the rise of digital
educational tools, SRT’s Executive
Director Charlotte Nors strongly
believes that theatre is still a relevant
and cost-effective teaching model.
“Theatre has the magical element
because it is live and is happening
right in front of you! And the shows
we stage for kids are very interactive.
For example, during one of our plays
titled Upstairs In The Sky, we passed
around cloves and oranges among the
audience when one of the cast members
remarked that his grandfather smelled
of cloves and oranges,” Charlotte says.
On top of that, theatre is also an
excellent tool for cultivating a love for
the humanities in children. Executive
Producer of ABA Productions Pte Ltd
Matthew Gregory, one of the folks
16
Family & Life • Dec 2013/Jan 2014
Play On!
responsible for bringing in KidsFest
2014 (a festival featuring nine worldclass kids’ theatre productions), highly
recommends theatre to families.
“It’s a wonderful platform for family
bonding and at the same time, nurtures
a child’s interest in literature and
language,” Matthew says.
struggle to fill the seats for a week’s run
to now having little problems packing
in the crowds for a few weeks at a
time. And despite having seen almost
everything that theatre has to offer, she
still loves the moment when she sees a
child’s face light up as the red curtains
start parting.
“There is nothing like sitting in the front
row and seeing the kids go ‘Woah!’
when the play begins. And when you see
these kids coming back again with their
parents to watch the same play again,
you know that theatre has touched their
hearts and minds,” Charlotte says.
Finally, theatre provides children,
whether as an audience member or
as a participant, with an outlet to act
out and experience important issues
that are rarely talked about with their
family or friends. Theatre organisations
like SRT are making inroads into the
schools by holding drama
workshops and providing
The theatre scene for children is set to get
teachers with extensive
even bigger with KidsFest 2014, which takes
teaching materials, so that
place in January and February 2014!
the lessons that the children
learn from the workshops
“KidFest is an exciting festival for the whole
remain with them even after
family where compelling characters are
the workshops are long over.
brought to life and scenes from well-loved
books are enacted vividly on stage.” Matthew
Timeless stories such as The
Gregory, Executive Producer
Ugly Duckling, which touches
on the issue of bullying,
What’s Showing!
let children temporarily
• What The Ladybird Heard
experience a different
• The Gruffalo’s Child
person’s world. This develops
• Private Peaceful
the quality of empathy in
• The Snow Dragon
young minds, a valuable trait
• The Gruffalo
to have in an increasingly self• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
centred society.
• Horrible Histories: Awful Egyptians
• Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors
Charlotte, who has been
• We’re Going On A Bear Hunt
working in Singapore’s theatre
scene for close to 12 years,
For more information on ticket prices and
reveals the heartening progress
show synopses and timings, do check out
of the Singapore arts scene,
www.kidsfest.com.sg.
from when many plays used to