The Spark Children’s Arts Festival is calling for families of genies to join the ever-popular New Walk trail. This year’s trail is a day of family fun with a ‘Genie and the Magic Lamp theme’. Starting with some ‘genial’ musical fun, followed by the chance to show your creative ‘genie-us’ with The City Gallery’s team of artists.

Feel free to bring a packed lunch or you can enjoy a little something from De Montfort Hall’s foyer. After eating you’ll trail down to the Belmont Hotel for ‘genie-rus’ amounts of ice-cream, then return to De Montfort to watch Disney’s Aladdin.

Don’t wear your best clothes but do dress as a genie if you can (especially adults!) as there is a prize for the best boy and girl genie. The trail will take approximately five hours in total, beginning at 11am. Genies from seven plus can join in and tickets cost £5 each – baby genies in arms go free.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

11 June

Take your partner by the hand for a unique musical experience as Boka Halat presents their Afro Ceilidh at The Y Theatre as part of The Spark Children’s Arts Festival. Families can enjoy the fantastic fusion of European, Asian and African beats as Boka Halat lead us on a merry dance.

Boka Halat means ‘mutual inspiration’ and their approach is all about bringing together musical traditions to create new songs, new beats and new music. Five musicians come together to play their original songs and then lead the audience in a ceilidh with a difference. Square dancing, line dancing, whatever shape your dancing is – the Afro Ceilidh will make you get up and move your feet.

A great fun event that children and adults will love with wonderful live music, Boka Halat’s Afro Ceilidh is suitable for children aged 8 plus and will be at The Y Theatre on Friday 11th June at 19:00. Tickets cost £4 for children and £6 for adults. To book please call 0116 255 7066.

For more information please visit www.sparkfestival.co.uk, call 0116 261 6893 or email admin@sparkfestival.co.uk

2 – 4 July 2010 at 12:00

We Built This City places children in the role of architect, empowering them to construct their ideal city, and during the performance they will make buildings go up, pull them down, redesign them, extend, walk through, jump on, and reconstruct them. We Built This City is not a play… it is play. Polyglot Theatre bring their tour to Waterloo Terrace at the National Theatre for LIFT 2010.

Forget playing ‘Sim City’ at home alone, now children can realise their urban dreams in three dimensions with scores of other budding young architects in We Built This City.

Presented by one of Australia’s leading children’s theatre companies Polyglot Theatre, We Built This City invites children and families to construct a city from thousands of cardboard boxes.

Under the watchful eyes of professional building experts and accompanied by a live DJ, the only city limits here are in the mind, as participants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and create edifices as tall, wide and outlandish as they can. But whilst We Built This City is pure fun on one level, its interactive and collaborative nature also points out how the urban environment contains many interconnected lives, finally emphasising the impermanence of everything around us when the installation is eventually crushed flat by its creators.

Today the Royal Court Theatre has announced that it will be producing its first ever family Christmas show. The show, Get Santa! will run from December 1 2010 to January 15 2011 and will be appropriate for audiences aged seven and up. The plot follows a ten year-old girl’s mission to find the perfect family and will be directed by Anthony Neilson with music by Nick Powell.

Dominic Cooke, artistic director of the Royal Court, said: “One of the most exciting theatrical developments in recent years has been the explosion of quality work for children and families. I’m delighted that the Royal Court will be bringing its bold and contemporary sensibility to a family Christmas show this year.”

The Maharajah and the Kohinoor Diamond will come to TARA Arts on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of May suitable for 7 and 8 year olds.

A Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail production, The Maharajah and the Kohinoor Diamond tells the story of a Sikh King and the famous Kohinoor Diamond, which now sits atop the crown worn by the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament and major Royal occasions.

This thought-provoking stage dramatisation is based on the life of Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of Lahore and King of the Sikh Empire.

At age 11, when the British took over India, Duleep Singh was deposed and sent to live in England. He was separated from his mother and The Kohinoor, the world’s largest diamond which was taken away from him to be included in the Crown Jewels.

Whilst in England, he was granted Scottish Estates by Queen Victoria. Adopted by high society, he was Christianised and educated in Scotland, but Singh continued to dream of a triumphant return to the Punjab at the head of the Sikh army. He formed alliances with Irish revolutionaries and the Russian government to no avail because Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh empire was left isolated and died penniless and alone in 1893.

The Maharajah and The Kohinoor Diamond tells the story of thwarted love, political intrigue and the machinations of The Empire and is suitable for schools performances and family audiences.

The company is a tight ensemble of actors, using physical and character led theatre piece, who story tell their way through playing many characters, taking voyages from the Victorian present to its past history relating to the unknown story of the Maharajah and the Kohinoor.

Fri 7th & Sat 8th May at 7:30pm
Tickets:£9.50 / £6.50 concessions
10:30am & 1:30pm, 50 mins
Address: TARA Studio, 356 Garratt Lane, London SW18 4ES
Website: http://www.tara-arts.com
Booking: 020 8333 4457

24 – 28 February 2010

This February the critically acclaimed Imperial Ice Stars, the world’s leading theatrical ice skating company, are bringing their spectacular new production of Cinderella on Ice to the Royal Albert Hall. In a novel twist on the timeless tale, set in a Siberian town, The Imperial Ice Stars tell the story of Cinderella, a humble chorus dancer who is thrust into the spotlight as a prima ballerina and captivates the handsome Lord Mayor’s son, the most eligible bachelor in town, with her graceful performance. Despite rival attempts by her ballerina stepsisters to steal his heart, engineered with true villainy by her stepmother, the local ballet mistress, true love triumphs thanks to the magical powers of the Gypsy Fortune Teller and Cinderella’s kindly father, the town’s Watchmaker.

Cinderella on Ice is set to be one of the most ambitious challenging ice shows ever created, and has been gathering fantastic reviews during its tours of Australia, New Zealand and the UK and has travelled to Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and South Africa as part of an extensive two year world tour.

This specially redesigned production will run for only eight performances and will be only the second time in history when the floor of the Royal Albert Hall has been frozen with ice, and the first since the John Curry Symphony on Ice featuring the Olympic gold medallist was staged 25 years ago. Performed on a specially-created stage, frozen at -15 degrees Celsius, Cinderella on Ice boasts stunning special effects including fire and rain, flying, magnificent projected scenery depicting a Siberian town square and a black and silver art deco theatre, and glorious costumes from Albina Gabueva, head designer at Moscow’s famed Stanislavsky Theatre.

This dramatic new interpretation of the classic fairytale is conceived and choreographed by the award-winning ice director Tony Mercer, together with three of the world’s most respected ice coaches: Evgeny Platov, dual Olympic gold medallist and four-time World Champion; and the 2006 & 2007 ice dancing World Champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski.

An exhilarating combination of theatre and sport, Cinderella on Ice breaks new ground in the world of ice dancing. Renowned for their daring on the ice and unique style of story-telling, the 25-strong cast of World, European and National Championship skaters will perform breathtaking skating feats, some never before attempted in competition or on an icy theatre stage and playing the lead role of Cinderella is Olga Sharutenko, who partnered John Barrowman in the first series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2006.

Address: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London, SW7, United Kingdom?
Website: www.royalalberthall.com
Box office: 020 7838 3100 (09:00-21:00 daily)

Until 17 January 2010

This weekend is the last chance to catch The Gruffalo at the Apollo Theatre. Be a brave little mouse and make your way through the concrete jungle to see everyone’s favourite bedtime story live on stage at the Apollo on Shaftesbury Avenue. The book by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler has sold over 4 million copies in 38 languages and was even adapted for television which aired on BBC1 on Christmas Day.

Since its 2006 premiere, this exuberant smash-hit production has been performed over 3000 times to the delight of 700,000 children aged 3 and above, across the UK, Eastern Europe, the Americas and even the Far East.

Tall Stories have created an inventive and clever show about the mouse on her quest for food who narrowly avoids being gobbled up by a wily fox, guileful owl and slithering snake by telling them of the terrible Gruffalo with who she is meeting for lunch. The show is full of fun and has bounds of energy, catch it while you can.

Read our review here.

Address: Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 7EZ
Website: http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/
Phone: 0844 579 1971

Friday 19 December

Alex Scheffler the illustrator of The Gruffalo, the Gruffalo’s Child and Room on the Broom is to sign books at the Pleasance in Islington on Saturday 19 December at midday.

The book signing will follow the 11am performance of Room on the Broom, Tall Stories new show based on the book by Julia Donaldson which was illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Children (and childish Adults!) wishing to get their books signed should all attend, it’s an opportunity not to be missed.

Address: Pleasance Theatre Islington, Carpenters Mews, North Road, London, N7 9EF
Website: http://www.pleasance.co.uk
Phone: 020 7609 1800