THEATRE (a thread)

I find it so hard to articulate why I think theatre matters. Things that feel magical in a theatre can seem wanky or ridiculous or small written down. That’s the thing with theatre - you had to be there. It’s magic is in its liveness. But I’m going to try...

This is a photo of my tiniest @rxtheatre. I used to get to bring tiny people to the Exchange a lot, back when early years education was well enough funded for Sure Starts across Manchester to have artists in residence.

Working in Sure Starts, I learnt about Reggio Emilia, a child-centred childcare philosophy which leans into young children’s natural curiosity & creativity. The philosophy is expressed in a poem: The 100 Languages. I’ve been thinking about that poem a lot recently.

You don’t have to spend long with young children to realise that the impulse to tell stories, to become someone or something other than ourselves, is innate. Theatre gives us back the 100 languages of childhood. It’s a place where it’s okay to marvel, to play, to imagine.

And more than that, theatre let’s us know it’s not only us who imagines & plays pretend. Anyone can go to a theatre &know they’re not the only person to have thought or felt the things they do. Thoughts that seem wanky or ridiculous or small, aren’t in a theatre.

If you’ve got happy memories of panto as a kid, or of taking your own kids’ to a Christmas show, if you’ve ever seen a young person you care about come out of their shell because of a youth theatre, please lend your voice to this campaign: https://www.campaignforthearts.org/letter