Sprouts 2017

Worried that your child is too young to enjoy a play? Fear no more!

Introduce your children to live theatre through this engaging and gentle first theatre experience. The plays can be enjoyed by children as young as 18 months to 12 years old. Babes in arms are also warmly welcomed.

Sprouts returns for our 16th Anniversary Festival with a fresh crop of three brand new short plays for kids and their families and a second year in our new venue! Local playwrights from diverse cultural backgrounds will share their newest works in these stage readings. Bring a picnic lunch and join us at the Westbury Theatre and Lobby to enjoy storytelling, music, art and theatre – all for kids. After the plays you can write or draw your thoughts in our special art garden plot. The Sprouts Festival is produced as a part of the Arts at the Barns Series.

If we feed our children’s imaginations on the dramatic equivalent of Big Macs and Kraft Dinner, we can’t nourish them in a love for theatre at its finest. Why put up with junk theatre, when you can opt for Sprouts?

Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal

Credits

Hello, Land!
by Tara Beagan

Alicia and the Machine
by Chris Dodd

Deep Dive
by Glenda Stirling

Cast
Colin Dingwall*
Karen Johnson-Diamond*
Morgan Yamada

Director Mieko Ouchi*
Dramaturg & Festival Coordinator Caroline Howarth
Stage Manager Rachel Dawn Woods*

Sound Design and Music Erik Mortimer
Costume Design Betty Kolodziej
Set/Props and Lighting Design Patrick Beagan
ASL Interpreters Marquesa Dubois and Andrea Konowalec

Lobby Activities:
Crafts with Zu-Ma: Talent to Amūz
Face Painters Kompany Family Theatre
Sound Garden with Bob Rasko
ASL Storyteller Chris Dodd
Poster Design Isabelle Gagnon and Rat Creek Design
And thank you to our Westbury Theatre Technicians

Photos by Epic Photography Inc

*Concrete Theatre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association

Hello, Land!
by Tara Beagan
Two siblings awake to the enormity of what it means to clean their rooms. Together, they uncover the reality that this world has a lot of cleaning up to do. With Grandfather Sun shining down on them, Mother Earth holding them up, and some encouragement from you, the world will become a brighter place.

Deep Dive
by Glenda Stirling
Deep Dive is the story of Moibeal, a young Scottish girl growing up on the Canadian prairies. Moibeal struggles with ‘being from two places” and “never having a pencil case with my name on it”, but things get even worse when she starts to suspect that her mother is hiding a magical secret in the spare room closet. With the help of her dog Hamish and her classmates, Moibeal sets out to discover just what it is her mother is hiding in that closet.

Alicia and the Machine
by Chris Dodd
Alicia loves her deaf father dearly. However, when her plans for a school bake-off contest go awry and threaten to be overshadowed by an elaborate machine, she realizes she must trust him far more than she ever planned to.