A new play and exhibition, written by Esme Miskimmin and based on research by Katie Knowles, is set to appear at the Cockpit Theatre, Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot.
Act Your Age is based on Katie’s original research into all-child acting companies in the Early Modern and Victorian periods.
Esme said of the project:
Katie’s research is at the heart of the exhibition that we are creating, and which also draws on my interests and teaching experience in children’s literature. It is family-friendly and activity-based (colouring, dress up, quizzes and role play) and will present a narrative of the history of child actors and the changing nature of work and play.
The exhibition will run over half term and up to the performance (24th May -10th June).
Read the synopsis for Act Your Age and book your tickets below:
Act Your Age
Cockpit Theatre, Tuesday 10th June
Written by Esme Miskimmin
Directed by Julie Ashurst and Gaynor La Rocca
Based on research by Katie Knowles
Join Taylor on a time-travelling adventure, meeting child-actors from history and finding out more about when being in a play meant work. Will Taylor and her historical friends have more in common than the stage?
Taylor is twelve. And she really wants to be an actor – a young star on the stage, having fun in rehearsals and enjoying the applause. But a lesson in school about the child actors of Shakespeare’s time sparks her imagination and she wants to find out more – did the young actors of the past have any fun, or were their lives all hard work?
Join Taylor on a time-travelling adventure with Tom, a member of an all-boys acting company from the 1600s, and Lucy, a Victorian child performer. What will Taylor learn about her new friends, and about herself? Are these three children from across history so very different, or will they find more in common than the stage?