Move over Wiggles, a new wave of childrens' entertainment hits the stage. By Clare Kermond.
All too often with children's entertainment, the headline act turns out to be a sweaty actor stuffed into a giant costume, perhaps a dinosaur or maybe a piece of fruit. They wiggle away to a few pre-recorded tunes — no miming necessary in this suit — before fleeing the stage for one of the many breaks required. Is it any wonder so many parents lurk up the back with a headache forming?
The good news is that times are changing in the world of children's entertainment. Fuelled largely by the growing number of performers who are having children of their own, Melbourne has a healthy number of live acts catering to billy-lids that their parents might actually enjoy, too. Bands like the Mighty bUZzniks, the Mudcakes and Cha Cha Sam, and companies such as Polyglot Puppet Theatre, Monkey Baa Theatre and the Kazoos.
Now, the independent acts are getting the support of the elder statesmen in the arts community. The Arts Centre will today launch its first year-round program aimed at three to 12-year-olds and their grown-up friends. The new families program will include a mix of music, theatre and interactive workshops, with some big-name international works as well as acts from the local scene. There is also at least one free act each month.
And down the road at Federation Square, from December, the National Gallery of Victoria will open a new gallery space for children, to be called NGV Kids Cube. The new space, close to the Ian Potter Gallery, will feature changing installations for the young and art activities for both parents and children.
The NGV's head of education and programs, Gina Panebianco, says the NGV recently made children's and family activities one of its "strategic priorities". And the proof is in the pudding, with more than 30,000 people taking part in family activities at the gallery last year. For the past six months, the Arts Centre's program manager (families), Emer Harrington, has been like a child in a lolly shop, casing Melbourne's arts scene for good-quality work aimed at children and work that could be tweaked to fit the bill.
Harrington, a former chair of the Polyglot Puppet Theatre who has also worked at the Comedy and Fringe festivals, laughs about her "big, big shopping list" of acts she plans to approach for the program.
"I've received great feedback from across the board, from parents as well as artists and programmers. Partly because there's more work being created but also because it's giving credit to the value of work for kids," she says.
Harrington, who has two children aged five and two, says a key point for her in shaping the program was finding acts that would get families experiencing art together. "So much of life with kids is getting dinner on the table and keeping the routine going, so this is about giving them a chance to celebrate each other."
One of the workshops, Picture Us, involves families using a photo booth and kooky stick-on body parts to build their own family portrait. Other workshops include Junk Puppets, a dance workshop by Chunky Move and a songwriting session with the Mighty bUZzniks.
Harrington has also called on some of her contacts from the comedy and fringe days. A former comedy festival hit, The Lift, has been adapted for children. The audience rides up and down the Arts Centre's 10 floors with performers popping in and out along the way. There's also an international collaboration, The Dragon Child, from China's Children's Art Theatre.
One Melbourne muso who believes good, live performance for children is long overdue is Jamie Saxe, from the Mighty bUZzniks, a group made up of musicians from local bands, most of whom have young children. Saxe, who has a four-year-old son, says the Arts Centre program will be great for independent acts that are often caught out by local venues being too small, pubs that only wanted patrons who buy beer, and large venues with sky-high overheads. "Basically, you can only fill the big venues if you're on TV," he says. "The problem for independent kids entertainment is we get no radio airplay and they don't play our clips on video hits.
"A big premise for us, apart from getting the kids to celebrate being silly, is about getting children and parents to share the musical experience. We don't condescend and dumb down or make it twee and preachy. We try to be a little bit more subversive and Rolling Stones-ish."
Saxe also says there is a need for ongoing quality children's entertainment rather than the many one-off festivals.
Elsewhere, Northcote Kids is an ongoing monthly program of children's performances including music, puppetry and theatre, while Gasworks Park, in Albert Park, has a thriving school-holiday entertainment program.
For Emer Harrington, the more the merrier: "Kids have so often been overlooked. We need to keep pushing for better and better quality performance for kids because they deserve it as much as we do."
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