New Writing South
Children's Theatre Producers
Krazy Kat Theatre Company
The Krazy Kat Theatre Company, based in Brighton, was founded in 1982 by current directors Kinny Gardner and Alastair S Macmillan. The company does children’s shows which adults like to see, and adult shows which children can enjoy. They specialise in introducing young people to the delights of live theatre, combining mime, dance, song, Commedia dell Arte, puppets and sign language.
Krazy Kat has over the years developed a unique style of child-centred theatre designed to empower the young audience, being both Theatre for Children and Theatre with Children. The structure of the performance uses patterns of children’s play, for example both actors sharing the same role, a character being designated by an item of costume or by putting on a make-up. Each show begins with a simple explanation of how the “play” works: “This is the stage, where we tell the story; and this is the scenery and we might disappear behind it for awhile…”. We emphasise that they as the audience are “the most important part of the show” and this encourages a sense of involvement from the outset and a responsibility to the development of the play: it matters what they do. In addition the plays are very carefully designed so that the children’s imaginations are stimulated both by designs which “suggest” rather than “define”, and by an exciting range of music which enriches the mood of the piece.
Most productions use only two male performers. This has become a motif of the company's work. Many of the schools and playgroups to which they tour have a high percentage of one-parent families, and it has proven to be an important input to have two male figures presenting work in a non-threatening, non-intimidating style.
The performances are created to work on two levels: as challenging entertainment and as an exciting educational experience. Krazy Kat choose stories, situations and characters which will engage the interest of the age group they are performing for, then explore various themes important to an educational brief. This allows for development of curricular/environmental topics i.e. getting dressed, component parts of face, not talking to strangers etc. By keeping text to a minimum, the child must “fill in the blanks”, so language development and word recognition are enhanced. This has proved particularly successful in communities where English may not be the first or “home” language, or where literacy needs to be encouraged and assisted. Recent studies of British Sign Language has encouraged a development of Deaf Awareness issues, and Krazy Kat create performances in SSE/BSL.