Lakeside Arts

We Love Wheee! 2013

 

 

Lakeside's International Children's Theatre and Dance Festival has become a key event in the regional arts calendar eagerly anticipated by children, families, artists and promoters. Since our first International Festival in 2005 over 35,000 children and families have enjoyed performances by top companies from Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Québec and from across the UK.

Wheee! 2013 is Lakeside's ninth International Children's Theatre and Dance Festival. As in previous years 2013 will include many performances by International Companies, such as Mass Theatre and Dance, Ailie Cohen Puppet Makers, Frozen Charlotte and of course the return of the Architects of Air luminarium!
 
In addition to afternoon, early evening and weekend performances, there will be a weekend of activities and performances in the beautiful surroundings of Highfields Park during our Family Weekend in the Park (Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 June).
 
 
 
And if you want to know more about how great it really is check out these videos of other children and families just like yours at enjoying previous Wheee! shenanigans:
 
 

 

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FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES 2012

Architects of Air's amazing LUMINARIUM: EXXOPOLIS

 

Nottingham-based, internationally renowned, Architects of Air are an eagerly anticipated and essential element of Lakeside’s children’s festival. 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the Architect's touring career -

Designer Alan Parkinson creates truly wonderful labyrinthine structures in which visitors are encouraged to wander, relax, meditate and wonder. Discover tunnels and pods, central pillars and domed meeting points, and be immersed in sheer colour and light. Enter and be amazed!

“An awesome walk-through inflatable sculpture full of colour and light.”Sunday Mail, Brisbane June 2010

VISIT THEIR WEBSITE

 

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Aracaladanza (Spain) presents

Nubes (Clouds)

Saturday 2 June, 1.30pm and 6pm


Suitable for 4+ and families
Running Time approximately 50 minutes
 
Inspired by the work of the surrealist artist René Magritte, this fabulous international dance theatre company play with the theme of clouds in the most magical and entertaining way. 

Expect the company’s trademark playfulness in which the most extraordinary objects are imaginatively brought to life, a flipper dance which is laugh-out-loud funny, and a dance with ladders which takes your breath away. 

As those who saw this show in 2010 will testify, this is vintage Aracaladanza, proving yet again why they are multiple MAX Awards Winners and Winners of the National Children’s Theatre Award 2010, Madrid.

www.aracaladanza.com

 

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Gobbledegook presents

Planet of the Beetlebuns

Saturday 2 June, Sunday 3 June / Monday 4 June, Tuesday 5 June

 10am, 11am, 12 noon, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm


Suitable for 18months – 4 years
Running Time: approximately 35 minutes

A magical new interactive experience, designed and created by Sean Westgate and Frauke Franz.
 
The Beetlebuns are extremely shy creatures but they are great fun and full of surprises. Come and let them show you their planet full of weird and wonderful things where crazy machines turn and magical trees blossom.  

Hop onto the carpet and watch how digital characters and objects start to react to your every move. Motion capture cameras enable images to be triggered by the children in real time.

Join gobbledegook to play, explore, delight, create, interfere, or just watch – and see how projected stories will develop in front of you.

Image: Sebastien Braun with Children of Fernbank Children’s Centre in Hackney Supported by Chats Palace and developed with children at Fernbank Children’s Centre

 

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Bunk Puppets (Canada) and Scamp Theatre present

Swamp Juice

Sunday 3 June, 3.30pm and 6pm / Monday 4 June, 1.30pm


Suitable for 6+ and families (but please note some scenes may frighten under 7s)
Running Time: approximately 50 minutes

Welcome to a swamp like no other, where there are bickering toads, overbearing fairies and a rather gentle swamp monster.

Using fiendishly clever shadow puppetry, and a stunning 3D finale which has audiences screaming with laughter, horror and delight simultaneously, Jeff Achtem’s acclaimed new show is quite simply stunning theatre for audiences of all ages.

Following a sell-out, 5 star run at the Edinburgh Festival 2011, we are delighted to be promoting this Total Theatre Award-winning show as part of our 2012 Festival.

"A joyous hour of five-star genius"  Donald Hutera, The Times
 
"Madly enjoyable" Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

 

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Bootworks Theatre present

The Book Eating Boy

Wednesday 6  June – Sunday 10 June, from 11am daily

Angear Visitor Centre, Djanogly Art Gallery
£6 (for one adult plus one child)
Suitable for 4+
Running time 5 minutes

Adapted from Oliver Jeffers’ award-winning book

Theatre in a Booth!

This is the story of Henry , a boy with a voracious appetite for books – in fact he eats them!  Henry loves books, and realises that the more books he eats, the smarter he becomes.

But a book-eating isn’t the most healthy of diets, as Henry soon finds out...

Set in a black box booth with room for only one adult with a child on their knee, this is maybe the smallest – and shortest – theatre experience you'll had, but with the puppetry, music and projection it will be so worth it! 

"Enchanting and Adorable" Three Weeks

"An outstanding experience for children"  Fringe Review

 

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Catherine Wheels Theatre (Scotland) present

White

Thursday 7 June, 1.30pm and 3.30pm

   
Running time approximately 35 minutes
Suitable for 2-4 year olds and families

Welcome to the beautifully strange world of White. Full of birdsong and birdhouses, it gleams and dazzles and shines in the night. Two friends look after the birds and make sure the eggs stay safe. We watch, we help.  The world is bright, ordered and white.

But high up in the trees, all is not white.  Colour appears.  First red... then yellow... then blue...

White is a playful and highly visual new show for very young children and is a perfect first time theatre experience.

Catherine Wheels is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed children’s theatre company.

"The high wire act of Scottish children’s theatre" (Times Educational Supplement)

www.catherinewheels.co.uk

 
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TPO (Italy) present

Kindur - The Adventurous Life of Icelandic Sheep

Saturday 9 June, 6pm / Sunday 10 June, 1.30pm and 3.30pm

Djanogly Theatre

Suitable for 5-8 year olds and their families
Running time: approximately 50 minutes

This lovely show charms from the moment the children arrive and are given a white woolly heart, and  when their heart glows, it's time to take an active part in the show!

The audience follow the Kindur (Icelandic for sheep) on their adventures through the dramatic and magical landscapes and myths of Iceland, through the dark and snowy winter into spring and summer by way of lush meadows and gigantic waterfalls, rocky landscapes, and bubbling volcanic springs. 

Three dancers interact with the gorgeous digital imagery for which TPO are renowned, making this a wonderful performance and participatory experience for everyone.

www.tpo.it

"Rippling…touch sensitive images that chimes, buzzed or swooshed"
The Herald

 
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FAMILY WEEKEND IN THE PARK

Saturday 9 June and Sunday 10 June

Our festival weekend is hugely popular with families and children of all ages and in 2011 we smashed our visitor figures by welcoming over 4000 people into Highfields Park. The weeekend includes a wide range of outdoor activities to try as well as some impromptu performances in the park - the majority of which are entirely free of charge!
 

 

Click here to read about the 2011 Children's Festival

Click here to read about the 2010 Children's Festival

Click here to read about the 2009 Children's Festival

Click here to read about the 2008 Children's Festival

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