Children and young people's theatre

News

“Most ambitious programme to date”: the Home and Horizons festival

Festival to show Birmingham young people’s talents

19 June 2025

More than 400 performers will take part in Home and Horizons, the third annual festival celebrating the talents of young people of Birmingham.

“Absolutely delighted”: RSC co-artistic directors Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans

Dream partnership between RSC and Unicorn Theatre

14 June 2025

The Royal Shakespeare Company and Unicorn Theatre are to join forces for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Elmhurst presents Voices & Virtues

14 June 2025

Elmhurst Ballet School will present a series of shows following its centenary and 20-year anniversary of its relocation to Birmingham.

Pentabus sets up its first youth theatre

21 May 2025

A rural theatre company has announced it has set up a youth theatre—the first in its history.

Pentabus young writers (from left) Will Witt, Lily Phelps, Meg Vaughan, Evie Addison, Hamish MacAulay, Hannah King and Alex Mager

Nine young writers to showcase work in Shropshire

16 May 2025

Rural theatre company Pentabus has unveiled a new production from its young writers’ group, Unfiltered.

Elle While from Pentabus, BBC production executive Natalie Bolton, executive producer Vanessa Amberleigh and series producer Anna Perowne at the 2025 BAFTA television awards

Elle picks up BAFTA award for children’s TV show

14 May 2025

Elle While, artistic director of Shropshire-based Pentabus, picked up a BAFTA TV award that celebrates the best of children’s television.

Folkestone School for Girls from Kent performing Back in the Day by Yasmeen Khan at NT 2024 Connections Festival

Young people take part in 30th National's Connections

15 April 2025

The National Theatre's Connections programme, which commissions new plays every year for young people to perform, is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

“Crucial comment on the challenges young people face”: Royal and Derngate artistic director Jesse Jones

Northampton play explores young people’s online world

1 April 2025

Royal and Derngate's première of Samson Hawkins’s Top G’s Like Me will “follow a group of rudderless young adults in a post-playground world of seething toxic masculinity”.

“Dream come true”: Gerard Foster and Richie Webb

Festive Hippodrome says there’s no such thing as wolves

1 April 2025

Birmingham Hippodrome has announced that No Such Thing as Wolves by Horrible Histories writers Gerard Foster and Richie Webb will be one of its 2025 festive productions.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2025

1 April 2025

Norfolk & Norwich Festival returns with a huge variety of work staged in and around the city of Norwich for 17 days.

Royal and Derngate’s young company performing Saba’s Swim

New plays in Northampton National Theatre festival

27 March 2025

Northampton’s Royal and Derngate will welcome hundreds of young people to perform in the National Theatre Connections Festival 2025.

Step Around Town from the Royal Academy of Dance

Step Around Town brings dance into London schools

3 March 2025

This spring, a series of performances will take place in schools across Greater London.

Challenges of adolescence: Bernadette and Other Teenage Folk Tales

Folk tales come to life in Stoke collaboration

18 February 2025

Bernadette and Other Teenage Folk Tales will have five performances in Stoke-on-Trent.

In rehearsal: Hamlet: The Rest is Silence

Shakespeare celebrated by students and community in Nottingham

6 February 2025

Young people from across Nottingham will take to the Theatre Royal stage with their own adaptation of Macbeth.

National Youth Dance tours internationally

5 February 2025

National Youth Dance Company will tour new work by Boy Blue, culminating in first ever international date in Berlin.

RAD Children's Scholarship Scheme centenary

5 February 2025

Royal Academy of Dance celebrates 100 years since the establishment of its Children's Scholarship Scheme, with a testimony from Wayne Sleep.

Second Hand Dance spring tour

5 February 2025

Second Hand Dance's Sticky Dance, an immersive show for young children and their families, will tour to New York, Sadler's Wells East and across the UK.

Hip hop dance to take over RAD HQ

24 January 2025

On 1 February, the Royal Academy of Dance will host Battle: Break-It-Down, a hip-hop event produced by RAD’s Step into Dance programme.

Joss Arnott invites you to Meet the Hatter

21 January 2025

For the company’s 15th anniversary, Joss Arnott Dance will tour a new production for ages 5+: Meet the Hatter.

Layla Mehay–Bennett and Heidi Goldsmith in The Snowflake

Snowflake to tour West Midlands libraries

16 January 2025

Birmingham Rep, Polka and Little Angel's The Snowflake will tour 18 libraries across Birmingham and the West Midlands, January and February 2025.

Return of Smethwick Puppet Festival during half term

14 January 2025

Leading UK puppetry theatre companies will perform at the Smethwick Puppetry Festival during schools’ half-term in February.

Nottingham Playhouse needs creatives for festive show

9 January 2025

Nottingham Playhouse is looking for a director, writer and composer for its 2025 festive show for young children The Little Mermaid.

Matilda auditions in Manchester

7 January 2025

Auditions for the role of Matilda and her classmates for the tour of the RSC musical will be held in Manchester in February and March 2025.

Features

Wise Owl artistic director Chris Brookes, producer Chloe Thorpe and Paul “Piglet” Middleton, director of mechanical engineering at North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Steaming ahead: Wise Owl on the right track with Santa Express

6 June 2025

Leicestershire-based Wise Owl, specialists in immersive theatre, is getting even more steamed up about Christmas than usual.

Reviews

The Farmer and The Clown

Adapted from the book by Marla Frazee, soundtrack by JOW

Flibbertigibbet

The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth

28–31 May 2025

Gods of Salford

Jimmy Fairhurst, Andrew Butler and Louise Haggerty

The Lowry and Not Too Tame

The Lowry, Salford

29–30 April 2025

A practical guide on how to save the world when no one f***ing else is

Nicole Latchana

Tara Theatre

15–19 April 2025

Pig Heart Boy

Winsome Pinnock

Children's Theatre Partnership, Unicorn Theatre and Sheffield Theatres

Belgrade Theatre

2–5 April 2025

The Adventures Of The Little Red Hen

Devised by Stuff and Nonsense and created alongside children

Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company

The Drum, Theatre Royal Plymouth

25 March–19 April 2025

The Birch The Puppet Musical!

Stefan Escreet, Imogen Barnfather and Owen Evans from an idea by Stefan Escreet

Ragged Edge Productions

The Birch Community Centre, Manchester

22 March 2025

Callum Spivack as the Prince and Andrew Love as the Pilot

The Little Prince

Music by Rachel Portman, libretto by Nicholas Wright

Pacific Opera Victoria

Royal Theatre

19–25 February 2025

Floella Benjamin’s Coming to England

Floella Benjamin, adapted for the stage by David Wood

Nicoll Entertainment, MAST Mayflower Studio, Southampton

The Lowry, Salford

5–9 February 2025