English Plays & Musical Performances for Kids and Families

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Like some parents, I get tired of visiting indoor playgrounds and trampoline parks every weekend. Plus, every so often, I feel guilty that I haven't exposed my kid to enough arts and culture. That's why I started looking for kid-friendly stage performances and concerts to bring my boisterous child to. I'm happy to report that one of my recent findings is this little gem of a place called 小不点大视界 (xiǎo bù diǎn dà shì jiè) which I translate, with some liberties, as "Small Kids, Big Vision."

This production company specializes in bringing English-language plays and musical performances from the UK, that are suitable for kids as young as 2 years old, even though they have seen 6-month-olds in the audience before.

From now until Mar 27, they are showing The Anatomy of the Piano, a 50-minute performance in English, with Chinese subtitles, starring British pianist Will Pickvance. The plot goes something like this: "A young boy who wants to be an astronaut writes a letter to Santa asking for a spaceship. On the night of Christmas Eve, however, he finds a piano at the foot of his Christmas tree..." The performance features numbers by Bach, Beethoven, and the "Father of Jazz" Fats Waller, among others.

What's nifty about this company is that you can view and book all their performances, present and upcoming, via their mini-program in WeChat, so there are no phone calls or other hassles. They also offer an honest rating system that suggests how suitable the performance is for kids of different ages.

This is the guide for The Anatomy of the Piano. Even if your kids are younger or older than the target audience, they are still welcome to attend as long as they can observe the conduct of the theater.

Xiao bu dian da shi jie's next performance, titled I Wish I Was a Mountain, will take place from Apr 1-17. This highly imaginative performance received great reviews in the UK where it was commissioned by The Egg Theatre as part of Theatre Royal Bath, with The Guardian (UK) dubbing performance poet Toby Thompson, "A star in the making."

On Mar 26 and 27, there will also be a special one and a half hour Marine Life Environmental Workshop by Creation Academy – the education branch of the production company – which will introduce music, visual arts, installation art, shadow theater, physical theater, and spoken word theater to kids from 5-8 years of age.

With tickets to each performance costing RMB 320 no matter your age, it's worth considering the eight-ticket pass for RMB 2,240 (which whittles the ticket price down to RMB 280 each) or the 20-ticket pass for RMB 5,200 (making each ticket RMB 260). The card is applicable to all venues in China where the company has performances, including its Shanghai headquarters, as well as Hangzhou, Tianjin, Foshan, Xian, and many others. Beijing is slated to offer 10-15 performances in 2022, and you can see the lineup in the mini-program once it's updated.

Go into WeChat and search 小不点大视界 (xiǎo bù diǎn dà shì jiè) in the Mini Programs to find them.

Images: Unsplash, 小不点大视界

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