News: Live Theatre's Live Tales Turns Ten — Celebrations Kick Off With Free Family Festival

 Live Theatre's Live Tales Turns Ten — Celebrations Kick Off With Free Family Festival

Live Theatre's much-loved children's story and playwriting programme, Live Tales, has reached a major milestone this year — its 10th birthday. To mark the occasion, the Quayside theatre is throwing open the doors to its Live Garden for a brand-new event, Summery Tales, on Saturday 1 August from 11am to 3pm, and the whole family is invited.

It's a free event, and there's genuinely something for everyone. Expect live music, face painting and illustration, story writing workshops, pop-up stalls, craft stations, and a food stall and bar to keep grown-ups fuelled while the kids get creative.

The workshop programme, supported by Space Architects, is where the real magic happens, though places do need to be booked in advance. Things kick off at 11am with Art-K Watercolour Creatures, a watercolour workshop delivered by art-K Jesmond and inspired by the magic of storytelling, which repeats across the day at 11.50am, 12.40pm and 1.30pm.

At 11.45am and again at 1.30pm, Story Time With Arti sees author Danielle Slade lead an interactive storytelling adventure inspired by her book TWINKLE TWINKLE Arti. Using what's billed as a magical storytelling suitcase, Danielle brings the story to life before children move into a star-themed craft activity of their own.

Story Inventors follows at 12.15pm, a playful session using costumes, props and puppets to collaboratively dream up a brand-new story from scratch. And the day rounds off at 2pm with Live Illustrating, an interactive drawing workshop led by a team of Live Tales illustrators, where new characters and whole worlds get invented on the page.

It all speaks to what Live Tales has quietly built over the past decade. Over ten years, the programme's facilitators have worked with thousands of schoolchildren, giving them space to explore original thinking, discover their own voice and build confidence through storytelling.

Becky Morris, Senior Creative Associate at Live Theatre, said the Family Festival marks a new chapter for the programme: "We're thrilled to be hosting our very first Family Festival! This special event celebrates 10 years of our free creative writing programme, Live Tales. As we mark this exciting milestone, we're not only continuing our much-loved schools programme but also expanding our focus to welcome more families into the world of Live Tales. Our Family Festival is the first step in bringing Live Tales to an even wider audience, kicking off what we hope will be another incredible decade of creativity and storytelling. If the first 10 years are anything to go by, who knows what we'll be celebrating when we reach 20!"

Summery Tales is only the beginning of Live Theatre's year-long celebration of Live Tales turning ten. Families can look forward to Spooky Tales this autumn, running Wednesday 28 to Friday 30 October — a spine-tingling story making adventure promising laughs, gasps and a sprinkling of magic. The celebrations then culminate at Christmas with Where Do All The Kittiwakes Go At Christmas?, running from Saturday 19 to Thursday 31 December. Supported by the Gillian Dickinson Trust, this alternative festive show combines music, interaction and bold storytelling for what sounds like a properly joyful family outing.

To find out more about Summery Tales and to book a place on the workshops, head to www.live.org.uk.