LUNA LOVES LIBRARY DAY To Be Adapted As A Musical For Children And Families

Little Seeds Music and Z-arts have secured Arts Council Funding to produce a new musical adapted from the children's book Luna Loves Library Day, written by Waterstones Children's Laureate Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. The book will be adapted by Joseph Coelho alongside family musician and composer David Gibb. Also confirmed for the creative team are director Dermot Daley, and designer Nomi Everall.

The production will be co-produced by Little Seeds Music and Z-arts, and supported by Big Imaginations, Wonder Arts, The Story Museum, and Manchester City of Literature. It will open in October 2023 at Z-arts in Manchester, before heading out on a UK tour. It will then enter a second phase of touring in February 2024, starting with a week-long residency at The Story Museum in Oxford.

The book, which was published by Andersen Press in 2017, tells the story of Luna, who every week looks forward to one special day... Library Day! It's the day when she discovers magic among the library shelves, from dinosaurs to mummies, from unexplained mysteries to monsters and magic. But for Luna, Library Day is also the one day a week that she gets to spend with Dad, making it all the more special.

In this new adaptation for the stage, audiences will join Luna and her Dad for a musical adventure among the library shelves as they discover magic, mystery, laughter, sadness and, through the power of stories, even start to mend their own history.

Both the book and this new production celebrate the power of libraries as shared spaces to bring families together. To highlight this important theme, the production will be designed to be performed in library spaces as well as theatre venues. Confirmed tour dates include The Royal and Derngate, Half Moon Theatre, Norwich Playhouse, The Gulbenkian, The Lyric Hammersmith, Warwick Arts Centre, Farnham Maltings, and Newhampton Arts Centre. This is alongside a week-long residency at libraries across Manchester and a further week at Chesterfield Library.

Quote from Joseph Coelho:

"Luna Loves Library Day was mine and Fiona Lumbers' debut picture book so it is one very close to our hearts. I have long wanted to see it on stage and know that with Little Seeds Music and Z-arts at the helm, Luna is not only in very capable hands but also in incredibly talented hands. I cannot wait to share our new adaptation of Luna with families in theatres and, of course, libraries!"

David Gibb, Creative Director for Little Seeds Music says:

"I fell in love with this beautiful book when it was first published in 2017, and knew at once that it would make a wonderful musical for children and families. I'm so excited to now have the chance to make that vision a reality, and to create a show that will be performed in the very spaces that it will also celebrate and promote."

Zoe Pickering, Head of Programming for Z-arts says:

"We are so excited that Arts Council are supporting the adaptation of this beautiful book into a musical for children and families. Audiences are in for a real treat as much loved Joseph and David work their magic together to create something really very special."

About Joseph Coelho

Joseph Coelho is an award-winning performance poet, children's author, and playwright. The Luna Loves series illustrated by Fiona Lumbers (Andersen Press) has been a runaway best-seller and included a prestigious World Book Day £1 title in 2021, the latest in the series Luna Loves Christmas will be released in autumn 2023. Joseph's poetry collection for the youngest readers Blow a Kiss, Catch a Kiss, illustrated by Nicola Killen, is shortlisted for the CLiPPA poetry award in 2023. Creeping Beauty (Walker Books) is the last twisted classic in this funny and dark three-part series illustrated by Freya Hartas. Joseph's latest verse novel The Boy Lost in the Maze (Otter-Barry), illustrated by Kate Milner, is a brilliant 21st century quest and is out now. Joseph's Poetry Prompts (Wide Eyed), a compendium of his weekly series in association with the BookTrust, will publish in October 2023. Joseph has written plays for the Polka Theatre, Soho Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre. He tours his own dynamic poetry theatre for young people, and performs with the UK's top performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes. Joe has also been a guest poet on CBeebies' Rhyme Rocket.

About David Gibb

David Gibb is a theatre maker, composer, writer and musical director. As a performer and recording artist for families, he has gained a loyal fanbase of thousands of children and parents alike from across the UK. As a composer and songwriter his theatrical credits include Climb That Three Bears, Jingle's Magic Sleigh, WISH, Suddenly A Star (The Story Museum), Rolling Down The Road (Half Moon Theatre), and JACK! (The Met). David has been commissioned to write songs and run project by organisations including Andersen Press, Birmingham Hippodrome, Egmont, the Eden Project and countless museums, libraries, and schools. His first book for children, Too Many Bubbles, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2020. His next book, Two Wheels, will be published by Walker Book in 2023.

About Little Seeds Music

Little Seeds Music was established in 2015 with the mission to provide children and families with unforgettable, high quality musical experiences for all generations to enjoy and share together. Their work is supported and recognised by Arts Council England and they have created work in association with Half Moon Theatre, Z-arts, The Story Museum, and The Met, Bury. As well as producing theatrical touring work, they also coordinate engagement projects across the country with a focus on providing opportunities for young people to develop songwriting and composition skills. Their 2020 digital production 'Rolling Down The Road' was named by the Guardian as one of the best pieces of theatre to stream that year, and their work has toured extensively across the UK to venues including Sage Gateshead, HOME, Warwick Arts Centre, Nottingham Theatre Royal, and The Marlowe.

About Z-arts

Z-arts is the UK's only dedicated arts centre for children and families and is the cultural epicentre of the Hulme community in Manchester. Z-arts mission is to use creativity to inspire, enrich and enable generations of children, young people and their families in Manchester and beyond, to help maximise their potential. They do this by supporting children, young people, artists, educators, and family-togetherness in their Arts Centre in Hulme, in education, in communities, at home and across networks.

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