Guest Blog: HEY DUGGEE LIVE Writer and Musical Supervisor Vikki Stone on Why Children's Theatre is a Serious Business

I didn't set out to make a career in children's theatre, but I'm very glad that (mainly through chance) many of my shows are aimed at family audiences. From my experience, I think there's a snobbery within the theatre community that these shows are not as important, or worthy as their adult aimed counterparts. But in my opinion, these shows are really important, because very often they are someone first theatre experience, and with that comes the opportunity to make new people fall in love with theatre.

This is true of Hey Duggee Live, a show for all the family that is aimed mostly at 1-5 year olds. It's a title that very much sits in the family co-viewing space. Myself and co-adaptor Matthew Xia wanted to make a show that made the adults as excited as the kids.

Hey Duggee is a well loved kids TV programme that adults already enjoy watching alongside children, so the very first thing myself and Matthew did was sit down in a room with a massive whiteboard and write down all the things that audiences would expect to see in the show. We had 150+ episodes to choose from in creating the show, but Hey Duggee is a bit like a band, in that there are a number of stand-out hit episodes and songs. There's one song in particular that I think would have caused toddler riots if we didn't include in the show.

So yes, we wanted to give the audience what they want, but we also wanted to surprise them, and deliver a real world experience that lifts the 2D cartoon into a 3D theatre world, and knowing that it would be among the first theatre experiences for our audience, it was a must to make it magical and memorable too. We kept that list of audience expectations in our minds throughout the whole process and I think it paid off.

We didn't hold back on the spectacle or technical detail within the work because it was a "kids show". That's something that the whole team are incredibly proud of, because it would be easy to just phone it in, and think that these details don't matter because of the age of the audience. But to me, these details are what make children's theatre really ping. For instance, there's a lot of genuinely banging tunes in the show, that have a nod to rave culture, and the show's sound system was chosen in line with those needs. There's something that I could single out in every department (but won't because of spoilers!), but all the creatives, cast and crew brought their A-game to the table.

It's these details that makes Hey Duggee Live really 'pop', and both adults and children bounce in their seats with joy throughout the whole show. That's also what's cool about this show: you're not expected to have to sit nicely in your seat for an hour. Many parents worry about how their little ones will behave through a show, and Hey Duggee Live is noisy and fun, and no-one need worry about behaving themselves. A toddler mosh pit often formed at the front of the Southbank Centre during it's run there, and my word I'm proud of that.

We're nominated in the "Best Family Show" category at the 2023 Olivier awards, and are grateful that such a respected industry body recognises the importance of theatre aimed at young audiences and families.

Hey Duggee Live is currently touring around the UK.

The show is nominated in the "Best Family Show" category at the 2023 Olivier Awards which is on 2 April

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