Ga Ga Theatre

Ga Ga, a children's theatre company has been launched in order to tour work featuring animated projections to cinemas across London. The first show for Ga Ga Theatre Company will consequently combine live performance with moving images at six Picturehouse cinemas in the capital this autumn in Hackney, Notting Hill, Clapham, Greenwich, Stratford East and Brixton. Ga Ga Theatre is run by both Rachael Richards and Katie Russell, in the aim to encourage families to attend children’s theatre more regularly rather than just on special occasions. The company emerged from the observation that many areas don’t have a theatre that puts on children’s work, whereas Picturehouse cinemas are so core to each community. The shortage of theatres staging work for children meant that Ga Ga Theatre was born as a potentially regular feature. The production from Ga Ga Theatre Company will include a set and a cast of two actors in touring to the venues, for which all the cinemas have a stage within the auditorium. The show has been adapted from Oliver Jeffers’ children’s book Up and Down by Matt Aston who has also directed the production. Up and Down will have projections by Will Simpson, who worked on the Nottingham Playhouse’s production of The Kite Runner. It will feature music composed by Julian Butler and set design by Barney George. In recent years it as been more common to see cinemas used to stage live shows. In 2012, Leicester Square’s Empire Cinema reintroduced live entertainment for the first time in more than 50 years with children’s musical the Go! Go! Go! Show, and in 2008 Kneehigh Theatre produced a stage version of Brief Encounter at the Cinema on the Haymarket in the West End, merging theatre and cinema in the heart of Theatreland. Up and Down runs from October 11 to November 3, starting at Hackney Picturehouse.