Curtain How to join

Curtain

One play a year, and nobody auditions for it

Saturdays, ten till twelve, in the church hall. Ages seven to fourteen, thirty-two places, and everybody who turns up is in the play.

What a year looks like
Children in costume waiting to go on. Two children working at a table together.
Children lying on a rug, talking.

Nobody is cast out

The play is rewritten every October so that there are as many parts as there are children in the room.

Meant to be rough

Cardboard set, two lamps, somebody always forgets a line. A slick children's play is a play the adults made.

Three children standing in a doorway.

Two hours, one morning

Ten till twelve, thirty-four Saturdays a year. Drop them at the door and come back at twelve.

Four grown-ups

Two who direct, one who makes things, one who does nothing but stand by the door and count. All four checked.

Two children running across a field.

Four pounds a Saturday

Paid a term at a time, and waived quietly for anybody who asks. Nobody is told who asked.

The play is in June

Two performances on one Saturday, chairs turned round. Tickets are three pounds and buy next year's cardboard.

Children playing outdoors in long grass.

The first Saturday is free and you do not have to decide anything

Turn up at ten, stay for two hours, go home. If it was not for them, nobody will ring you and nothing has been signed.

What happens in the first hour

A year, four terms

September — October

Games, mostly

Six weeks of nothing that looks like acting. By the end everybody knows everybody's name, which is the only thing that matters this early.

November — December

The play is written

Around the children who are actually in the room. They choose the story and one of the directors writes it over Christmas.

January — April

Rehearsing, slowly

Scene by scene, out of order, with plenty of Saturdays where a third of the room is making things instead.

May — June

The two performances

One Saturday, two o'clock and six o'clock, then a fortnight off before it all starts again.

A child outdoors against a bright sky.
A boy sitting on a table, laughing. A heap of plastic building bricks.

Before you sign up

Places
Thirty-two, with a waiting list from about October. It moves, because Saturdays change for families more than anything else does.
Ages
Seven to fourteen in one room together, which is unusual and is the reason it works. The older ones end up running half of it.
The week of the play
Two extra evenings and a long Saturday. That week is not optional and it is on the calendar in September, so nobody is surprised in June.
Staying to watch
Please do not. There is a café four doors down, and everybody is better at this without an audience of parents.