James and the Giant Peach at Stirling Community Theatre

James and the Giant Peach at Stirling Community Theatre

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Posted 2016-06-07 by Nathaniel Masonfollow

Fri 24 Jun 2016 - Sun 03 Jul 2016

Imagination takes to the Hills Youth Theatre stage in Stirling this winter with enormous fun, huge laughs, great puppets, epic magic and one giant peach. Just up the freeway, the Hills Youth Theatre presents the second show of their 30th year, James and the Giant Peach.

An adaptation of a Roald Dahl classic, James and the Giant Peach follows the story of an orphan, James, who is sent to live with his horribly awful Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker after his parents are killed in a terrible accident involving a rhino. One day, a curious little man appears, thrusting a faintly glowing bag at James and promising that his magic bag of "little green things" will free James from life with his terrible, cruel aunts. But when James drops the bag and the magic is sucked into the ground around an old peach tree, the most incredible thing happens. Greedy Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker selfishly seek riches from the resulting turn of events but James knows something else, something stranger than ever is about to happen. With his newfound family of Old Green Grasshopper, Miss Spider, Ladybird, Earthworm and Centipede in his enormous juicy dwelling, James embarks on a thrilling, surreal adventure.


Speaking in 1988, Roald Dahl spoke to interviewer Todd McCormack about how he came to write about a Giant Peach, saying that the idea came about when he noticed apples growing and thought, "why should it stop growing at a certain size?". Working on 'quite a nice little idea', he went on to recount which fruit would be appropriate for a story "Apple, pear, plum, peach. Peaches are pretty, big, squishy. You can go into it…" and so the story grew. It seems even more appropriate from Dahl's idea sparking something bigger, that the story taken to the stage with an even bigger adaptation, is something you can really sink your teeth, and imagination, into.

James and the Giant peach was selected in a nod to the production that set the seed for the Hills Youth Theatre (HYT). In 1985, Stirling Community Theatre stalwart Tom Dyster wrote and produced a play in which children were cast for the Stirling Players: The Terribly Noisy Giant. The success of this production generated many requests from children and parents for a place for young people to learn about theatre and from this HYT was born. 2016 also marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl and 30 years since the first performance by the Hills Youth Theatre, making it a very fitting coming together of two significant milestones and celebrations in storytelling.



For those who haven't had the pleasure of being entertained by The Hills Youth Theatre before, HYT it is a community based non-profit organisation which provides quality drama education and performance opportunities to students aged from 5 to 25, in the Stirling and surrounding hills areas. The aim of classes is to provide a fun approach to dramatic art through practical experience, that is, drama games and other drama skills. Many former students would be able to fondly reminisce of their time at HYT and attest to the skills, value and experience learnt through drama tuition and performance.

Performances will be held at Stirling Community Theatre, 7 Avenue Road, Stirling on:

Friday, 24 June at 7.00pm
Saturday, 25 June at 5.00pm
Sunday, 26 June at 2.00pm

Friday, 1 July at 7.00pm
Saturday, 2 July at 5.00pm
Sunday, 3 July at 2.00pm

To see current show details or to purchase tickets please visit: http://hillsyouththeatre.com/current-show.
Prices are: adults $15, child/concession $12, family $48 (2 adults, 2 children).

Kids are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite story book character for a walk on stage!

#adelaide_hills
#community_theatre
#family
#stirling
#theatre
#theatres
#things_to_see
#june
!date 24/06/2016 -- 03/07/2016
%wnadelaide
206519 - 2023-06-16 05:50:50

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