Behind the Scenes: The Magic of Saturday’s Kids

Have you ever wondered what it takes to put on a theatrical production? Saturday's Kids is a unique style of theatre that is perfect for young children and first-time theatre patrons. Our goal with Saturday's Kids is to encourage young audiences to explore, to create, and to imagine. Rather than relying on large, elaborate set pieces or expensive costumes, we show the audience that you can use items from around your home to create props and costumes. We utilize our "theatre trunk," an old wardrobe trunk that we use to hold all of our props and costume pieces we have collected over the last year. Our props can be every-day items such as using a paper towel tube as a telescope, or a pasta spoon as a hair brush. Many of our set pieces are created by hand, taking cardboard pieces and repurposing them into a royal castle or a magic mirror on the wall. 

Here’s some of the steps we use on producing a show like the Saturday’s Kids children’s theatre program. The first step is finding a script. For Saturday’s Kids, we start with original adaptations of storybooks or folklore and shape them for our program. Next, the Director and Assistant Director will go through the script and make notations of all the props and costumes necessary for the production. Together, they determine what pieces will need to be purchased, what can be made, or what pieces can be found in their existing collection. From there, the Director will make notes of the other technical elements needed for the production: lighting cues, sound effects, and music underscoring. All of these aspects of a show help bring the stories to life for the audience.

There will always be lavish productions like Disney's The Lion King or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that have floor-to-ceiling set pieces and intricate costume pieces that help transport audiences to another world. However, that may make theatre seem unattainable to young patrons. The beauty of theatre as an art form is that anyone can participate, that "all the world's a stage." Stages can be a large venue like the Pantages down in Hollywood, or it could be a small, intimate space like The MAIN in Old Town Newhall. You can have a stage indoors or outdoors; you can have a stage in a storefront or in a cafe. The possibilities of where to put on a production are limitless. All it takes is a little imagination and some creativity to put on a show.