Curio Theatre's Interactive HANSEL & GRETEL Opens This December
Performances run December 17 - 31, 2025.
By: Stephi Wild Nov. 07, 2025
This holiday season, Curio Theatre Company will invite families to step into the story with HANSEL & GRETEL, a brand new Make & Partake Theatre Experience written by Paul Kuhn and directed by Mya Flood. Following the success of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs, Curio continues its joyful, hands-on approach to storytelling that lets young audiences help create the magic live on stage.
In HANSEL & GRETEL, children don't just watch the fairy tale unfold - they help make it happen. Before the performance begins, kids enter Curio's imaginative “laboratory,” where they record sound effects, build props and costume pieces, create shadow puppets, and draw animated sand art that becomes part of the show itself.
Once inside the theatre, their creations come to life:
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The recorded sounds are triggered live at key moments in the story! For example, children get to press the big “howl” button when cued by actors with the line “and then the wolf howled!”
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The sand table transforms into a magical projection screen, with children changing the scenery in real time.
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Participants can even control the weather, pulling ropes to raise the sun or moon, sprinkling snow, splashing rain, and blowing bubbles on cue.
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They can join in on live music-making with the performers.
This experience is a one-of-a-kind, joyfully chaotic, deeply collaborative experience that blurs the line between audience and artist.
“As the director, I'm thrilled about this production because immersive theater experiences, like our Hansel and Gretel, create something truly special,” says director Mya Flood. “They break down the fourth wall and invite young people and parents to step inside the story together. There's something magical about shared play and discovery that traditional theater can't quite capture.
What excites me most is knowing we're creating the perfect environment for budding theater kids to fall in love with performance in a hands-on way. And it's not just about acting – this kind of production opens up so many creative possibilities. For the aspiring sound designer, seeing how audio transforms a space, builds tension in the witch's cottage, or creates the atmosphere of the enchanted forest... that's where the seeds of a future career get planted.
I'm particularly excited about the shadow work we're incorporating into this production. We're using shadow effects to create the backgrounds and visual storytelling – the depth of the forest, the ominous presence of danger, the dreamlike quality of a fairy tale world. Shadow theater adds this haunting, timeless quality that's perfect for Hansel and Gretel, and it allows us to shift between locations and moods seamlessly. For young audiences, watching how light and silhouette can conjure entire worlds is mesmerizing, and it shows them that theatrical magic doesn't always require elaborate sets – sometimes the most powerful effects come from the simplest elements.”
Philadelphia Awards - Live Stats
Best Musical - Top 3
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CATS (Shawnee Playhouse)
17.3% of votes
2.
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6.1% of votes
3.
NEWSIES (Viviana Theatre)
3.9% of votes
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