Ellie Bell

The Campy Cabaret and Tony Patryn present a night of Beatles music from the movie Across the Universe. In this almost two hour showcase, a jam-packed cast of stage and screen veterans will be singing such hits as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' 'If I Fell,' 'Hey Jude,' 'Let it Be,' and more!

A 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open-and-shut case-until one of the jurors begins opening the others' eyes to the facts. 'This is a remarkable thing about democracy,' says the foreign-born juror, 'that we are notified by mail to come down to this place-and decide on the guilt or innocence of a person; of a man or woman we have not known before. We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict. We should not make it a personal thing.' But personal it is, with each juror revealing his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted and a new murder threat is born before their eyes! Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become 12 angry women.

A 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open-and-shut case-until one of the jurors begins opening the others' eyes to the facts. 'This is a remarkable thing about democracy,' says the foreign-born juror, 'that we are notified by mail to come down to this place-and decide on the guilt or innocence of a person; of a man or woman we have not known before. We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict. We should not make it a personal thing.' But personal it is, with each juror revealing his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted and a new murder threat is born before their eyes! Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become 12 angry women.

We first came across Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's now much-loved book The Gruffalo in 1999, the year it was published. My co-artistic director Toby was working as an editor for Macmillan Children's Books (the Gruffalo publishers), and we thought it was a brilliant story that might work well on stage for children aged 3+ and their grown-ups.

KidsFest 2016 in Manila, which features the acclaimed stage adaptation of THE GRUFFALO, based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's beloved picture book, plays Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, in Makati City from tomorrow, January 27, to Sunday, January 31. Tickets can be purchased at TicketWorld.com.ph.

A tiny mouse and a giant Gruffalo with 'knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose' will take New York by storm when London's Tall Stories (The Snail and the Whale, New Vic 2014) brings its adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's beloved award-winning picture book The Gruffalo out of the deep dark wood and into the big city. Created for ages four through seven, The Gruffalo runs at The New Victory Theater, New York City's premier performing arts venue for kids and families, from October 17-25, 2015.