Nottingham Playhouse Launch Online Family Fest With Loo Roll Challenge

Nottingham Playhouse will be taking its famous Family Fest online this Easter half term, to keep children and parents entertained, despite coronavirus closing the theatre doors.

Kick-starting the festival is an online crafty challenge - perfect for anyone who has a surplus of cardboard toilet roll tubes. The video is challenging children to create the main characters from this year's upcoming pantomime, Beauty and the Beast.

Creations, when shared on social media, will be automatically entered into a competition to find the most dazzling toilet tube creation. An overall winner will be selected at the end of Easter half term, with the child being given the prize of a family ticket to a showing of Beauty and the Beast this Christmas. They will also be name-checked as part of that night's script.

As well as the Family Fest craft challenge, there will be interactive video sessions, including storytelling, creative writing workshops, circus skills, dance tutorials, and even bonnet making.

The most well-loved highlight of Family Fest - the baby and toddler disco - will also be going ahead on the platform Twitch during the second week of the Easter holidays. Further details to be shared on social media.

Martin Berry, Head of Participation at Nottingham Playhouse, said: "Family Fest is such a highlight of our participation programme here at Nottingham Playhouse, and when the pandemic struck we leapt into finding ways to allow families, communities and children to still get some of that Festival fun. Whilst we can't wait to welcome everyone back, in the meantime we are super proud of the creativity and fun that we can offer digitally. And it is all totally free - though we hope very much people will feel able to make a donation to our Curtain Up Fund."

This is just one way in which Nottingham Playhouse has tried to 'go digital' in order to keep supporting communities in the East Midlands. It has also released video tutorials for choir members, dancers and aspiring painters. People have also been encouraged to subscribe to its podcast, Nottingham Playcast.

Nottingham Playhouse has also launched a new Curtain Up fundraising appeal in a bid to open its doors once again.

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