Happy World Theatre for Children & Young People Day

March 20th marks the annual celebration of Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). We are bringing you the following article from the Huffington Post because it so beautifully expresses why we, at the Calgary International Children’s Festival, love what we do. Please enjoy. 

How Theatre for Young people could Save the world

by Lauren Gunderson

“Best Festival” for the 15th Year

We were thrilled to receive the “Parent’s Choice: Best Festival” award from the readers of Calgary’s Child Magazine this week. This was our 15th year as winners, because you guys voted us as the Best Festival in town! A great big thank you goes out to all of our supporters for your votes and continued encouragement. 

Simple Fun: JUGGLING with Terry Rock

Reading Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups. “Words to Learn”: Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the blog post). We include words from the video too!

Kids, have you ever wanted to learn how to JUGGLE?

Well, you are in luck! This week in Simple Fun, our Guest Star, Terry Rock, shares how to make juggling balls, teaches how to juggle, and even has a great trick for you at the end. After watching the video you might think that he’s a professional juggler, but, no, he insists that he is not. What he actually does for work IS juggling–but he doesn’t juggle balls, he juggles…

Simple Fun: WRITING! with Mike Morrison

KIDS, Mike loves…wait, make that, LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVEEEESSS TO WRITE. He started writing years ago just as a hobby, trying to let his friends and family keep up to date with what he was doing in his new hometown of Calgary. But as he kept doing it, it exploded! Now he works as an entertainment writer and a producer for CityTV’s Breakfast Television. So, if you like TV, movies, concerts, theatre, or entertainment of any kind, you have to read what Mike writes on his blog. 

Simple Fun: BATON TWIRLING with Carolyn (Day) Luhning

Reading Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups. “Words to Learn”: Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are listed in alphabetical order at the bottom of the blog post). We include words from the video too!

Kids, have you ever watched sports on TV like hockey or soccer or gymnastics? You probably saw a lot of sports two years ago when the city of Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics. The Olympics are special because they bring together the best athletes in the world to compete. Other big competitions do the same; they are often called “world championships”. Have you ever gotten to learn something from a world champion? If you’ve watched this week’s Simple Fun Video, you have!

This week’s Star used to compete in a sport called Baton Twirling and was so good that she became the World Champion. And that makes all of us really lucky because in this Simple Fun Video she is sharing how to do the moves that started her on her way to the top. Please meet, World Champion Baton Twirler, Carolyn (Day) Luhning.

Simple Fun: BALLOONS & SCIENCE with Ryan Pilling

This week’s Simple Fun Special Guest Star, Ryan Pilling, has an incredible appetite for learning fun and quirky facts about anything and everything in the world. So much so that he has a blog that every kid and grown-up neeeeeeeeeds to check out. It’s called, “Learn Something New Every Day“; and that’s what Ryan does: he teaches something wacky and wild and new every day. Have you ever heard of the South American Frog that grows backwards? Yeah, it starts off bigger than when it finishes! Kids, that means you would shrink into being Grown-ups!

Randy, you will be missed.

It’s a sad day at the Children’s Festival Office. Our hearts go out to our friend, Allison Moore, and her family. This morning her wonderful brother, Randy, passed away.