'In For We The Young, a collection of plays by one of Australia’s most beloved writers of theatre for young people, Finegan Kruckemeyer offers a glimpse into worlds of quiet sorrow and deep joy, daring feats and ingenious leaps. His quirky humour and surprising stories release the imagination and let it run wild, trailing images and words behind like so many footprints in the snow.
'In My Robot, pieces of junk and pieces of people form the cure to a young inventor’s homesickness. In Love, a big-hearted boy tries to save the most precious things in his town from a huge storm. In The Snow, a ‘tiny child’ tackles mean birds and deep darkness to find a way through the mountain of snow that has cut off his village. In This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, three sisters traverse the globe to find their true selves. And in the dystopian world of Where Words Once Were, our hero learns the damage words can do, along with their power to heal.'
(Source: publisher's blurb)
'When Ophelia moves with her family to the seaside, she’s not impressed. She doesn’t like the beach, misses her old home and thinks the people in this town are pretty strange. While unpacking her room she discovers a mysterious box full of gadgets, parts and pieces, and a strange note that reads ‘You. Make. Me.’ Her curiosity gets the better of her and she spends all night assembling the objects into Olivetti, a robot with a typewriter chest and an alarm clock heart. Made up of pieces, but more than the sum of her parts.
'Together Ophelia and Olivetti take on the local bully and make friends with a child so worried about allergies that he never leaves the house, all while trying to keep her dad from discovering that Olivetti is really a robot. But a bigger challenge is coming – can the pair save their friend and reunite him with his mother?
'My Robot takes audiences of all ages on a rambunctious adventure filled with robot antics, laughter, daring rescues and bewildered parents, all told with the care and artistry synonymous with Barking Gecko’s award winning shows. Children will discover that we’re all just made from pieces, and that when we feel less than whole we can find – or make – a part that fits!'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'When an epic snowfall imprisons the residents of the tiny village of Kishka, young Theodore Sutton proposes the villagers build a catapult to fling him and six of the village’s bravest and strongest out in search of a solution. The catapult hastily assembled, Theodore and the heroes are launched over the snow and into the grandest of adventures. Whimsical and humorous, dark and mysterious, heartfelt and sincere, this play weaves a fantastical Grimmsian tale for the entire family.'
Source: Author's website (http://finegankruckemeyer.com/works/young/the-snow/). (Sighted: 26/06/2017)
'Young Orhan lives in a world where words are both very precious and very dangerous. Only 1,000 of them can exist: new ones are forbidden, and anything newly invented takes the place of an existing word, which is then illegal to say. Those who disobey the rules are punished in the strongest way possible. They lose their right to speak and to be spoken of; they become only "…" – a condition that causes them to slowly fade away. When Orhan accidentally takes a pen (a mighty weapon indeed!) from school, he sets in motion an adventure to reclaim lost words.'
Source: Kennedy Center (http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/event/KRTBA).
