Q&A Session With Merton's Own Master Of Children's Shows - David Wood OBE - Answers now back!

[LocalEditorMerton]

As a Patron of Wimbledon Bookfest (starting on 3rd October 2014), it seems entirely apt to celebrate with a special Q&A session with Merton's very own David Wood OBE.

David, in a career spanning nearly fifty years, is a playwright, children's author, actor, director, composer and magician. Variously described as "...undisputed master of children's shows" (Evening Standard) and "the most successful children's playwright of this century" (The Stage), he has had an acclaimed career which has seen him excite generations of children's interest and imagination across the world.

To give you an idea of the sheer magnitude of David's masterly and magical family theatrical reach, as we start to head towards Christmas, the undisputed "most popular children's dramatist there is" (BBC), will have shows running across the UK and indeed the world: from his adaptation of 'James and the Giant Peach' at Dundee Rep, 'Nutcracker Sweet' at the Blakehay Theatre (Weston-Super-Mare) to a South-East Asia and Australia tour of his recent (Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue) adaptation of 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea'.

As Kate Stanbury (reporter) commented, "David Wood takes a picture book adored by multiple generations and creates a play that not only lives up to the original story but creates a magical theatrical experience that everyone will enjoy even more."

We are very excited that David has agreed to answer Mumsnetters' questions relating to his work, creativity, magic (and even life in Merton), on our website. Please do post your questions to David on this 'talk thread' by Friday, 26th September. We hope to put up his answers by the following Friday (3rd October 2014).

Hi David

If you had to 'sell' Merton as a great family-oriented place to live, how would you describe it in one paragraph?

Thanks.

I'm interested in how you started your career path. How did you start out and how did you imagine your life panning out? Hopefully you are pleased to be where you are now?

David, it is clearly vitally important in all your work that you are very much in touch with how children think and what will entertain and enthral them. How do you maintain this connection? Is it through your own inner child or perhaps through children you are close to?

As we love the written book it is such a wonderful skill to bring to light, visually, what has been read and everyone like your visually view. Do you see pictures of ideas of how you want a book to be portrayed on stage and was this a skill you had as a child when you read?

what do you find most satisfying about Children's show?

Hi David

What has been the most challenging children's book you've adapted for theatre and why?

And if it's not too greedy to ask another question, what children's book(s) would you still like to adapt for theatre or film?

I have two young kids and I am constantly trying to read first what books they will read. As I have seen some authors like to have rather sombre endings to their books, saying this will prepare kids for a real life. I do not like this idea and try to avoid these type of stories for kids. What do you think childrens' books should be like? And shall we avoid the sad end books or not?

Thanks.

Hi David

Absolutely love 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' but have always been mystified as to whether it's magical realism, allegorical or shouldn't be interpreted at all! What's your take on the story, given that you have adapted it so successfully for the stage?

Thanks.

Thank you for stopping by.

Do you think creativity & drama are given enough attention on the curriculum? My DD loves the theatre & is captivated - but I just don't think it's seen as important enough by her primary school.

OK - I'm going to be really greedy and ask a number of questions!!

Here goes...

You are a prolific writer and I wondered how you structure your days in order to get things done? Do you focus on one thing at a time or will you have multiple projects/creations going on at the same time?

Do you work differently based on whether you are writing your own play compared to when you are adapting the works of others for the theatre?

When your children were younger, did you write stories just for them (whether they were eventually published or not)? And did they think they were good!?

Do you have a preference for writing books, plays, adapting books, or acting? If so, why?

And finally...

What was your first reaction when you were informed of your OBE?

Thank you!

Hi David,

You have adapted and dramatised the work of some incredibly famous writers. Who is on your wish list? And are there any new authors among them that have caught your eye?

Another few greedy questions -

If I was to start a book collection off for a godchild, what would be your top ten recommendations?

Have you become involved in the campaign to rid books (and toys) of gender bias in their display in stores and in the way they are marketed and designed? Is this something that you feel strongly about?

Hi David,
Am a huge fan of your work and wondered which book you've adapted has been the most challenging to translate to the stage and why?

Also can I have another cheeky one, what are you reading right now?
Thank you and keep up the good work.

I'm interested in whether you have had to make changes to how you produce children's theatre as the volume and sophistication of children's TV and film has grown so much since you began your career. Is it hard to compete with mega-budget Disney movies like Frozen? Do children expect more spectacle in the age of CGI and special effects?

Thank you for coming! Do you think that UK children's theatre is in a good place now? How has it changed since you started writing in the 1960s and what would be your 'big ask' for taking it forward over the next fifty years?

Hi, an interesting array of questions! They've now been sent to David and we hope to have his answers posted by the beginning of October!

Hi Mumsnetters

David Wood has very kindly and fully answered your questions which you'll find listed below.

Enjoy!

Q.Willemdefoeismine
Hi David
If you had to 'sell' Merton as a great family-oriented place to live, how would you describe it in one paragraph?
Thanks.

A. David Wood
Having lived in Merton for more than 40 years, and having brought up two daughters here, my wife and I agree that we have been incredibly lucky to find ourselves in such a family-friendly borough. Good schools, opportunities for every out-of-school activity from sport to music lessons, easy access to London galleries, museums, and historic buildings. The wonderful Wimbledon Common – like living in the country, who would realise we were so close to the capital? Libraries, book shops, the children’s events at the Bookfest. And two absolute jewels – New Wimbledon Theatre and Polka Theatre – the best of the tiny number of dedicated children’s theatres in the UK. And a friendly, successful branch of Mumsnet too!

Q. TortorSW17
I'm interested in how you started your career path. How did you start out and how did you imagine your life panning out? Hopefully you are pleased to be where you are now?

A. David Wood
From a ridiculously young age I knew I wanted to be an entertainer of some kind. I probably enjoyed showing off! By the age of ten I was doing puppet shows in the back garden. A couple of years later I was doing cabaret with a dance band (singing songs and doing magic tricks), and by then I had started doing magic at children’s parties. These early experiences, plus amateur drama and lots of performing and writing while at Oxford, developed into what I laughingly call my career! I have been very fortunate to develop my early interests – acting, writing, composing music, theatre directing and producing, plus storytelling and being a magician – these activities have given me an enviably varied life. Writing children’s books and plays has probably given me the most pleasure, although the performer in me is determined not to disappear completely! I still work in schools and theatres, strutting my own stuff! I’m extremely happy to be, in many different senses of the phrase, a ‘children’s entertainer’.

Q. District13Tribute
David, it is clearly vitally important in all your work that you are very much in touch with how children think and what will entertain and enthral them. How do you maintain this connection? Is it through your own inner child or perhaps through children you are close to?

A. David Wood
To be honest, I have never been particularly ‘good’ with individual children. I am not an avuncular person, really! But give me several hundred of them in a theatre and I know what I’m doing! I see the entertainment of children as a big challenge. It certainly isn’t easy, but it is extremely rewarding when you get it right. Nothing gives me a bigger buzz than performing for children or watching them reacting favourably to one of my plays. I would like to think that I have an instinct or ‘antenna’ that tells me what will ‘work’ for children. But when I go into schools, I enjoy discovering what the children are currently enthusiastic about. But I don’t ‘use’ children as research instruments! My own daughters were very supportive of my work, but I never tried things out on them!

Q. Giflo
As we love the written book it is such a wonderful skill to bring to light, visually, what has been read and everyone like your visually view. Do you see pictures of ideas of how you want a book to be portrayed on stage and was this a skill you had as a child when you read?

A. David Wood
I think all of us have pictures in our head when we read a book. Possibly the more vivid and appealing the story, the more vivid and clear the pictures in our head. Certainly, when I am writing a story or a play, I visualise scenes and characters. But I am by no means an illustrator or a designer, and I am always filled with admiration with the way my collaborators are often able to ‘see’ everything like me – but better! Richard Fowler, who illustrates many of my books, and Susie Caulcutt, who designs most of my plays both have a brilliantly sensitive way of understanding what I am seeing! The results are, for me, always exciting. I’d love to be able to draw and design, but I’m hopeless at it!

Q. Twistedblister
What do you find most satisfying about Children's shows?

A. David Wood
An audience of children, particularly a school party audience, is a volatile beast! Many of the children are first-time theatregoers. Some have not chosen to come. All are unlikely to sit quietly and clap at the end, which is what most adult audiences do even if they haven’t enjoyed it. Now, after so many years working for children, I find adult audiences rather boring! With children you can tell very quickly when something isn’t working or when their attention has not been grabbed. They will talk, fidget, kick the seat in front of them and decide they want to go to the loo! Very often this is simply a pretext to leave this darkened room where boring things are happening at one end …

So the most satisfying thing of all, for me, when I have created a piece of children’s theatre, is to witness the audience sitting spellbound, enjoying the story, wanting to know what happens next, laughing, perhaps crying when appropriate, joining in if asked, but, most of all just listening. Then I know I have won! That’s the reward. Very often, of course, things need adjusting. The audience becomes a new character in the drama. They arrive at the first performance and the actors experience the play very differently from in the rehearsal room. I often say that a children’s audience is the most difficult audience of all, but the most rewarding if we get it right …

Q. HaydonWomble
What has been the most challenging children's book you've adapted for theatre and why?

A. David Wood
Two of my Roald Dahl adaptations probably share this distinction! THE BFG was tricky, because of the scale. I had no wish to disappoint children who might come knowing and loving the book. But it was obviously impossible to put on stage a 22 feet tall giant alongside a little girl. I had to find a theatrical concept that was logical, but also satisfying and not disappointing. The solution eventually came to me in a flash while having breakfast in a Bristol hotel! It involved puppetry. In the scenes where the giants appear, they are played human-sized, but Sophie, the little girl, is played by a small puppet. But then when the action moves to Buckingham Palace, the scale changes. All the human beings are played by human-sized actors, and the giant, the BFG, is played by a very large puppet – in our case 14 feet tall! The device seemed to work. We never had children complaining!

THE WITCHES presented a whole range of problems! Boys had to be turned into mice. Witches had to be made to disappear. A mouse had to walk a tightrope. A witch had to be ‘frizzled’, or do I mean ‘frazzled’? Not sure, but she had to appear to be burnt alive … I decided that the art of conjuring was needed. Although I am myself a member of The Magic Circle, I didn’t have the skill or knowledge to create the necessary illusions myself, so approached Paul Kieve, who had the previous year done remarkable things in a production of THE INVISIBLE MAN. Paul created some brilliant illusions, which caused the audience to gasp and applaud and wonder!

Q. HaydonWomble
And if it's not too greedy to ask another question, what children's book(s) would you still like to adapt for theatre or film?

A. David Wood
I am currently working on three projects, all of which I have wanted to do, and now have the chance … For young children, I am working on DINOSAUR ROAR! based on the very popular picture book. For older children I am adapting Michelle Magorian’s BACK HOME, a moving story about an English girl who is evacuated to America during the Second World War and returns unrecognisable! Twenty five years ago I adapted this book for television. It starred Hayley Mills as the girl’s mother. Now, following our Olivier award success with my adaptation of Michelle’s other book, GOODNIGHT MISTER TOM, Chichester Festival Theatre have invited me to put BACK HOME on the stage.

Finally, SPILLED WATER, by Sally Grindley, is a gripping novel set in China. I am working on the screenplay of a film version.

Q. JonquilleTW
I have two young kids and I am constantly trying to read first what books they will read. As I have seen some authors like to have rather sombre endings to their books, saying this will prepare kids for a real life. I do not like this idea and try to avoid these type of stories for kids. What do you think childrens' books should be like? And shall we avoid the sad end books or not?
Thanks.

A. David Wood
It depends on the age of your children, but I don’t think you should hide them from the realities of life too long! Many fairy tales, like RED RIDING HOOD, explore fairly dark themes. But, when told or read to children in a secure environment, by a loved adult, such stories can, I think, prepare children for a world where endings are not always happy!

But I do think that young children need imaginative stories with satisfying, happy endings. It is interesting to list the ingredients of the most popular picture books for young children. Animals, food, magic and a child protagonist (human or animal) seem to top the list. And, even for very young children, sometimes the characters can be a little scary – The Gruffalo, for instance. But children do rather enjoy the frisson of being a bit scared. And, of course they love it if the ‘baddie’ is thwarted and gets his or her comeuppance! You ask what I think children’s books should be like. For young children I would say they need to be full of imagination, fun characters, humour and, above all, have a strong storyline. We must never forget that children love stories. In fact we all do!

Q. LocalEditorMerton
Absolutely love 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' but have always been mystified as to whether it's magical realism, allegorical or shouldn't be interpreted at all! What's your take on the story, given that you have adapted it so successfully for the stage?

A. David Wood
Doing the adaptation of TIGER has given me the joyful privilege of getting to know Judith Kerr, the book’s remarkable author and illustrator. She is adamant that there is no allegory or hidden meaning to be found in the story, in spite of the fact that many critics and commentators have tried to suggest this. Judith says that she and her daughter used to spend a lot of time at home, in the days before her daughter went to school. Life seemed a little mundane, perhaps. Judith starting telling her daughter stories, one of which reflected their life and explored the idea of what might happen if somebody or something exciting rang the doorbell and asked to visit. Judith’s daughter, who enjoyed going to the zoo, particularly liked tigers. So THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA developed …. Judith told the story at bedtime on many, many occasions, until her daughter corrected her if she changed a phrase or word! She wrote it down and the rest is history! I honestly think the creation of the story was as uncomplicated as that. As to its longevity and continual popularity, it is interesting to note that Judith’s story includes every ingredient for good children’s stories listed in my earlier answer! A child protagonist, an animal, food and a generous touch of magic!

Q. DyeInTheEar
Thank you for stopping by.
Do you think creativity & drama are given enough attention on the curriculum? My DD loves the theatre & is captivated - but I just don't think it's seen as important enough by her primary school.

A. David Wood
Sadly, I think you are right. Although I can’t comment on the primary school you mention, I think it is true that the majority of primary schools work tirelessly towards the children passing their wretched tests! This means that creativity and the triggering of the imagination through art, music, drama, dance and poetry is often put on the back burner. An infant school deputy head once told me, ‘We don’t have time for fun anymore’. This seemed a very sad statement. I believe education should involve giving children the chance to try out all sorts of things on a ‘suck it and see’ basis. This can, of course, involve all sorts of spheres – sport, learning an instrument, drama classes, visits to the Natural History Museum or the Tate Gallery, etc. etc. Education should help children find things they are interested in and things they enjoy doing and things they are good at and might want to develop into a future career. I am a great believer in the ideas of Sir Ken Robinson, the education specialist, some of whose talks and lectures can be found on the internet, including a TED talk. He has come up with government reports into education, but they have never been properly acted upon. He should be in charge of education in this country! Meanwhile, perhaps you could encourage the teachers at your school to take the children to the theatre from time to time!