29 September 2016

By Rachael Lundy

Greg Cooper (pictured above) is an actor, improviser, and tour de force in the field of children’s theatre writing. Somehow, between touring the country by night and writing his brand new play for Australia/New Zealand Playhouse, “Puss in Boots: Pet Detective”, by day, I managed to sit down with him and chat about the joy of writing plays for kids.

Rachael: Tell me about how you first become involved in theatre, and what drew you to script writing in particular?

Greg: I learnt speech and drama from quite a young age, and really enjoyed performing throughout my school life, particularly the improv stuff I did at High School. After that I was asked to join the Court Jesters [Christchurch’s Court Theatre Improv Group], they had only been going for a few years by that time, but they asked me to join, so I started working at the theatre. The Court wanted to start doing children's shows for the school holidays, so they got a couple of us to put together a show.

Rachael: Did you write that one?

Greg: No, not that first one, but I think by the second or third one they asked if anyone would like to write the script and I said, “Oh, I’ll give it a crack”. I’d never written a script before. That first one was called “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Playhouse produced it again a few years back...I just kept going from there, basically.

Rachael: How long ago did you join the court?

Greg: Crikey! I think I had just left high school, so this will give my age away, but about 23 years.

Rachael: You have been with Playhouse since its inception back in 2009. Are you surprised by how much the group has grown since that first tour?

Greg:  I am and I’m not, I mean, knowing Mikey [Michael Bell, Company Director of Playhouse], he’s never one to go “I’m just happy with that”. He’s always looking to go bigger and better and bolder and further. The first tour, well, compared to what they are now, it was tiny! Every year there’s a bigger tour. I acted in that first Australian one for “The Big Sad Wolf” (2013) and that was only 6 weeks, now they’re 9-10 month tours, so it’s quite incredible how the company has grown.  In 2017, we're touring another of my plays, Puss in Boots: Pet Detective for Primary Students, also hopefully for a long time!

Rachael: You have written plays produced by Playhouse for almost 8 years, as well as countless other scripts for The Court Theatre, Anthony Harper Summer Theatre, and tons more. What is your favourite part of writing children’s theatre?

Greg: I love that children are so honest...people say, “Oh, it’s just children’s theatre” but I totally disagree with that sentiment. You can’t write down to them, they are very intelligent and they know when they are being patronised. You’ve got to engage them at almost an adult level. You’ve got to tell a good story but you also have to provide opportunities for them to contribute to the story. The joy of live theatre, and the thing that separates it from every other medium, is that the children can yell out and tell the actors things; you know, the classic panto “it’s behind you!” thing. That’s what I really like.

In 2017, Australia Playhouse are also touring Great Scott Fitzgerald: Gatsby Unleashed! for Secondary Students.