Niki McCretton

What is your day-to-day like?

It is quite varied for us as we are a project-funded company. Our work is very broad, so my day might involve working with our writer in residence, doing press for one of our shows, networking with creatives, or having conversations with venues about our upcoming tours. I could be delivering a lecture on co-creation with children or loading a van for a touring show – I keep a close eye on our work when it is on tour. Childhood is short and if you come to see something you love as a family, it’s too long to wait to create new work every two years, so we are busy and always creating. I also own the Lyric Theatre in Bridport, which means I could be working there as well.

Tell me about the creative process you use at Stuff and Nonsense.

I have a very collaborative process when devising work. I don’t know if this is unusual or not, as I am so immersed in it. I started making work for children a long time ago. The Prague Fringe Festival invited me to create something as it loved the physicality of my adult work and wanted me to make something specifically for Czech-speaking children that was non-verbal. Since then, my work has been steered by children. Our work choices are generated from that practice with children while simultaneously having conversations with venues about what they need for their audiences. Our primary mission is to reach children of families who don’t usually come to the theatre. Working with children, we develop a show that will encompass all of that. We have created new work, while also adapting well-known classics such as Pinocchio and we have tours of The Adventures of the Little Red Hen and The Gingerbread Man this year. We like to work with artists who have had long creative lives. I would say the average age of our performers is 40. The cast of The Gingerbread Man is a married couple who are both circus-trained performers who have done a lot of outdoor work. They have a great command of physical language and combine it with puppetry and clever staging. 

Can you tell me about another one of your productions? 

We are also working on a show called Three Little Pigs that will begin a UK tour in autumn. It has been commissioned by the Lighthouse in Poole and Theatre Royal Plymouth. It is part of the National Theatre’s Generate scheme, which supports regional companies, and we are creating the show and workshopping it in co-creation with lots of children. From the schools that we have worked with, we selected nine children to write for the devising process. They are writing for the performers who will use the text as jumping-off points for scene work.

CV: Niki McCretton

Training: Circus foundation course at Fool Time (now Circomedia), 1989
First professional role: Theatremaker at Shiftwork Physical Theatre Company Agent: None

Details of current productions: aloadofstuffandnonsense.co.uk