THURSDAY'S CHILD By Greg Snape SYNOPSIS: THURSDAY'S CHILD follows a group of children who undertake a journey in search of home and happiness through a land at war with itself. Their journey leads them to encounter situations which illustrate the worse aspects of life for a child in a vibrant, dramatic, and sometimes humorous way before the final climatic Courtroom denouement leads to a happy ending for their quest. DURATION:- Two acts with a total running time of 115 minutes (Excluding interval). BACKGROUND: Thursday's Child is a musical theatre production for performance by young people commissioned by UNICEF and based on the contents of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Designed to be universal, illustrating the situation of disadvantaged children worldwide, it was launched with a major performance at the Commonwealth Exhibition Centre, London, in February 1999. Gary Wilmot reprised the featured role he plays in the video, along with a cast of 31 children between the ages of 8 and 18. The production played to a packed house including Brit Award winner Des'ree (who introduced the event), actress Joely Richardson, and UNICEF Special Representative for the Performing Arts, Vanessa Redgrave CBE, who spoke after the show saying it was 'Inspirational'. The idea behind Thursday's Child is to get people, especially young people, thinking and talking about vital children's issues and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by watching, and participating in, performances of the musical. Originally commissioned in September 1996 by the UK Committee for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, Thursday's Child was published to mark the tenth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1999. An excerpt fromThursday's Child was featured on BLUE PETER in April 1999, provoking a large response and initiating a number of performances at home and abroad, including Spain, Malta, Hungary, and Tanzania. More recently a presentation of extracts fromThursday's Child was given at Lancaster House, Westminster, as the culmination of the UK Government Reception for the Tenth Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Right's of the Child, hosted by the Secretary of State for Health. Performers age range: 8 to 21 years Total no. of characters: 39 Doubling: No Male-only characters: - Female-only characters: 3 Set/technical requirements: Several changes of scene are required but the actual design of these is very flexible. See production notes in the script.
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