Child-Ish Live Show
Adults speak children’s exact words about love, life and the world in this fresh verbatim work. Drawn from interviews with over 40 whip-smart and brutally honest children, a dynamite adult cast allows an adult audience to hear kids’ ideas and experiences anew. The results are surprising, hilarious and profound. CHILD-ish has also been a web series, a digital production, and an intergenerational process.
Creative Team
Created and written by:
Sunny Drake, with contributions from The CHILD-ish Collective
Director of Child Engagement:
Jessica Greenberg
Adult Dramaturg
Brian Quirt
Young Dramaturgs & Core Collaborators:
Julien Desrochers-Dioso, Elora Gerson, Ozzy Rae Horvath, Eponine Lee, Sumayya Iman Malik, Mia McGrinder, Sadie Kopyto Primack, Owen Ross
Script Consultant
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Cultural and children’s process consultants
Kusha Dadui, Bana Khoury, Rachel Mishenene, Eva Verity, J Wallace
Language and cultural consultants
Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen, Rachel Mishenene
Transcription
Laura Barrett, Sunny Drake, Zoë Erwin-Longstaff, Kate Klein, Caleb Nault
Toronto Production Creative Team (fall 2025):
Directed by:
Andrea Donaldson
Produced by:
Tarragon Theatre
Full Team here.
Vancouver Production Creative Team (2024):
Featuring
Jimmy Yi, Sara Vickruck, Tasha Faye Evans, Tom Pickett, Craig Erickson, Maki Yi
Child Advisors
Members of The Eastside Story Guild.
Directed by
Lois Anderson
Assistant Direction by
Heids MacDonald
Stage Management by
Jethelo Cabilete
Set & Costume Design by
Brian Ball
Lighting Design by
Jonathan Kim
Sound Design by
Mary Jane Coomber
Photography
Chelsey Stuyt
Information
Vancouver world premiere at Pacific Theatre: Feb 9- Mar 9, 2024
Toronto premiere, part of the Tarragon season: Oct 21 - Nov 16, 2025
Adults speak children’s exact words about love, life and the world in this fresh verbatim work. Drawn from interviews with over 40 whip-smart and brutally honest children, a dynamite adult cast allows an adult audience to hear kids’ ideas and experiences anew. The results are surprising, hilarious and profound.
CHILD-ish is a constellation of creative works: a web series, a live theatre show and an inter-generational process. Our CHILD-ish creative team is inter-generational aged 6-77.
Sunny speaks about the process of making CHILD-ish:
"The idea for CHILD-ish came about from a time I arrived to look after a 7-year-old, to find her on the couch, head in hands, balling her eyes out. I asked what was wrong and she shared her utter devastation that her classmate didn’t want to marry her. She was really going through it, until right between sobs she started doing acrobatics on the couch and in literally only minutes, she was over it! I’ve wasted years of my life getting over heartbreak! I realized I could do with a crash course from children. And then I started to wonder what else adults could learn from listening to little ones?
I got curious how our listening and learning might shift if we had adult actors speaking children's exact words - not pretending to be kids - but rather trying on children's words, as adults."
Awards
“Outstanding Ensemble” NOW Magazine 2019 (Canada)
Press
The Globe & Mail
* Critic’s Pick *
“One of the funniest, most tender pieces of theatre in Toronto this year”
“Unmissable”
“Equal parts entertaining, heartfelt and agonizing”
Toronto Star
“Hilarious and affecting”
“Heads to some astonishing places”
Broadway World
“A fascinating window into how children think”
“It’s easy to leave the show with hope for the future”
A View From The Box
“Frankly dazzling”
Our Theatre Voice
“Seeing Child-ish has also profoundly affected my life.”
Next Magazine
“You’ll enter Tarragon Theatre as an adult, sit in the audience as a student and leave as a free, whimsical child wishing for marshmallow floors.”
Intermission Magazine
“CHILD-ish is much more than its product, modelling a process that values kids’ experiences of life and treats them as genuine artistic partners”
“Joyous and zany and a little like a sugar high”.
From one of Vancouver’s most seasoned and respected theatre reviewers, Colin Thomas:
“An effervescent combination of innocence, insight, and sophistication… I love this show, everything about it”
“Had me rolling, laughing harder than I have in months”
“The twists in Drake’s script keep refreshing the mind and the spirit”
Fill Up Cup
"Captivating”
“A masterful rendition of children’s perspectives skillfully brought to life by adult actors”
“A poignant reminder of the boundless joy and innate wisdom found in embracing our inner child”
RickChung Moves
"Drake has created a remarkably hilarious stage experience thanks to its direct transcription from the mouths of kids"
“Child-ish is deceptively simple but highly effective”
Family Fun Vancouver
“A beautiful and awe-inspiring production unlike any other”
“I was mesmerized listening to the deep and honest advice and what they most want the adults in their lives to know”
“I laughed, I teared up a bit, and then I left feeling immensely hopeful for the future”
Other Info
Script development partners
Nightswimming, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Theatre Passe Muraille, SummerWorks.
Key script funding partners
Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council.
Other financial support
National Arts Centre via The Collaborations, Studio 180 Theatre, Roseneath Theatre, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Crow’s Theatre and Toronto Fringe.
Support
