Review of: The kaleidoscope of women’s sounds in music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, by Kheng K. Koay. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015; ISBN: 9781443876520 (£54.30)

Queer performance practice and production has emerged over the past four decades as an increasingly visible if contentious modality, particularly in relation to theatre for children and teenagers. Kathryn Bond Stockton and Matthew Reason’s respective theories of the queer child and the impossibility of theatre for young audiences underpin arguments for the importance of queer themes within performance for young people. This paper looks specifically at Catherine Wheels Theatre Company’s production of White (2010) where colour invades a completely white world in a metaphor for diversity, and Emily Freeman’s play And Then Came Tango (2012) for elementary school audiences about a controversial same-sex penguin couple at New York’s Central Park Zoo. It is proposed that these plays may serve as examples of queer theatre pioneering progressive narratives specifically for young people. By contrasting the cultural contexts in which these plays have been performed, this paper contends that queer themes must be effectively depicted in cultural content for young people in order to destabilise global stigmas of LGBTQ+ people.

Book review of: Singing Simpkin and other bawdy jigs, edited by Roger Clegg and Lucie Skeaping. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2014; ISBN: 9780859898782 (£30.00)

Book review of: Embodied knowledge in ensemble performance, by J. Murphy McCaleb. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014; ISBN 9781472419613 (£50.00)

This photo essay explores the adaptation of the Scottish theatre for early years (TEY) production White into a transmedia digital toy. In 2013, Catherine Wheels Theatre Company commissioned an app developer, Hippotrix, to create an app for mobile tablet computers and smartphones inspired by the world of White.
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\nThe paper outlines the process of creating White The App, including wire-framing, asset capture, sound recording, coding and prototyping. It also explores the impact of design decisions on dramaturgy and performativity, noting that digital media offer new possibilities for embracing non-linear storytelling while retaining key aspects of the live aesthetic.

Book review of: Walking and dancing: three years of dance in London 1951–1953 by Larraine Nicholas. Hampshire: The Noverre Press, 2013; ISBN 9781906830656 (£10.00)