Little Play Days

This free program runs from 9.30am on the first Thursday of each month (from February — December 2025).

• Thursday 6 February
• Thursday 3 April
• Thursday 1 May
• Thursday 5 June
• Thursday 3 July
• Thursday 7 August
• Thursday 4 September
• Thursday 2 October
• Thursday 6 November
• Thursday 4 December

Some tips for preparing you and your child for a Little Play Day with Queensland Theatre

Download the Cellopark app

• We recommend pre-filling your car and payment details.
• This is the only way to pay for parking in the Brisbane City Council metered carpark at Queensland Theatre.

Bring the things you and your family need for a regular day out. We recommend

• Water bottles. We’ve got a refill station.
• Snacks. The café will be open for hot and cold drinks, but food options are limited.
• A hat and/or suncream. The program is delivered in the theatre foyer, part of that space is outdoors.
• Your creativity and playfulness

Consider the sessions times above

• leave with plenty of time to allow for traffic and finding a park
• We recommend arriving 10-15mins before the scheduled start time. We don’t take reservations and have a small capacity, so arrive with time to secure a place. Session 2 & 3 are likely to be the most popular
• Queensland Theatre is a Breastfeeding friendly organisation. You are welcome to feed your child wherever you feel comfortable. Should you require a discrete or private room please speak to one of the team on site.
• Please see our Accessibility page for more information.

Little Play Days is not a performance. It is an interactive play-based activity. The activity has been created by an artist who works in the theatre or performance-making industry. - The activity has been designed specifically with the developmental needs of children aged 0-5 years of age in mind. The activity is intended to invite very young children and their carers into our venue to introduce the space to them, and to allow them to learn and explore some elements of the theatre through stories, drama and through their innate learning mechanism of play.

There will be waiting areas with some toys and play areas. You can eat, drink, and play freely here. Some of these spaces are indoors, some are outdoors. The main activity facilitated by our host artist is inside, behind a small, partitioned wall. Groups of people will go in there and play with the artist at the advertised session times.

You can engage in the program at your own pace. New locations and activities can be overstimulating and overwhelming for young children. Your child might be frightened and not want to engage in the curated activity today. That’s ok, allowing them space and time to feel comfortable to play in the waiting areas is still a positive social engagement for you both. This program runs once per month and we’d love you to return next time and try again, sometimes it takes a few visits to feel comfortable.

Can I bring my pram or stroller?

• Yes, the venue is accessible to prams and wheelchairs via ramps and elevators

• We will have pram parking available for you to leave the pram while you are in the scheduled activity. We encourage you to take valuables with you, we take no responsibility for lost, damaged or stolen property.

Do I need to book?

• No. The program is free and drop in. There are session times listed above; however no bookings are taken for the program.

• We recommend that you register via the link above to be kept up to date on the latest info about the program

How much are the tickets?

• Free, there are no tickets and no bookings

• There are session times listed above; however, no bookings are taken for the program.

• We recommend that you register via the link above to be kept up to date on the latest info about the program

Is there a parents room?

Baby change facilities available in the accessible bathroom

Hot water is available from the cafe

Cold water is available from a refill area

Queensland Theatre is a Breastfeeding friendly workplace, you are welcome to feed your child wherever you feel comfortable

Should you require a discreet private space, please speak to one of the staff on site on the day.

My child/I have a disability, and access requirements, how can we participate?

• Please refer to our Accesibility page

• Sensory information:

• The foyer and courtyard can be noisy. It is on a main road with heavy traffic passing. The noise of children and the cafe will reverberate in the foyer at times.

• The space utilizes the natural light of the courtyard, there are some overhead lights. The space is quite light.

• Sunflower lanyard – Queensland Theatre staff will identify that you may require some assistance if you are wearing a Sunflower lanyard

What can I expect, will we be seeing a show?

Talk with your child about this new experience. Some info to help with that is below, and in Access and FAQ’s

• You will meet an artist and they will play with you, your family and a group of other children and their adults. I wonder what kind of things you might play with and do?
• There will be other children, babies and families there, it could be a bit busy and a little noisy at times.
• The space has some outside areas and some inside areas, it will be a little sunny in the outside area.
• The place you’re going is called Queensland Theatre, you’re going to play in the foyer part where it is light and open.
• it’s ok if you don’t know the answers, leave the conversation open ended to encourage an inquisitive and adventurous approach eg. We’re going to try a new activity, I wonder what it might be like there?
• Afterwards, we encourage you to talk about what you remember, what felt nice or fun, was there anything you didn’t enjoy, would you like to come again and meet a different artist?
• Consider the rest of your day at South Brisbane and the Queensland Cultural Precinct
  

If you or your little person still have energy to burn, a short stroll up Montague Rd will get you to a number of other Cultural Institutions that also host welcoming and inclusive spaces and activities for children and families. Before or after your visit to Queensland Theatre you could explore some of the programs offered by our friends at the Cultural Precinct

• Have you visited The Corner? A play space for children at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ); Or kuril dhagun, the Indigenous Knowledge and community space at SLQ.
• Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) have a Children’s Arts Centre and offer tours and programs for babies, toddlers and young children.
• Queensland Museum has free and ticketed exhibits suitable for children and families year-round.
• Check if there might be a performance or concert on at Queensland Performing Arts Centre QPAC
• Head to the playground or water play areas at South Bank
• Enjoy a stroll along or have a picnic beside Maiwar / Brisbane River

Finding Home

Hi, I’m Younghee! I’ve been travelling for a long long time, but now I want to go home. The only problem is, I can’t remember where it is or how it feels. I need some help to remember.

Let’s play together to explore - what does home sound like? What does it smell like? What colours and shapes make you feel safe and happy?

Listen, touch, build, tell and play at our Finding Home installation. Create your own cozy home and help me find mine along the way!

Younghee and M’ck have created a cosy play space for little ones to explore and play through various textures and types of play to help discover what home feels like. This play exploration is part of a bigger project, a theatre production called ‘Sail Boat Home ‘ that is being developed by Younghee, M’ck and Company Bad.

About Younghee and M’ck

Younghee and M’ck have been collaborators for over a decade, working in transcultural performance making across Australia, Korea and the world.

Younghee Park is an independent artist with nearly 30 years experience across theatre, film, and television in South Korea, Australia, and beyond, specialising in cross-cultural bilingual performance. She trained in acting, theatre, traditional Korean music, and mask dance and holds a BA in children’s literature. After the pandemic, she completed an MA at QUT, focusing on cross-cultural collaboration as a framework for creating safer, more inclusive creative spaces.

She is currently completing a PhD at QUT, researching multilingual theatre-making and its role in fostering cultural understanding in young audiences. Her work continues to connect and enrich artistic communities between Australia and Korea. As a core member of Company Bad, she develops transcultural performances and community arts programs.

M’ck McKeague is a set and costume designer, theatre maker and installation artist currently based in Magan-djin/Brisbane. M’ck’s work is often immersive and experiments with fostering audience agency and nonlinear experiences of time.

Since completing the Master of Design for Performance at Victorian College of the Arts in 2018, M’ck has collaborated with La Boite Theatre Company, Patrick Livesey, Benjamin Nichol, Krishna Istha (UK), Nic Farr (UK), Rachel Hann (UK), Michael Zavros, All the Queens Men, Polyglot Theatre, The Hole Collective, Elbow Room, Embittered Swish, Lenine Bourke, 10 Spoons Association (KOR). M’ck is a member of transcultural artist collective Company Bad.

M’ck has spent the past six years advocating for trans and non-binary approaches to scenography and has presented panels and lectures at Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space (CZ, 2019 & 2023), World Stage Design (CA, 2022), Trans Lab Fellowship (USA, 2019), Brisbane Art Design (AUS, 2023) and many others.

February 6: Odd Socks! By Nathan Stoneham
We've found all the lost socks! Some of them dream of becoming superstar sock puppets... others dream of hanging on the clothes line again with other odd socks. This play space spotlights socks, featuring crafty stations, low-fi sock puppet theatres, and spaces to crawl or lay around with silly socks that turned into soft caterpillars somewhere between the washing machine and here. Every sock has a story!

About Nathan Stoneham
Nathan Stoneham is an independent community arts and cultural development facilitator, theatre artist, and creative producer who has been creating and supporting contemporary, socially engaged arts processes and performances for over fifteen years. He’s part of the arts collective, Company Bad, and has recently been an Artistic Directorate member at Next Wave, and an Australian Volunteer at the Arts Council of Mongolia. He holds a Bachelor of Creative Industries, a Bachelor of Education, a Social Work Masters, and was recently awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship. Nathan has collaborated with children, families, and communities across the continent and the globe. Nathan co-created a bilingual children’s picture book ‘The Footprint’ with collaborators Younghee Park and Brian Cheung. Nathan has worked extensively with young people from babies through to young adults for over 2 decades with LATT Theatre (South Korea), Imaginary Theatre, The Walking Neighbourhood, Mammalian Diving Reflex (Canada) and many more. Nathan is proficient in the art of play and working alongside families and children in creative spaces.