On a cold or wet afternoon, a seat in the dark and a show made for kids can hold a restless six-year-old for an hour. Tricity stages program for families, from baby music sessions with the opera's singers and dancers to puppet plays, big musicals, Sunday orchestra concerts and animated shorts. Here's what we checked, from the puppet stage at Teatr Miniatura to kids' film sessions at Gdynia Film Center.
Miejski Teatr Miniatura is the Tricity's only puppet theater for children and teenagers, running for nearly 80 years. The program starts with shows made for babies and runs up to plays for teens, mixing classic children's books with new Polish and international stories.
Productions play on a main stage, a smaller chamber stage and a rehearsal room, and some performances come with audio description.
Teatr Muzyczny im. Danuty Baduszkowej has staged musicals, operettas, ballet and fairy-tale shows since 1958, with more than 450 premieres including Shrek, Hairspray and Notre Dame de Paris. Its three stages (Large, New and Chamber) seat over 1,500 people in total, making it the largest musical theater in Poland.
Since 1991 its Teatr Muzyczny Junior program has run movement and musical-theater workshops for young performers.
One of Pomerania's largest cultural houses, staging opera and ballet from classics like Carmen and Coppelia to new Polish work. Every show runs with Polish surtitles above the stage, and there is no dress code.
The education program is where kids come in: Pomposo i..., an interactive music-theater series, family workshops, and Opera na start, music-and-movement sessions for babies and toddlers led by the company's singers, players and dancers.
The orchestra's home is a converted red-brick power station from the 1890s on Ołowianka island in the Motława river, with neo-Gothic turrets and two towers.
For kids, the draw is the education program: Sunday family concerts, educational concerts on music history and instruments that anyone can join, and workshops where fairy tales are told through music and dance, followed by an art activity.
The theater stands where a 17th-century fencing school once hosted English traveling actors performing Shakespeare. Its anthracite-brick shell hides a wooden main hall rebuilt as an Elizabethan playhouse, under a roof that opens in three minutes.
Guided tours take visitors onto the stage and behind the scenes, and some are led by an actor playing Shakespeare, or by Puck on a night tour. The theater also runs workshops for children.
An arthouse cinema with three screens named after old Gdynia cinemas: Warszawa (227 seats), Goplana and Morskie Oko, all with 4K projection and 7.1 sound. The program mixes critically acclaimed films from around the world with a wide lineup for young audiences, including Bajka w Centrum, film sessions for kids built around Polish animated shorts.
Outside, the grassy square and concert shell host open-air screenings and concerts.
On a cold or wet afternoon, a seat in the dark and a show made for kids can hold a restless six-year-old for an hour. Tricity stages program for families, from baby music sessions with the opera's singers and dancers to puppet plays, big musicals, Sunday orchestra concerts and animated shorts. Here's what we checked, from the puppet stage at Teatr Miniatura to kids' film sessions at Gdynia Film Center.
Miejski Teatr Miniatura is the Tricity's only puppet theater for children and teenagers, running for nearly 80 years. The program starts with shows made for babies and runs up to plays for teens, mixing classic children's books with new Polish and international stories.
Productions play on a main stage, a smaller chamber stage and a rehearsal room, and some performances come with audio description.
Teatr Muzyczny im. Danuty Baduszkowej has staged musicals, operettas, ballet and fairy-tale shows since 1958, with more than 450 premieres including Shrek, Hairspray and Notre Dame de Paris. Its three stages (Large, New and Chamber) seat over 1,500 people in total, making it the largest musical theater in Poland.
Since 1991 its Teatr Muzyczny Junior program has run movement and musical-theater workshops for young performers.
One of Pomerania's largest cultural houses, staging opera and ballet from classics like Carmen and Coppelia to new Polish work. Every show runs with Polish surtitles above the stage, and there is no dress code.
The education program is where kids come in: Pomposo i..., an interactive music-theater series, family workshops, and Opera na start, music-and-movement sessions for babies and toddlers led by the company's singers, players and dancers.
The orchestra's home is a converted red-brick power station from the 1890s on Ołowianka island in the Motława river, with neo-Gothic turrets and two towers.
For kids, the draw is the education program: Sunday family concerts, educational concerts on music history and instruments that anyone can join, and workshops where fairy tales are told through music and dance, followed by an art activity.
The theater stands where a 17th-century fencing school once hosted English traveling actors performing Shakespeare. Its anthracite-brick shell hides a wooden main hall rebuilt as an Elizabethan playhouse, under a roof that opens in three minutes.
Guided tours take visitors onto the stage and behind the scenes, and some are led by an actor playing Shakespeare, or by Puck on a night tour. The theater also runs workshops for children.
An arthouse cinema with three screens named after old Gdynia cinemas: Warszawa (227 seats), Goplana and Morskie Oko, all with 4K projection and 7.1 sound. The program mixes critically acclaimed films from around the world with a wide lineup for young audiences, including Bajka w Centrum, film sessions for kids built around Polish animated shorts.
Outside, the grassy square and concert shell host open-air screenings and concerts.
