This February half-term, Rural Arts is hosting two shows at The Courthouse, Thirsk.

David Gibb’s Family Jukebox is for children aged three-plus and will take place at two venues. The first is at Skipton Town Hall on Thursday February 16, at 2pm, followed by a showing at The Courthouse on Friday, February 17, at 3pm.

The show promises to take audiences on a hilarious journey, where wolves roam the school corridors, dragons live under the bed and teddy bears dance the night away at the disco.

With lots of audience interaction and chances to join in, David’s songwriting draws from a range of musical influences and genres, including jazz, folk, reggae, and rock ‘n’ roll.

David Gibb is a musician, theatre maker and author who has spent the past ten years working with children and families. In 2011, he received the highly commended prize at the Young Story Teller of the Year Awards and in the same year was nominated for a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award. Since then, he has gone on to release four albums for families, written music and songs for numerous theatre projects, and written his debut picture book Too Many Bubbles, which was published in August 2020 by Simon & Schuster.

The second show is Khooghi by Kauser Mukhtar, which will be performed on February 25 at The Courthouse, Thirsk. Beautifully captured within a toy theatre stage, using puppetry, music and song to tell a story of humour, tragedy and hope, the show is built around a Kashmiri folk tale Saif ul Mulooq (The Journey of Love).

The play, which is aimed at an audience of seven-plus, tells the story of Khooghi, a red-collared dove who managed to survive for 153 years. After being brought to life by the Sufi Saint Mian Muhammed Baksh in India under the shadow of the British Empire, Khooghi travelled through many generations and to every continent. Despite finally settling in a new home with a little girl in West Yorkshire, she is in mortal danger from the Hawk and the Hunter and needs your help to survive.

Directed by Alison Duddle, and performed by its creator Kauser Mukhtar and co-star Harry Hingham, the show is funded by Bradford Producing Hub.

Kauser said: “Like many South Asian youngsters, English is their first language, so connecting through language, reading and listening is very difficult. People in my community are not used to having theatre made for them; that is why I wanted to do this.”

For more informatio, visit www.ruralarts.org/whats-on/performances.