The Wonder Room
Presented by Theatre Hullabaloo & Tees Valley Museums Group, in association with Makers of Imaginary Worlds
The Wonder Room is a magical new playscape co-designed with the children and families at Grangetown Primary School and inspired by the rich industrial heritage and vibrant and varied collections of Tees Valley’s museums.
It begin its journey across Tees Valley at Kirkleatham Museum on the 7th August until early 2026 after which time it will go on to tour to:
Kirkleatham Museum, Dorman Museum, Hartlepool Museum, Hopetown Museum, Preston Park
Co-design with children
Theatre Hullabaloo artists, Lucy Cassidy and Ella Deacy, have collaborated with Reception children and their families at Grangetown Primary School to help shape the design of The Wonder Room (2025). Together they have played with silly glasses, crawled through tunnels, made rainbows and invented some very unusual creatures. This playful process, with resources and ideas inspired by some of the weirder and more wonderful elements of the museum collections, has helped our design team, Roma Patel and Rachel Clementine, to create a fantastical playscape for children and their grown-ups to investigate together. Designed especially for children under five, The Wonder Room is a space where curiosity leads the way, and play becomes a form of storytelling, invention, and exploration.
Co-Creation Artists
Lucy Cassidy
Ella Deacy
Designers
Makers of Imaginary Worlds
Roma Patel
Rachel Clementine
Co-Designers
The children and families at Grangetown Primary School
The Creatives Team
Senior Production Manager: Ali Rigby-Roberts
Sound Designer: Wayne Walker-Allen
Carpenter : Tom Williams
Creative Technologist: Matt Little
Seamstress: Debby Sturman
Builders & Makers:
iFabs Metal Fabrications
Bea Baldwin
Alex Ervin
Lauren Hanna
Adelle Iversen
Lorna Schuckert
Thanks
John Beeley, Heather Minto and Ellen Bissell from Tees Valley Museums Group and to the staff at Kirkleatham Museum for their support of this project.
