We recently celebrated my daughter’s 8th birthday with Creative Dramatics. I was on the fence about having the birthday party at my house – it is so much easier when you don’t have to do the cleaning or worry about having enough “party” fun for the kids. So, I was thrilled when Joanna Van Sickle of Creative Dramatics emailed me about her theatrical parties.
Creative Dramatics brings the party to you. They offer just about any theme of your child’s choice, complete with costumes and high-energy theater games. Joanna and her crew lead the kids through a series of 
improvisation games and then the kids do a performance at the end. We opted for the “Wizard Training” theme, because my girl is a bit obsessed with Hermione.
The party started with a little crafting. My mom helped the girls make magic wands (she is a master with the hot glue gun). I bought dowel rods, ribbon, pom poms, and various shiny trinkets the kids 
could create their wands with from Michael’s. Before the girls could cast their most heinous spells, we had to be sure they looked the part. Joanna brought a trunk load of wizard capes, hats, wigs, you name it. The girls went nuts.
It happened to be a glorious day so we made my back deck the stage. The girls learned how to make their friends act like angry elephants, turn rulers into sticks (I know, good one, right?!), and cast various spells for a wizard duel. Some were spurting water from the ends of their wands and sending gross toad-like boils to cover their opponents with little effort. It was truly impressive.
Anyhow, once they played the games for a while the girls took a break for cupcakes and then did their final performance. I scheduled the party to run for three hours. The first hour the girls showed up, made wands, played outside, and ate. Creative Dramatics kept them busy for little over an hour and a half. Then the girls played again and ate snacks and continued to cover each other in boils.
Want to book a fun theatrical party for your little one? Joanna Van Sickle offers parties for children ages 3 and up. Parties are very affordable ranging from $100 – $150 (this is subject to change). Check her out on facebook: Creative Dramatics; twitter: @createdramatics; instagram: creativedramatics. Contact her via email at creativedramaticscolumbus@gmail.com.
