Picture book Dinosaur Roar! to become stage show

Kids entertainment company Nurture Rights has signed an exclusive deal for Birmingham Stage Company is to develop a theatre production of the picture book Dinosaur Roar!
 
Dinosaur Roar! Live on Stage! will be produced by Neal Foster of the Birmingham Stage Company and written by children’s dramatist David Wood. The production will run from 2015-2016 and will feature giant dinosaur puppets and songs written especially for the show.
 
The production will mark the third time that Foster and Wood have worked together to turn a children’s book into stage shows, as they previously teamed up on Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden (Oxford University Press) and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach and George’s Marvellous Medicine (Puffin).
 
Peter Curtis of Nurture Rights said the deal marks a “very significant” stage in the lifecycle of Dinosaur Roar!, which started life as a picture book by Paul and Henrietta Stickland and was first published by Ragged Bears in 1994.
 
This month, Random House Children's Publishing is releasing a 20th anniversary edition of the book, as well as colour and activity books, board books and novelty books.
 
The 2014 launch programme will also feature an international travelling exhibition and a range of merchandise, developed with the Natural History Museum.