When Kim Crotty suddenly found himself sentenced to two years in Dartmoor prison in the UK, separated from his children and estranged from his partner, he was surprised at the things he missed the most.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that [no longer] reading to my kids would be the thing that most devastated me. But I would dream about it at night — dream of reading to my kids before bed," he says.
This dreaming kicked off an extraordinary storytelling project spanning two years and more than 40 short stories.
And ten years later, Kim and his sons have banded together to share their journey and some of the stories on stage in an interactive, family theatre experience titled The Smallest Stage, which made its world premiere this month at Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, before heading to Perth Festival.
A life turned upside down
Crotty, originally from Western Australia, had been working in the music industry for years before moving into stage management in the UK in 2004.
"I took my first job at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith and it really felt like I'd come home," he recalls.
"I'd collected a number of disparate skills and abilities and theatre was the one place where I felt they all belonged."
In 2008 he got a job running the stage department at the Salisbury Playhouse — and it was during this time that he developed his love of children's theatre.
But following the break-up of his relationship in 2010, he quit that job and moved to Bristol to be closer to his sons and their mother, his ex.
To make ends meet Crotty began growing and selling cannabis — a short-lived venture that swiftly led to his arrest and imprisonment.
"It turned everybody's lives upside down, [but] it was probably more difficult for the boys and their mum than it was for me in many regards," he says.
And while his two young sons, Otto and Arlen, visited him in Dartmoor prison every few months, it was arduous.
"It's terrifying for the kids, they were terrified to go inside these 20 foot razor wire fences and inside these massive gates and get searched as they came in. It's a really awful experience for everybody.
To remain connected with his boys Crotty decided to write them a story from his jail cell.
"I was inspired by the fact I was dreaming about reading to my kids every night, about that closeness, that shared experience of reading from a book," he says.
"[That's] where the title of the play — The Smallest Stage — comes from," he explains.
Crotty's first story was titled Arlen Loves to Draw: "My youngest son Arlen was forever drawing on things that he was not supposed to be drawing on," he says.
Otto, now 15, says he can remember being read the story and getting really jealous.
"I remember writing a letter to dad saying: 'I want more.'"
So Crotty wrote another story, and another.
In the end he wrote 47 stories for the boys.
"I guess it kind of kept me sane while I was in prison; this was the one thing that sort of kept me present and kept me grounded," he says.
It was also an opportunity for truth and healing.
"And after having done something that wrong and facing those consequences, then I had to make it right.
"It was a very steep learning curve for all of us," he says.
Ultimately, he says, it's been a positive experience.
"Our relationship together today is the way it is because of that grounding in openness and honesty and admitting when you get things wrong and going: 'Oh, okay, so I don't know everything. Perhaps we can work together and deal with this appropriately'."
After finishing his prison sentence, Crotty and his sons moved back to Australia in 2012, rebuilding their lives in the southwest of WA.
Making theatre in the regions
Fast forward to 2019, and Crotty attended an artist retreat at Donnelly River facilitated by the executive director of Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Fiona de Garis.
Acclaimed Perth-based set designer Zoe Atkinson, director Matt Edgerton (at that time artistic director of Western Australia's children's theatre company Barking Gecko) and Perth Festival's then-executive director Anna Reece also attended, as mentors.
Crotty took along the stories he'd written for his sons.
"Over three days, the story behind the stories came out, and the mentors all just got so excited," de Garis recalls.
Atkinson loved not only the stories but the manuscripts themselves, which were all folded in the same way.
"I'm such a believer in the capacity for objects to hold stories, and so I fell in love with those artefacts as well," she says.
A few months after that initial residency in Bunbury, Perth Festival gave the project $10,000 seed funding — which enabled de Garis and Crotty to work with Edgerton to develop the idea.
De Garis says it was important that the work was developed at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre (BREC), because it allowed regional creatives to work on a high-profile project they might otherwise struggle to access.
She sees this as part of a longer-term vision to ensure the development and creation of significant works in WA's regions, using local artists.
"[The goal is] to build their networks and capacity to be making professional quality resourced work — where they get paid and partner with established arts organisations. And then present it to a regional audience first, the audience that it comes from, [before touring the work]."
Atkinson also recognises the importance of developing the work regionally, and has relished the opportunity to work from Bunbury.
"I think Western Australia could do that so much better. Some of the best residency opportunities in the world exist in places that are regional, if not isolated, and I think there's something about taking yourself somewhere out of your every day that facilitates creativity. So I've loved it."
A family affair
The Smallest Stage tells the incredible story behind Crotty's 47 short stories (with Crotty played by actor Ben Mortley), as well as bringing some of the tales themselves to life, via a mix of live drawing, puppetry and animation.
There's also an opt-in interactive component wherein audience members can become part of the 'supporting cast' on stage, receiving instructions from director Matt Edgerton via headphones and writing letters to each other.
Otto and his younger brother Arlen have joined forces with their dad on the production, as has Atkinson's son, Matty.
"Our three sons animated [a story titled] Superfish, and recorded all the voices for it, and did a lot of voice acting for other animated sections of the play as well,' says Crotty.
"It's really been wonderful to have them involved."
Otto admits to being sceptical at first.
"But then the more I got into it I was like, 'Oh, this is actually kind of cool'. … Then we started doing the animation, and I was like, 'Oh, wait, this is actually kind of fun'."
Now he says he is immensely proud of his father and what he has created.
"I know it means a tonne to dad and he's really happy about it. And, you know every time it runs through one of the rehearsals, you can just turn to him and see a little bit of crying.
"He just looks really happy."
The Smallest Stage plays at Perth Festival from February 23-27.
