Click on a question for a drop down answer to our most Frequently Asked Questions:
Acting the Party is an audio production that lasts at least 1 and 1/2 hours.
A narrator tells a fantasy story in which the children become the characters, they give clear instructions to the children who will get up in ones or twos to act out their part. During the story they will all get up to play party games – the audio is either paused, or there’ll be music depending on the game. There’s lots of sound effects and music for added fun and atmosphere.
The whole party is designed so that once set up there is very little for the parent to do. The pre-party set up is incredibly easy, things such as placing the treasure hunt clues, pinning up the Pin the Tail and wrapping a Pass the Parcel. Once the children are settled, play the audio and off they go!
Everything is included, invitations, game accessories, the audio and a BIG spoonful of FUN!
Acting the Party is an audio guided role playing party, similar to a
Our professional narrators read the stories, giving instructional prompts throughout. We cram in as much music and sound effects as possible to enhance every scene. Plus we’ve added their favourite party games – themed into the story.
Everything’s all sorted for you allowing you to quickly and simply set up and run the party.
When you buy Acting the Party not only will the children get to act out an outstanding audio drama, they’ll also get to play the
Each themed children’s birthday party have a very high quality audio drama that lasts at least 1½ hours, leaving time for meeting, greeting and eating. The packs also provide stunning invitations, instructions and game accessories for all the party games. Designed specifically for parents who want a good but easy, inexpensive kids birthday party at home, without chaos.
The feedback we have received is that parents can’t believe how easy it is, the outstanding quality, exceptional value, and their kids have enjoyed it immensely – without a screen in sight! Please take a look at our testimonial page.
Good honest children’s birthday parties.
When designing Acting the Party we anticipated that if a child is about to have their 7th birthday it would be most likely that children aged 6 may attend the party. This is perfectly ok, they will manage the games and riddles, however, any younger and they may possibly struggle without help.
Likewise at a 9 year olds party we anticipated that there may be 10 year olds present. However, older children (tweenies) may find it a little too young, feel uncool and make the party difficult for others.
Only you can be the judge of your child’s ability and patience, and that of their friends.
To our amusement we have found that Acting the Party can be used as a kind of ‘retro’ party, finding 14/15 year olds can enjoy the acting roles, playing pass the parcel and pin the tail with as much gusto as a 7 year old!
We aim to dispatch your party pack within 1 to 3 days.
Please leave yourself enough time to send out the invitations from the pack.
If you have any concerns please use the Contact Us form and we will get back to you asap.
In each of our children’s birthday parties we have organised all the games, and that includes Pass the Parcel. All the music is recorded ready and waiting so that in the audio story when the guests reach a point they play Pass the Parcel. To make it more exciting we play two types of music – one for the parcel to be passed clockwise, the other anti-clockwise. Because the music and the pauses last only a given amount of time, we need you to wrap a parcel exactly the correct amount of times by you. Sometimes the same child will win more than once, so we suggest that if you want to add sweets in each layer include a couple more and encourage sharing.
No less than 4 unless you can act extremely fast and no more than 12 unless you’re happy to double up some of the characters.
If there are lots of you it may be wise to have two groups playing side by side.
We would advise that the Spooky Spectacular Pirate Party is best played either as a mixed or boys only party unless all the girls coming to the party are happy playing boisterous roles.
Leela’s Adventure was written with girls in mind and is made up of mainly girl characters apart from the dog and a monkey – it can be engineered so that any boys present can play either of these two parts.
The Fairy party again was written with girls in mind and although there are a couple of names that are ambiguous, such as Pat and Perci, most are female names.
Our next party will be for aimed at both girls and boys.
From our own experience we realise that children’s parties can become very expensive so with this in mind we designed Acting the Party to be played at home. We also know, from a child’s point of view, they generally feel more comfortable in a home setting.
However, it is possible to play Acting the Party in a hall or outside so long as you have access to a good sound system.
A little ingenuity maybe called for – games such as the treasure hunt need common household items to be hidden next to.
In a home environment, they would be things as say, a bin or a clock. To overcome this problem write a note and stick it on the back of a chair, or a cone, any item you have in the hall, telling the children “This is a ….insert name of household object, i.e. bin/clock etc” and hiding the treasure hunt clue underneath the chair or cone, this will work just as well.
We have free delivery on all our parties in the UK
The PDF’s will need adobe reader, again many computers will download these automatically, but if not check that you have it, look online for information, here is a good start: https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/otherversions/ (free)
The MP3 files can be played in itunes or by windows media, burnt onto a CD or played through an iPod – please make sure your sound system is loud enough to hear over any hubbub.
The PDF’s can be saved onto your computer and then printed directly.
Still having problems, then please get in touch. We’re here and happy to help.
Contact form below or call 01476 333 043
Depending on your computer the files may download automatically. Or you can open them from the usb pen drive. You will then be able to save the MP3 file and the PDF’s onto your computer, in itunes or ipod. Remember where you put them.
Please feel free to burn it onto a CD if you need to – however you may need to use two CD’s as the MP3 is quite long – make sure all the chapters are in the correct order.
The characters are decided as you play along. To tell you who they are would be giving away the surprise.
Any likeness to Cinderella is purely intentional!
We have intentionally restricted the numbers so that everyone gets a good chance to play, and for parents to handle an easier party. Should you wish to hold a larger party then the best way to do this is with multiple groups of the original number, each group plays alongside each other. For example, a party for 8 can be doubled to 16, two groups playing side by side.
Some of the games, such as the treasure hunt, can be played together. Most of the time only 2 or 3 characters are performing at any one time. Please make sure you have enough room for the all the children to play the party games. Alternatively, characters can ‘double up’ but be aware that some games will be designed for the original number, therefore the refill pack may be needed.
Please note:
With the usb version you may print out the invitations and game accessories as often as you wish – providing as many groups as you would like.
If you prefer to have the pre-printed CD version then you can purchase a refill pack.
The refill packs comes with invitations and other game accessories but not the audio. Please click here for Leela’s Adventure refill pack and here for the Pirate Spooky Spectacular. The usb version is likely to work out to be better value as you may print out invitations and game accessories as needed.
We certainly hope so, we are working hard on it, but in the mean time why not tweet us and let us know what theme you would love to have for your Acting the Party Party!
Next planned is a Space Adventure for boys and girls – tell us who you’d love to narrate it!
Any! Similar to any good pantomime it is designed for the entire family.
Under fives may like an adult to play/act along with them. Some children will also need to pair up with adults to solve some of the riddles and clues – we generally find that they are best at the treasure hunt however, oh, and laughing at adults making fools of themselves!
Older players may not be able to complete some of the tasks asked of them but general common sense should be applied. Then again you’re thinking of buying this pack… there’s no helping some.
Of course you may feel comfortable playing games or doing craft activities with children and confident giving children instructions.
Acting the Party is ideal however for busy parents, uncertain what to do between games, with little time or money to organise a party.
Acting the Party has done all the work for you, there is nothing or very little for you to organise before the day. There will be no impatient children moaning while you are setting up the next game, no thinking about what games are going to be played, and no uncontrollable children between games. This will keep them happy and occupied from beginning to end.
They will need to listen to follow the story to feel involved so it is very unlikely that you will need to intervene at all. Many parents we have talked to have had time to have a cup of tea or to prepare food. The instructions are very straight forward and simple. The one thing that you (or your child) will need to do is wrap one pass the parcel 9 times with a prize , otherwise everything is ready for you.
Once you have purchased one of our downloadable parties you will receive a zipped (compressed) file that will need unzipping. The zipped file will be visible to click on as soon as you have purchased, it will also be available via an email sent automatically to your email address. Once clicked on it will download onto your computer.
To unzip the files on a Mac Computer – double clicking will usually unzip files automatically and you will see the folder containing all the files files, these will be PDF’s with items to print and MP3 files. Instructions will be seen within the folder for how many to print/how to play.
On a Windows PC there are various ways to unzip – typically to unzip all the contents of the zipped folder, press and hold (or right-click) the folder, select Extract All, and then follow the instructions.
Once the MP3 files are downloaded and unzipped you can play them in itunes or from a phone or ipod. Please make sure they are played in order and on a good sound system. The children will be loud and laughing, so you will need it loud enough to hear above their noise.
Please print up all the PDF’s ahead of the party, nothing worse than running out of ink in front of impatient children.
If you have any problems please do not hesitate to contact us. We will do our utmost to help you.
Don’t read unless you are completely stuck!
4th Game answers:
A stone by my feet that must be of blue
Or else a curse will come to you
Then three turns you must try
Get it wrong and you may die
5th Game answers:
The first clue:
Follow my instructions and you will get
A wonderful surprise for you all, I bet,
Go to the door, look up and see,
What is there, what can it be?
6th Game Answer:
Bandages
7th Game:
Tell host, “We’re winners” !
Don’t read below unless you are completely stuck!
Jenny, Connie and Pat …. hurry over Windfall Plain to Wonder Wood
Queen Mummybelle’s message read’s ‘Time for food !’
Don’t read below unless you are completely stuck on the riddles and Barcode within the Pantomime “The Infamous Gathering”
Answers to Riddles …tsk :
Ugly Sisters
Jemima
Pumpkin
Buttons
Slipper
Footmen
Answer to Invitation Barcode: Yes, I’ll marry you – now give me the chocolate!
..and if there’s any left over you know where to send it 😉
If you need to contact us, please call 01476 733 043
As we are a small company you may need to leave a message, but please do so and we’ll call you right back.
Or you can E-mail us at info@actingtheparty.co.uk, or use our simple contact us form on the contact us page.
We’re a friendly bunch and happy to help.