If you have children between ages four and ten and will be visiting New York City (or live here already) you should pay a visit to Pip’s Island. Located at 9th Avenue and 42nd Street on the island of Manhattan, it is very easy to find.

An interactive group activity for child Explorers (and their parents who get dubbed Assistant Explorers) the team is dubbed Expedition 12 who must save the Island from evil forces. They are led through a series of environments and engaged in a number of puzzles and tasks that bring the group to working together. Yes, they are successful and save the day. Brave Explorers indeed!

The quest takes about an hour and there is a handy gift shop at the end that allows you to buy replicas of the adventure tools for use at home. The staff was uniformly engaged and involved in leading the group I followed. The kids were eager and well entertained, as were a number of the parents.

I visited because one of the playwrights in a group I am part of is an Associate Producer of the effort. We gather most weeks to read each other’s work and offer feedback to encourage writing improvement. My feedback for the Pip’s Island group – the script is not very precise but are perfectly, child friendly sloppy and engaging for growing child logic. The performers (and some puppets) were working from a script but were flexible in a way that focused on guiding the children through their quest. They were terrific and modulated their efforts while allowing the kids to find their way through.

I am a long way from a kid but enjoyed myself very much and recommend it to any families in or coming to the Big Apple!

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes