Kiddin' Around: PIFA's for kids too, with the must-do Paper Planet

The long: PIFA not for kids? Pish posh. The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts' preeminent must-do for wee-nagers is on the Kimmel Center's top floor: a fantastical, pop-up, all-paper, explorable forest.

The short: If they like an empty cardboard box, they'll love this.

The background: Aussie kids' theater company Polyglot builds and rebuilds its best-known, all-recyclable, totally interactive performance space, inviting littler Yanks to explore, craft, and listen to the paper trees in the Kimmel's airy, enclosed Hamilton Garden.

Book ahead: Four times a day, hour-long performances (which have music and drama but are more about play than about watching) take place Thursday-Sunday, starting Saturday.

The performance: Five roving, musical Aussies encourage kids to recreate animal, tree, and other nature sounds and to tape and twist themselves into awesome paper costumes.

No doubt: If your last memory of PIFA is about trying to prevent a toddler-trampling at South Broad Street's free-for-all street festival (this year, April 23), think again.

The basics: Hamilton Garden, Kimmel Center, 10 and 11:30 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday (starting Saturday) April 9-23, $15-$19 (tickets required for kids and adults), 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.

Lauren McCutcheon will be sure to frisk her 4-year-old for contraband scissors before entering this one.