INITIALLY award-winning Newcastle author David Almond doesn’t feel there’s any particularly close link between his own life and the story-writing hero of The Savage called Blue Baker. .. until he’s pressed on the matter of both creator and the created suffering the death of a father.

“The death of a father is something I keep coming across when I’m writing and so, obviously, I’ve drawn on that. I suppose it must be metaphorical, but the circumstances are quite different. I think that central theme of grieving over the death of a parent is very important to me and always has been,” he says.

The 2008 graphic novel has been selected by Almond as his first full-length commission for Newcastle’s Live Theatre and is set to be performed from Thursday, June 30 to Saturday, July 23, as a family-friendly production for children aged nine and upwards.

Almond talks of the great process of turning words and pictures into a stageplay. “It started off as a small story and then I expanded it into a short novel with illustrations and it felt very appropriate again to expand it onto the stage,” he says.

Blue’s hoodie-wearing adversary, Hopper, is total fiction, but Almond does recall some people trying to take advantage of a situation that exposes a weakness. “That’s a very strange kind of human trait. People would occasionally pass a comment and I’d think, ‘That’s not very nice thing to say to someone who has just lost a parent’. I suppose, in a way, this is a very exposed boy writing a story about The Savage in the play and also having to deal with a kind of antagonistic figure. We are enriching the whole experience,” he says.

Almond felt that this was the ideal novel to mark his first work with Live because it had always been a dramatic plot which could benefit from the addition of movement and song. “More and more, I like my work to use music, but I can’t be too protective of my books. One of the great things about collaborations is that if you work with people you really respect and are talented, then you have to allow their visions to aid yours. So the process has been greatly helped by Max Roberts (artistic director of Live) and Jez Casey having some wonderfully creative discussions with me about the script.”

Almond created the script and then talked through its impact on stage with Roberts and Casey, including his introduction of a new character, Elaine, who befriends Blue. “She’s not in the book, but when I started the adaptation I realised I needed her character in order to expand Blue’s life. He’s got his family and teachers, and the antagonist but she helps him with his story and understand what is going on in his life. I suppose she’s a bit of a muse for him.”

In the end the play has four cast members, who double as other characters. Dean Bone, a regular at Live and seen on TV in Vera, The Dumping Ground and Wolfblood, is Blue while Spennymoor’s Adam Walsh, Teessider Dani Arlington and Gosforth’s Kate Okello are making their Live debuts.

“I’ll certainly be at rehearsals for the first few days and talking to the actors about how the characters seem. We usually begin with a readaround and get people’s thoughts on the play and moments at that time are usually beautiful. You think you’ve written a line in such a way and then an actor says it and you think, ‘Oh, that’s what it sounds like’, because they bring their own vision,” says Almond.

“This is a complex and quite dark piece really and it’s about universal human emotions through the lives of children. It’s also about writing and story-telling and creativity and these are all things that are crucial in the world, especially in Blue’s world. It explores why we make art and write stories and is a play for everyone. The story is set on a wasteground beside the River Tyne because it is important to appreciate that Newcastle has this cultural awareness and wonderful artistic activity going on and this play is taking place in a theatre which is alongside the Tyne itself,” he says.

Almond moves on from The Savage to another adaptation of his work, A Song For Ella Gray from 2014, with Tyneside’s other producing company Northern Stage. “That will be staged next year and it’s a kind of coincidence that both Newcastle companies came to me about the same time and asked if I could do a project. Ella Gray is about contemporary Tyneside teenagers living through the Orpheus myth, and it’s all about love, death and music,” says Almond.

He feels he’s tuning into the current interest in performance by the young. “There is a huge wave of children coming through that are interested in art, drama and story-telling.”

Skellig creator Almond also has a another book underway for 2017 which he doesn’t want to reveal just yet, but has a collection of short stories out in the autumn when Counting Stars, from 2000, is re-released with new tales and an afterword.

He’s also working on a picture book about the life of Northumbrian pipes legend Kathryn Tickell. “It’s about Kathryn and Mike, her father, and will be out next year or the year after,” says Almond, who is aware of the community pride in the musician’s career.

The Felling-raised author is looking forward to the singing element of The Savage particularly. “These are new songs and the one I wanted to get the job was me. I wasn’t going to give that task to anybody else,” he jokes.

n Tickets are £10 to £22, £12 to £16 for over-60s and £6 to £15 for other concessions. Box Office: live.org.uk or 0191-232-1232.

n Saturday, July 9, after the 2pm show: David Almond will discuss children’s writing with Christina Castling of Live’s education and participation team.

n Tuesday, July 12, after 7.30pm show: Almond and Max Roberts will discuss the making of the play and there is also a book-signing session. Both events are free but require booking.

n Saturday, April 16: Almond will lead a Wild Writing Workshop between 11.30am and 1pm. Schools can also book a Telling Tales Workshop.