Section 1 Exploring Children's Theatre
This section, you should record and reflect on your discoveries and about the sort of material that has the potential to be used for children's theatre. You should consider potential groups, purpose, suitability of material and ideas informed by age group and venue.
EXPLORING A BOOK: Mrs Pepperpot's Christmas by Alf Prøysen
·
A woman shrinks to the size of a Pepperpot during
her sleep and this prevents
her from doing daily tasks.
her from doing daily tasks.
· She climbs into her husband’s backpack.
·
Once they're at the store she escapes the bag to
get the stuff she needs.
·
They have a good Christmas.
SETTINGS: Where and when it happens...
☼ Morning: Mr and Mrs Pepperpot's home
☀ Afternoon: The market
☾ Night: The sky
AGENTS: Who makes it happen...
·
She gets her husband to buy all the things she
wanted to get.
wanted to get.
·
Mr Anderson has the birdhouse stall.
·
The young lady has the holly and mistletoe stall.
·
The farmer has the corn stall.
·
Mr Pepperpot takes her to the shops.
PURPOSE: Why it happens...
·
Mrs Pepperpot wants to get some Christmas shopping.
·
She goes to get everything herself because her
husband doesn't want to.
·
She wants mistletoe in order to kiss her husband.
AGENCY: How it happens…
·
Mrs Pepperpot gets to the store by climbing into
her husband's bag.
·
She persuades her husband by manipulating him so
she manages to
get her the items she wanted.
get her the items she wanted.
·
She gets home by telling two birds that if they
help her, she'll allow
them into her birdhouse.
them into her birdhouse.
Potential Viability:
· Actors playing animals (anthropomorphism)
· Really big objects and voice-overs to make Mrs Pepperpot seem tiny
· Or normal sized set with no visible Mrs Pepperpot
· Split scenes of the settings, 1/3: her house, 2/3: the market, 3/3: the sky
· Mrs Pepperpot as a puppet being voiced over
5 teaspoon of Visual stimulation
3 ½ Celebration of the imagination
A pinch of Music
375g of Engaging story
60ml of Reacting to the audience
A cup of Fun!
1 free-range Happy ending
2 tablespoons of Audience involvement
A dash of Several mediums of theatre
250g of Gestus
4 oz of Varieties of characters
3 Three dimensional characters
½ a teaspoon of Clear storyline
1 kg of Moral of the story
But why is it important?
1) Children can be very easily influenced by things; potential to pass on a good message.
2) It can get the children to think about what's going on with the story more.
3) It can give them insight into real life situations.
4) Teaches basic morals about what the differences are for good vs bad.
5) Parents are more likely to take their children to watch a piece of theatre if they know that they will be educated and get a meaningful lesson out of it.
There NEEDS to be a problem to solve. This is because for every equilibrium there
must be a present disequilibrium to allow new and interesting things occur.
Without this concept, the story will have no shape and will remain plot-less.
Children's Books: What makes them appropriate/inappropriate?
5) Parents are more likely to take their children to watch a piece of theatre if they know that they will be educated and get a meaningful lesson out of it.
There NEEDS to be a problem to solve. This is because for every equilibrium there
must be a present disequilibrium to allow new and interesting things occur.
Without this concept, the story will have no shape and will remain plot-less.
Children's Books: What makes them appropriate/inappropriate?
Roald
Dahl:http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160912-the-dark-side-of-roald-dahlv
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3120303-Are-Roald-Dahl-Books-Racist
Dr. Seuss:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2017/10/06/dr-seuss-books-racist-experts-weigh-controversy/740978001/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/09/dr-seuss-racism-row-escalates-over-illustration-of-chinese-man
Section 2 Devising and Shaping of Material
In this section you should record and reflect on the devising, development and
shaping of ideas for the creation of your section of the Year 13 Children’s Theatre
production.
Changing and Developing our script
After having seen/showcased the sections we did of the play, we realised how
different all of our approaches to the text were.
In this section you should record and reflect on the devising, development and
shaping of ideas for the creation of your section of the Year 13 Children’s Theatre
production.
I believe that The Sheep that
Saved Christmas has the potential to be a viable source of material to use
as a stimulus for our Children's theatre show. The narrative is setup as a quest to follow a relatable but
vulnerable protagonist overcoming difficult circumstances, and in the end,
saving everyone.
Initially
I wasn’t entirely sure of the fundamental message of the story and what the
children would get if they watched it. However, after discussing the potential
of the piece as a performance, we saw that Cynthia’s character is constantly surrounded
by antagonists preventing her from achieving her dream.
The story portrays positive values through the main character
of Cynthia the Sheep. Examples of the morals taught to readers include
friendship, diligence, integrity, innovation and altruism. Cynthia endures all sorts of situations, mainly
surrounding the idea of being out-casted, that affect her emotions. The language
is clear enough for the children to understand why, and I believe that the idea
of possibly feeling out of place can be somewhat relatable to the children.
The Sheep that Saved
Christmas contains
political undertones shown through the social hierarchy within the animals –
similar to that of Animal Farm. Subtly
portraying a societal system will subconsciously enable children to have
an understanding of the world in a realistic way.
As our audience will be
school children between the ages of four and eight, I have found that learning
more about these crucial development years will give a better insight on the
type of piece we should be devising.
Reading
an extract from an online source [1] of Ages
and Stages of Development: Care About Quality (published by the California
Department of Education in 2000), has allowed me to infer that children love to
question the world around them and be creative when they’re four years old.
Consequently, at the age of five/six, children are much more able to explore
their imaginations and, until they’re about nine, they are beginning to
understand the concepts of independence and individuality. Interestingly in the
book, all the characters appear to have clear purposes and jobs to do, whilst
Cynthia is still trying to find her place. Whilst her age is not necessarily
mentioned, this leads me to believe that the protagonist is probably the
youngest of all the characters and going through the same stages of development
as the children that will be watching the show.
From browsing KS1 BBC
Bitesize, I have found that resources for drama are quite limited for students
aged five to seven, however the idea behind using drama as a method of teaching
other academic subjects is because “…drama
provides carefully structured language and activities that encourage
imaginative, co-operative work.” also states that KS1 students are learning
about rhyming in literacy. Despite the fact that there weren’t any rhymes in
the actual book, when transferring it to the stage, we could employ rhymes in
some lines or through song. I believe doing this will show children how
language works rhythmically.
The
material we develop must be appropriate for our target audience. To ensure that
we maintain the suitability, we should keep in mind that the children are
sponges and will pick up on a lot more than we may even consider.
Visual aid: Using bright colours
and bigger objects will easily engage the children more. Research has shown
that different colours can impact how children memorise and learn. [3]
As our show is
Christmas-themed, main colours will likely be red and green, however we should
take into consideration using a larger variety of colours as it is clear that
there are different benefits within them all.
To
conclude, making effective children’s theatre is an essential process to
understand as it allows us as actors to learn the fundamentals of devised work.
When creating theatre, a lot of research and thought must go into the piece, especially
when it is going to be performed a specific group of people. Performing to
children who are in their prime development years, means we have a massive
responsibility in ensuring that the show we deliver to them is appropriate and
educational in some way. The state of funding towards the arts is also another
reason for why we should make sure they have a memorable experience and enjoy our
show as it may be the first they would have seen or the last for a long time.
Sources:
"Cynthia LOVES Christmas. So much so that her flockmates send her off to the North Pole to help Father Christmas.
But it turns out that there isn’t much an enthusiastic sheep can do to help with Christmas – until one crucial moment..."
(Blurb sourced from: https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/10-for-10/the-sheep-that-saved-christmas/9781782955900)
I believe that The Sheep that Saved Christmas has the potential to be a viable source of material to use as a stimulus for our Children's theatre show. The book portrays positive values through the main character of Cynthia; examples of the morals taught to readers include friendship, diligence, integrity, innovation and altruism. 
Changing and Developing our script
After having seen/showcased the sections we did of the play, we realised how
different all of our approaches to the text were.
Seeing all the performance sections, I noticed quite a few differences and similarities that showed me how we all understood the basic skeleton that was needed for a good children’s theatre piece, whilst also embedding our own ideas of what can make it successful. I also noticed that all three sections had slightly different age groups in mind. Our piece felt like it would be aimed mainly towards older children compared to the other two, simply through some features such as the narrator and use of song. Whereas our piece was told much more physically and with a rap.
Acting Technique: Fixing Issues
·
Performing
to three sides
As we will be in the New Theatre which is a thrust stage, we need to get into the
habit of performing to all three sides at once - particularly not blocking the left and
right block. A way of solving this issue is by never directly facing the front, and
having your head and torso face two different directions. This will not only enable us
to show our facial expressions and movement to two different sides at once, but
enabling our voices to reach a larger area. Although it was quite difficult and
unnatural to begin with, I am beginning to get used to this idea and have found
myself more open to all sides.
As we will be in the New Theatre which is a thrust stage, we need to get into the
habit of performing to all three sides at once - particularly not blocking the left and
right block. A way of solving this issue is by never directly facing the front, and
having your head and torso face two different directions. This will not only enable us
to show our facial expressions and movement to two different sides at once, but
enabling our voices to reach a larger area. Although it was quite difficult and
unnatural to begin with, I am beginning to get used to this idea and have found
myself more open to all sides.
·
Constantly
keeping the energy high
Keeping the energy high is a big task especially with children's theatre because
the play itself has no sad or incredibly serious moments. Not only must there be a
high amount of energy - it must be positive and fun as well. I have found that the
only way to do this without feeling an exerted amount of force being taken out of
me, is to genuinely enjoy myself throughout!
· Portraying animals appropriately
To understand the
physicalisation and movement of the
animals we were playing; particularly
the sheep, we took inspiration from
videos we saw of a group of sheep
'popcorn-ing' and of sheep dogs
herding sheep.
Keeping the energy high is a big task especially with children's theatre because
the play itself has no sad or incredibly serious moments. Not only must there be a
high amount of energy - it must be positive and fun as well. I have found that the
only way to do this without feeling an exerted amount of force being taken out of
me, is to genuinely enjoy myself throughout!
· Portraying animals appropriately
To understand the
physicalisation and movement of the
animals we were playing; particularly
the sheep, we took inspiration from
videos we saw of a group of sheep
'popcorn-ing' and of sheep dogs
herding sheep.
·
Creating the
world of the play
In order to
make the children in the audience believe us and our story, we need to ensure
that us as actors believe it ourselves and are completely immersed and
committed to the play; not making fun of it. As children’s theatre can be more
melodramatic and animated, an initial approach to it could be to exaggerate and
take things less seriously, but it is important to find truth in everything we
do, otherwise we can’t expect the audience to enjoy and believe it either.
The ‘I Love Christmas’
Song
Cynthia travelled
to the North Pole
London to the
Arctic, it was real cold
She had to find
new friends ‘cause the sheep farm
was mean
She loved
Christmas but they weren’t keen
So she packed her
bags and got on a flight
But the Elves and
Reindeer gave her a fright
But she knows…
Christmas is her
home.
The cast split the tune: all the boys
carry on singing the lyric “home” to hold the note, whilst the girls begin
singing the chorus without saying the word.
Chorus
I love Christmas
It’s the best time
of the year
I love Christmas
Presents, hugs and
Christmas cheer
I love Christmas
Can’t believe
Christmas it’s really here
I love Christmas
It’s the best time
of the year
We changed the second chorus lyrics to ‘We’ instead of ‘I’ as the song was originally meant to be a solo, but our piece was more of an ensemble.
We changed the second chorus lyrics to ‘We’ instead of ‘I’ as the song was originally meant to be a solo, but our piece was more of an ensemble.
Section 3 Performance Evaluation
In this section you will evaluate your contribution to the children’s theatre
performance making reference to the role you played, the success of the production in performance, the reception and response of the audience and any areas for development.
Several aspects of the play that enabled us to really engage onstage, included mutli-roling. Not only did this help with progression in the story, but it kept us alert as we were always changing and characterising differently. I enjoyed playing the three characters as they were all drastically different and all entertaining to play around and have fun with.
Talking to the audience was another extremely successful technique which proved to make the show great. Characters like P. Artridge Peartree and Santa Claus that had to talk to them directly, really pushed the boundaries of the fourth wall; making the audience feel obliged to respond.
The exercises and warm-ups we did shortly before the performance enabled us as an ensemble and as individual actors to make sure we were pleasing the audience. By practising what it meant to completely unfulfil the audience, in a drastic manor, made us realise how we must do the complete opposite on the big performance end of the spectrum. Practising things such as facing the back, not projecting, and showing little facial expression etc., made the actual technique seem of sense and less exaggerated.
As performers specifically showcasing to children, we had a responsibility of making sure that the messages and themes we delivered were worthy lessons of learning. Some of the meaningful themes that were in the play included: being different, working together and believing in yourself. As theatre-makers and goers we know first-hand how easily we can be influenced or how much we can learn subconsciously from a play, therefore, even the smallest of details should benefit the general message of the piece. An example of where we used this successfully in a small moment, is where as elves we help the sheep up after having pranked them - showing teamwork and friendliness.
Throughout the creative process we made several changes to the piece; including last-minute edits in the performance. An example is the line: “We are the Gay-deer!” As this was deemed inappropriate for the age group, we changed it back to the original line. I found this interesting as I thought about the situation and disagreed with the cut initially as I believed that mentioning homosexuality would be an inclusive and representative statement which would be a positive impact on the children. However post-show after having discussed it, I realised how the reindeers could be interpreted as acting ‘camp’ and then by saying this line, it may have insinuated to children (of the stereotype) that all gay people are camp.
Linking back to the initial lesson where we discussed what makes a good children’s theatre performance, I believed we were very successful as we followed the guidance well.
Visual stimulation: although our costumes weren’t the most developed aspect in our piece, the use of colour co-ordination in the animals/characters made it so much easier, from an audience member’s perspective, to understand the groupings. Other forms of visual stimulation came about through the props and set. Both were extremely beneficial to our children’s theatre show as it allowed for them to be immersed more, as well as have a lot to look at and keep up with. My favourite part personally of the whole play was being an elf and capturing the sheep with the tinsel-trap; this was also due to the colourful tinsel that was visually appealing.
Celebration of the imagination: Theatre is an important experience for children as it helps develop their imaginations. As the performers, it is important that we also find truth in the world that we create otherwise we can’t expect the audience to believe us. I think that we did this quite effectively, however the energy was lost at times and that was due to us, as an ensemble, dropping the energy and belief in our story.
Music: This medium uplifted our performance overall by so much because the energy and atmosphere was so positive and high. The ‘wrapping/rapping room’ pun was also a nice touch that made the scene that much more enjoyable for the audience; as the music was entertaining – but purposeful in the progression of the story.
Reacting to the audience: As an ensemble we did this amazingly in my opinion because it was instinctual, rather than a forced connection. Being a sheep was when I felt the most reactive to them, so I wanted to interact more by going in their faces and seeming confused by their presence. This was fun to do because different children gave me different reactions that I could bounce off of.
Fun!: In both shows, the audience were very responsive and engaged throughout, but none of that could have been achieved if we weren’t having fun. I enjoyed being an elf the most of all the roles because I felt like I was genuinely having the most fun – therefore enabling me to give off truthful, happy vibes to my peers, as well as the audience.
Audience involvement: Although there was quite a lot of audience involvement vocally, it would’ve been better if we got some children onstage in certain sections to create a memorable experience for them.
Several mediums of theatre: As an ensemble piece that included music and movement – as well as dialogue – I believe that we were successful in continuously engaging the audience.
Varieties of characters: All of us had to play several characters so we had to ensure that we explored them all differently. I personally played a sheep, horse and an elf – which are all very different in general, but we had to push it to the maximum, as it was a children’s theatre show without explicit costume. I believe that all of us did this well, even when playing the same animals, because everyone had their different personalities and traits within those groups as well.
Three dimensional characters: although our characters were quite melodramatic than we may be used to, we created three dimensional roles by adding smaller details. As most of the roles were animals, we had to anthropomorphise ourselves to suit certain postures or characteristics. For example, the small detail of always maintaining our hands in fists as sheep, allows the belief of hooves to remain all throughout the piece for both the actors and the audience.
Clear storyline: As we divided the piece into three sections in the first stage of development, it was quite difficult to shape them to be one clear storyline – as the interpretations were very different. I believe that the final version of our piece did have quite a clear storyline and our pace, energy and smooth transitions added to this.
Individually I believe that I worked quite well with my peers on the whole. The main thing I would say that I could have done better, would be to have experimented a little more within the performance. An example of what I could have done, is to have high-fived the audience during my entrance as an elf. This would have been effective in engaging the children more and increasing the general atmosphere to be fun and high-spirited.
On the whole, this unit was extremely gratifying for me as it involved many other mediums of theatre that I enjoy and love. Children’s theatre may not be something that I particularly want to go into in the future, however the skills I learnt from partaking will definitely benefit me as a performer overall. Certain things like performing to three sides and maintaining a high-level of energy throughout are things that sometimes go slightly overlooked – but can’t be in children’s theatre, which is why these tools are so helpful towards my future career.
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