Little
People’s Day was AMAZING!!! All the
strands managed to create a section of the performance that sent out sparks of
imagination which left astonished expressions on the children’s faces. The children themselves were awesome and great
to have as an audience. The day was packed full of fun and no one was left disappointed
or feeling left out. It was a day of dreams and sheer love that filled the
school and echoed in the theatre.
The overall
performance was divine. It went exactly how we had all envisioned it to and
possibly even beyond what we envisioned. The piece was performed smoothly and glistened
with sparkles before it took off in an awesome BLAST OFF!!! I may have had a
little wobble on the stall as I stood on it however I think I got away with it
because it was only a slight wobble and I didn’t react to the incident. In
other moments of our piece, such as the pirate song, the children were buzzing
and took part in the song. However when we tried to involve the audience in the
final song, our luck seemed to have run dry. Although we tried to gain the
audiences participation by picking out one child and trying to get them to
respond, silence began to take place. The silence was soon replaced with more
silence which then returned to our lively song. We took it upon ourselves to
make the decision not to try again with the youngsters but to instead keep the
song within the cast. The small slip up wasn’t really a slip up at all as it
was simply forgotten about and handled well. At the end of the performance I spoke
to some of the little children (I also did this as they were walking in) and
when doing so also talked to some of the teachers and parents of the children.
Everyone I spoke to was thrilled with the piece and enjoyed it despite their
age. This in turn left me being thrilled
and astonished when I realized what we had just done. I loved the feedback and
joy that we were all surrounded in on that day (even the weather was on our
side).
The piece
was suitable for our target audience of 3-4 year olds although saying that,
there were many babies and adults who had also come along to enjoy the piece
and I’d say that it suited them just as much. I suppose you could say that our
piece was like a Disney film; it was loved by everyone and kept everyone
entertained despite their age or gender. It was a great experience for the
family.
I would say
that the pirate song was the best part of the performance. It was the part that
the children looked happiest and were all surrounded by excitement meanwhile
they were engaged as they responded and took part in the song. I don’t think
there was a better part of the play that captured the audience’s attention or left
them gobsmacked with anticipation.
The biggest
skill was improvisation. Although we were given a script in a way (being the
book), all of the physical work that we created and the songs were done by
ourselves. This meant that a positive mind and inspiration was needed at all
times. We needed to have an open mind that reflected that of 4 year olds at
times, we needed to reminisce with our childhood dreams and bring them back. We
also used a lot of rhymes both because it is a technique used in a lot of children’s
theatre because it keeps a child focused but also because it sticks to the
classic Dallas Clayton style of writing in his books. Audience interaction was
riddled throughout the play both through rhetorical questions and physical
interaction.
I was a
toy. My character was a 7 year old fairy whose wings had been broken through
rough play a few months ago. Care was obviously lost over the years and I had
been forgotten about however always had a spot in my owner’s heart. I and the
rest of the toys had taken it upon ourselves to seize the opportunity to return
the memories to our owner however our owner had now seized the opportunity to develop
his ideas, turning us all into astronauts etc. In my opinion, it is basically
the life cycle of one person however it is all in a mental state and so just
like the ‘An Awesome book’, the dream reminds the owner to dream big always, and
so I end up as a happy toy once again.
The process
of development was quite easy for me because I love descriptive writing and so
made up different scenarios with my character and constantly built on her cons
and pros, weaknesses and powers etc. I was able to discover my character in depth
by using my imagination and letting it flow freely.
I have
learnt that the process can seem long but is in actual fact rather quick and
actually quite fun. When devising with a
lot of people as we did, the process becomes longer and slightly harder as
everyone wants their ideas to be heard and star in the piece, however when so
many people have such similar ideas with only slight differences, those similar
parts cannot be in the same piece otherwise it would become boring and
repetitive. At the same time, ‘more people = more ideas’ and so the piece could
be the beginning to an amazing and idea packed product, just like ours was.
I would say
that interaction could have been worked upon, as of course it could’ve been,
however, since one of the interactional parts didn’t work, I’m glad that no
more were added in case they shared the same fate. So on that note, possibly voice
and glitter could have been improved upon. I say this because many people were
using their children voices instead of their stage voices which left many
people sounding quiet and soft instead of excited and loud. As far as the
glitter goes, a performance can never have enough glitter and so of course the
glitter could have been improved upon. But despite the possible improvements, I
am more than happy with the performance that we delivered and wouldn’t want to
change it for the world.
