Process

Do superheroes have bad days, too?

We don’t teach children, we journey with them. Soaring on wings over magical lands, or just deep dives into their everyday lives. From figuring out superhero quandaries like the one above, (the answer, of course, is yes, they do) to dissecting social media addiction. During our sessions, children explore, question, create, and revel in playfulness in a safe, supportive space.

Each child moves through his or her unique journey of continuous learning, communication and creative thinking. They use tools like dramatic play, literature and art, movement and improv, puppetry and writing, collaboration and feedback. And all the time they think they’re just having fun!

So whether we take a classic book like the Chronicles of Narnia as our theme, or devise a play from an issue the children are grappling with in their real lives, the plays that emerge out of this process bring stories alive because they are by children, with children, and most importantly, FOR children. This is as exciting and meaningful for us as it is for them

So it doesn’t matter to the children if they have a few lines to say or more. The play belongs to each one of them, completely, for they know that theatre is more than just one character’s dialogues. The narrative plot is driven through emotions, feelings and dramatic moments created by the kids themselves. This feeds into forming and strengthening their real life and social skills.

Our method is called Creative Drama through which they explore themes, characters, and age-appropriate picture books combined with theatre techniques; they engage in free play and guided play, and take turns with the facilitators to lead the direction of the play or the scene. It’s process-oriented playmaking which means that the end product is not as important to us as the artistic journey and the interactions between the children, where they learn to refine their thinking, work in a team, empathise and communicate – and sometimes, agree to disagree!

Chronicles of Narnia Journey:
Adapting Books for Theatre (Storyweavers, 9-13 yr olds)

Adapting classics gives us a chance to encourage children who are non-readers to read and readers to have a new take on a beloved story. This form of contemporary theatre allows the children to fully direct which way they want the performance to go. We are merely facilitators, and don’t impose our ideas on the children at all. All decisions are taken collectively.

The Narnia journey has been a year-long one. The children improvised it and wrote a script which was performed at our Readers Theatre . For the script, the children interviewed the characters of the story, created scenes and alternate scenarios as part of their research. They had very clear ideas about lighting and stage set up as well.

Then, in Phase 2, they are working on bringing the play to life as their own production. But the journey was much more than the final performance only, it was about all the learnings along the way. Learning that scripts are not cast in stone and their evolution does not stop. Learning to layer the characters with more complex backstories and motivations.Experimenting with theatrical devices like shadow play to depict war….and more.

Other adapted scripts we’ve worked on include Tales of Storyland (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ), and Wonka’s Chocolate Factory (from Charlie and the Chocolate factory).

The TRAPPED/ GLITCH Journey:
Devising for Theatre (Yarntellers 5-8 yr olds and Storyweavers 9-13 yr olds)

Devising stories, plots and ideas is an interesting and effective way for children to think about their lives and environment, and learn to engage with the world confidently. We take a central issue from their own lives, and through discussions, storytelling, role play, improvisation and movement, a show is produced. From this physical piece of theatre, we facilitate the creation of a script which is eventually performed or read on stage.

Pre-Covid, we started work on a play we called Kidnapped. It was about screentime, with an exciting plot, where children get pulled into the screen. We had just started workshopping and improvising the concept, when Covid hit.

By the time the children came back, they were older – and wiser. They began to question why they have curfews and limits on their screen time when their parents don’t. They began to talk about their parents’ addictions to devices and screens.

From this arose two new performances: TRAPPED and GLITCH, where parents are sucked into apps. The play had an intriguing cast of characters who are shopping freaks , gaming addicts, reality tv show addicts and more and told the story of what happened to them. The younger children, at the same time, improvised Kidnapped.

We had some brilliant reactions to the show. One mother walked up to us after the play and said, ‘You and your kids have shown us the mirror.’