Tales from the Shed is Chickenshed's nationally acclaimed production for children. Tales shows us a world where everybody can come and share together, and not only believe in the magic, but make it happen. Each show is different, but all work creatively to improve literacy, numeracy and communication skills for the under 7s.
Tales brings both original and traditional stories to life, in a land of colour, characters and fun. This interactive performance introduces children to a universe where there is no edge to the stage, so children and performers travel a theatrical journey together.
Tales is performed on Fridays and Saturdays in The Studio Theatre, Chickenshed. Each show last approximately 50 minutes.
link: www.chickenshed.org.uk
Friday, 6 November 2009
Interests
Blood Brothers
I have chosen to add as an interest the musical “Blood Brothers” because it was one of the first productions that inspired me to study performing arts and theatre. I got given a gifted and talented award at my secondary school and was privileged enough to attend Pineapple Dance Studios in London for a week of workshops with two fellow students. Part of the week consisted of going to a workshop delivered by members of cast from Blood Brothers this was followed by the show. I think that the workshop really helped get an understanding of the performance and it was nice to talk to the performers and ask them questions. The main thing that drew me in was the passion and energy pouring off stage. I sat clinging on to every word and song. This is a production I could watch again and again.
Link: willyrussell.com
Chickenshed Theatre Company
Chickenshed is a theatre company. They work using an inclusive creative process which means everyone is welcome, and everyone is valued. I have been a part of Chickenshed just over four years and have worked alongside them to spread their ethos. There inclusive creative process values all our members as equals no matter who you are or where you’re from. It’s the way they have run their theatre company for 35 years; this spreads throughout their youth theatre, outreach projects and education programmes teaching students from the age of 16 right up to university level. Every piece of theatre created at Chickenshed sends out the same message: anyone can achieve in a place where everyone is welcome. And, one day, it will be the way the world works.
Link: Chickenshed.org.uk
People who inspire me
Martina Cole
I have read every book she has written and love them all. She writes about the criminal world and the dangers within it using gripping storylines and great characters. I find her stories inspirational because they always have a climax or a shocking ending that’s totally unexpected. She writes very creatively and makes me feel like I’ve been sucked in to the book and I'm there in between all the gangsters, pimps, and grafters living the story. In all of her stories you could imagine the criminals of London doing everything she writes about and using the slang language she so perfectly puts in. I believe she has a great writing style that engages you into the book instantly. When I faced the challenge of writing a production with my year group last year her books and her style of writing really influenced me.
Link: martinacole.co.uk
Marques Houston
I really enjoy Marques Houston’s music and the tone of his voice. I have been listening to he’s music for over 6 years. He is a great musician and dancer, and I like he’s music because he uses all the different tones in his voice which makes me not only appreciate the music and lyrics but also his voice. He is a very family orientated man and I can really relate to this as I have a close relationship with my own family. I have purchased all his albums and feel he writes about his current feelings and emotions and also his career. He started as an actor at a young age and developed his passion for singing. This developed in his teenage years and he’s been singing and also acting ever since. Seeing him perform live was always one of my big dreams I had ever since I became a fan. When this finally happened earlier this year it was like ticking off one of the best moments of my life so far. Marques Houston inspires me musically and his determination makes me want to follow my dreams.
Links: marques-houston.com
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer who started his career at the very young age of 14 doing stand up comedy. I love every film he has starred. Produced or written. He focuses on issues I can relate to and I find funny. I feel a lot of his films are targeted at the younger adult audience. I like this because he likes to please young adults and teenagers fun, light hearted, funny movies. Seth Rogen has a very distinctive voice that once heard is hard to forget. I hope Seth continues to make great films for young people because he has proved it doesn’t matter how old you are to start pursuing your dreams and starting your career.
Links: sethrogenonline.net
Reflective Blogs using Kolbs Cycle
I am using Kolbs Learning Cycle to Reflect on my last week of tales from the shed. I have looked in my diary and I will be using entries from there to cover all the different stages in kolbs cycle.
Concrete Experience
Wednesday 28th October
This week our theme is preparing for the tales from the shed end of term party. Because this is the last week of tales we want to make it exciting and fun for the children. At the same time because this is a performance where there are educational aspects we have to still incorporate that. We want the performance to feature most of the children’s favourite puppets and characters. We have taken into consideration what has worked in previous performances and are using this rehearsal session to try out ideas. The tales from the shed team is split into two groups and we face the challenge this week of mixing the two teams slightly. This will be a challenge because we haven’t worked together before but I am optimistic because we will all have different ideas to add to the performance. We will have to keep a high level of energy so the children stay engaged but at the same time be focused because there's is a lot of team work needed for tales from the shed.
Reflective Observations
Friday 30th October
The performance today was overall good and there were a large number of audience members. In this performance I played the character “Lion Down” who is a cool lion who likes dancing and moving. This characters costume is a lion’s suit, like a Disney character costume with me inside. This was slightly hard for me because vision is limited and I was scared of accidently bashing into a child. Also a fellow member of the team was doing lion down’s voice backstage on microphone all I had was my body and hand gestures to portray what lion down was saying and instructing the children to do. There were a lot of really enthusiastic children who rushed to the stage to join in with songs, movement and to see their favourite puppets. During the performance I got confused with the time and thought we had 10 minutes left of the performance but really had 20 minutes. This lead to us shortening the performance and having to improvise near the end. Fortunately the children and parents seemed to love the show and we received great feedback.
Abstract Conceptualisation
Friday 30th October
Even though the performance went well there are a few things that could be looked at. There are certain parts in the performance where there is a rush of children to the stage and this gives us limited space to perform but more importantly it limits the view of the children still sitting who may just want to watch with their parents. So I think tomorrow we will have to think about crowd control and just make sure we monitor the situation so it doesn’t get out of hand. I also need to stay focused so I am aware of time and where we are up to in the performance. Also because there are parts in the performance when I am backstage and have to change lights, do voices on microphone, and bring puppets up. To improve the next performance I have learnt the main things I have to think about are focus and crowd control.
Active Experimentation
Saturday 31st October
The performance today was fantastic all the children were excited to see the last tales from the shed show this term. I think this excitement and energy rubbed off on us. There was a lot of children and our previous discussion about crowd control was put into use and it was really effective because we dealt with the situation as soon as we noticed a crowd forming we would ask the children to move back or even sit down when we was acting out a little story. This made the performance flow much better and gave the less confident children a chance to take part more in the performance. The focus and teamwork was strong and because we felt good about the performance I think this showed.
Concrete Experience
Wednesday 28th October
This week our theme is preparing for the tales from the shed end of term party. Because this is the last week of tales we want to make it exciting and fun for the children. At the same time because this is a performance where there are educational aspects we have to still incorporate that. We want the performance to feature most of the children’s favourite puppets and characters. We have taken into consideration what has worked in previous performances and are using this rehearsal session to try out ideas. The tales from the shed team is split into two groups and we face the challenge this week of mixing the two teams slightly. This will be a challenge because we haven’t worked together before but I am optimistic because we will all have different ideas to add to the performance. We will have to keep a high level of energy so the children stay engaged but at the same time be focused because there's is a lot of team work needed for tales from the shed.
Reflective Observations
Friday 30th October
The performance today was overall good and there were a large number of audience members. In this performance I played the character “Lion Down” who is a cool lion who likes dancing and moving. This characters costume is a lion’s suit, like a Disney character costume with me inside. This was slightly hard for me because vision is limited and I was scared of accidently bashing into a child. Also a fellow member of the team was doing lion down’s voice backstage on microphone all I had was my body and hand gestures to portray what lion down was saying and instructing the children to do. There were a lot of really enthusiastic children who rushed to the stage to join in with songs, movement and to see their favourite puppets. During the performance I got confused with the time and thought we had 10 minutes left of the performance but really had 20 minutes. This lead to us shortening the performance and having to improvise near the end. Fortunately the children and parents seemed to love the show and we received great feedback.
Abstract Conceptualisation
Friday 30th October
Even though the performance went well there are a few things that could be looked at. There are certain parts in the performance where there is a rush of children to the stage and this gives us limited space to perform but more importantly it limits the view of the children still sitting who may just want to watch with their parents. So I think tomorrow we will have to think about crowd control and just make sure we monitor the situation so it doesn’t get out of hand. I also need to stay focused so I am aware of time and where we are up to in the performance. Also because there are parts in the performance when I am backstage and have to change lights, do voices on microphone, and bring puppets up. To improve the next performance I have learnt the main things I have to think about are focus and crowd control.
Active Experimentation
Saturday 31st October
The performance today was fantastic all the children were excited to see the last tales from the shed show this term. I think this excitement and energy rubbed off on us. There was a lot of children and our previous discussion about crowd control was put into use and it was really effective because we dealt with the situation as soon as we noticed a crowd forming we would ask the children to move back or even sit down when we was acting out a little story. This made the performance flow much better and gave the less confident children a chance to take part more in the performance. The focus and teamwork was strong and because we felt good about the performance I think this showed.
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