Elf Magic for Christmas 2012!

Theatre Hullabaloo & The Berry Theatre present The Elves and the Shoemakers In a new version by Mike Kenny Once, there were two shoemakers who were very old and very poor, so poor they couldn't even afford to buy Christmas presents for each other. With no wood for their fire and only one piece of leather left to make a final pair of shoes, there was little festive cheer on Christmas Eve in the shoemakers' shop on the corner. But that night, just as the snow drifted down outside and the clock struck midnight, two little Elves decided to spread a little bit of magic which would make a whole lot of difference.

Live music, puppetry, physical storytelling and a bit of Elf magic combine to tell this classic tale. Our Autumn & Winter 2012 tour of "The Elves and the Shoemakers" is now available to book. If you are interested in making a booking please contact our Creative Producer, Miranda Thain. miranda@theatrehullabaloo.org.uk Tel: 01325 352004

New Play, New Audience

About Angel




Theatre Hullabaloo’s Creative Producer, Miranda Thain, explains the story of Angel and why she thinks it’s an important story for young audiences.

“I first read Kevin Dyer’s play, which was originally titled Fool on the Hill, two years ago and was immediately struck by how beautifully he had crafted this very unusual friendship between an eccentric old woman called Miriam and a lonely tomboy kid, Bill. The friendship is unusual, not just because of our characters, but because, outside of families, young people rarely spend time with older people. This is one of the reasons that I think the play is important because the relationship shows us that, however great the age gap, we can still play and laugh and enjoy each other’s company.

The play is also important because it shows us the devastating effect of dementia on the life of Miriam, who is funny and witty and brilliant, as she struggles with the frightening reality that she can no longer remember. The play addresses the difficult question that many families face of how we appropriately care for older people – the battle between institutionalised tidiness of the elderly and the fear that they are not safe. This is a play based on a real woman who lived in a house just like the one in the story. It is always a privilege for a company to premiere a great new play, but Angel is particularly special. It is a timely play for us all”

The Night Pirates Nominated for Offie Award

Here are Theatre Hullabaloo, we are thrilled to announce that our production of The Night Pirates, by Peter Harris and Deborah Allwright, has nominated for the Off West End Award's Best Production for Young People.

The Offies (The Off West End Theatre Awards) are here to recognise and celebrate the excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent theatres across London.

Read more about The Offies here...

The public vote opens on 31st December 2011 and will stay open until 14th February, so make sure you click on the link above and vote for The Night Pirates!

Thanks

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

Following our successful inclusion in the Arts Council's national portfolio and with support from the John Fell Foundation, Theatre Hullabaloo will be redeveloping our fantastic operetta, My Mother Told Me Not to Stare for national venue touring in the summer 2012.

The show will be directed by Nina Hajiyianni and is in association with Action Transport Theatre.

My Mother Told Me Not to Stare is currently booking and we have very limited dates available in June 2012, please contact Miranda on 01325 352 004 or email miranda@theatrehullabaloo.org.uk for details.

ANGEL, New Show for 10 Years Plus

We are thrilled with the image that has been designed by Michael at Sumo, for our brand new show Angel, by Kevin Dyer.

This beautiful and witty play about childhood and ageing is a fantastic bit of new writing for audiences aged 10 years and above and should not be missed!

Angel will be touring nationally 24th Feb - 31st March 2012. 

Bookings are now open, please contact Diann on 01325 352 004 or email diann@theatrehullabaloo.org.uk for more information.

FIVE at Darlington Arts Centre 2011

We did a three week run of FIVE, our interactive dance installation about the senses, at Darlington Arts Centre in March. With three performances a day for three weeks, we bussed in most of Darlington's five year olds to see the show.

Here are some pictures from one of the shows:

Photos by Caroline Briggs

Responding to students interested in our work

We often get emails from students asking us questions about what we do and why we do it. Here is an article we have produced in response to some questions emailed to us by Kim Baker, masters student in Children's Literature at Newcastle University, about our recent stage adaptation of The Night Pirates.


KIM: It says in marketing pack for The Night Pirates that you have kept the performance close to the book, whilst making the most of the theatrical environment. What interested you about the book?

MIRANDA: I was interested in the ‘kidology’ of the book which appeals equally to both genders. From an adult perspective, the story seems daft (i.e. adults always get hung up on the subsidence of the house etc!) but for children, the adventure has real resonance. They empathise with Tom’s fear and then delight at the idea of a night time adventure, they love the ‘twist’ that the pirates are girls, they are thrilled when they overcome the grown-ups and, at the end of the night, Tom returns safely to bed. It also has many extension opportunities – pirates are such a part of this age groups imaginative landscape – and lots of fun for us too.

KIM: How important is it to balance the textual and visual elements of the book and how did you do this? What issues arose in the adaptation process and how did you overcome them?

MIRANDA: The adaptation has been challenging – the visual language of the book is so strong that we have had to make a very clear decision to embrace that and try and replicate it on stage. The designer has found it particularly frustrating because her job is usually to find a visual language and here she has had to adapt and problem solve. Also, there is very little ‘drama’ in the book, it is very ‘thin’ for the stage, but again we have embraced that and, using only the text as written, found models of theatrical, musical and dance storytelling to fill those gaps and make the piece fuller as a theatrical experience.

KIM: Do you feel that the performance has added anything to the experience of reading the book?

MIRANDA: We hope that the world of Tom and his night time adventures will become even more enthralling and engaging for the children in terms of enhancing their experience of the story – whether we achieve that will be down to the audiences of kids who we preview to.

KIM: The Night Pirates has some interesting stylistic aspects, in terms of text and structure on the page, did you choose to translate this theatrically? If so, how?

MIRANDA: The structure of the language on the page led us to a dance interpretation because the arrows indicated dance notation and movement journeys.

KIM: Theatre Hullabaloo stages both adaptations and devised or original work so there is obviously a balance in your company between the two. Why choose to adapt and what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? What is the role of adaptation, and those of picturebooks in particular, in your company and the wider context of theatre for children? Does their success hinder opportunities to create original work or can they open doors to new possibilities?

MIRANDA: The clearest advantage of adaptation, particularly of a book as popular as The Night Pirates, is the way it generates box office. Venues are very keen to book and we are doing remarkably well in terms of ticket sales. My reservation about adaptations is that I think they can sometimes be theatrically lazy as the children know the story and the characters and so the Creative Team is engaged with giving them a theatrical identity rather than being able to create a new world. I think that is why we have chosen such a departure in our use of ballet as a central part of the storytelling, so we are sure that we are creating a very vivid new experience for our audiences.

For a company such as Theatre Hullabaloo, I think an adaptation in amongst new work helps to support the company’s repertoire, but I would not want us to just produce adaptations – we want children to understand that the theatre is a place where original worlds and stories can come to life rather than somewhere that simply dramatises known worlds and characters.

KIM: Is it important for children to see and experience theatre? Do works for children have to be educational or do you think there is more of a focus on cultural learning? The book is not overtly educational and yet the themes, such as bravery, are very relevant (the section of your marketing document on how to sell for schools is really useful). How are these themes presented theatrically and do you feel that the experience of theatre is just as important as the educational focus?

MIRANDA:  It is crucially important that children have opportunities to experience theatre that is created for them and with proper investment, high production values and artists of the highest calibre. Why? For the same reasons that any of us ‘need’ theatre, or for that matter, art – it helps us to view the world and our place in it in a different way, to value a ‘live’ experience shared with others, to appreciate that magic can be created through ideas rather than just CGI. Too often children’s theatre is ‘dumbed down’, low quality, cheap laughs or overtly didactic – none of these things make for good art and we send a dangerous message to young audiences about the quality of experience that they should expect from the arts if we don’t challenge this. There is a place for education in art, but it’s a much more sophisticated position than the ‘play about drugs’, its about creating safe spaces for us to imagine and learn and about convincing the grown-ups that these are important things to nurture and protect.

Download The Night Pirates Marketing Pack

Read more about The Night Pirates