Children's Theatre

Our piece is for a very specific audience. Why is theatre for children so valuable?

Theatre for children can arguably be one of the most influential and important pieces of theatre. This is because for many of the audience, your show may be the first piece of live theatre they ever see. You could be one of the reasons they become inspired to follow a career in acting when they are older. Children's theatre inspires children and can even encourage a new generation of thinkers.

Who are Polka Theatre and Unicorn Theatre?

Polka theatre is one of the only theatre companies in the United Kingdom who specialise in producing work for a young audience. Their shows pull in over 90,000 children a year, inspiring many children around the UK At the moment.polka are showing their latest work entitled 'Dot, Squiggle and Rest'. Unicorn Theatre is the UK's leading theatre for younger audiences, ageing from 2 years of age. They serve over 60,000 children and their parents and carers every year through programmes onstage and offstage.

Unicorns and Polkas work will help us with our Little Peoples day performance in many ways, it will help us understand how to act in front of a younger audience in the correct way, as we might end up being intimidating if acted incorrectly. It will also help us understand how energetic we need to be in front of a younger audience, maintain their attention.

What activities did we do today?

Today we developed our ideas for our scenes. My group was me, Harmony, Will, Matteo and Connor. We all sat down and discussed our ideas for scenes. We came to the idea of what children wanted to be when they get older.

What ideas did you reject?

We rejected the idea of being a frog and hopping around the stage as it had no meaning to the piece and hardly any relevance. The original idea was to have a frog as the centre point of the piece. He would then converse with the children and then carry on.

Why have you chosen to develop some ideas further?

We decided to develop the idea of boring office workers as this could show the contrast between dreamers and non-dreamers. This contrast would help the children differentiate the two people, the old and the young. The office workers are almost like the villains of the scene, but overtime learn to dream and become, in a way, the heroes.

What acting/performing skills are you using?

Our group are focusing on body language and facial expression.We are very exaggerated with our
 bodies and faces, showing the story and characters clearly. This is important for the target audience as it is sometimes difficult to understand who a character is and what they are doing if you're subtle.