Lesson One

In today's lesson we talked about how this performance would be performed by all the different strands which means that during the transition periods when our strand is not doing something we need to keep focus and concentrate so that we can quickly get to work and understand what the other strands are doing. For little peoples day we are going to be exploring facts about tigers and giving an interesting, entertaining performance that is not too long (about 10 minutes) so that the audience (children aged 2-5) do not loose focus.

Questions 

What is Children's Theatre?


Children's theatre in a performance which uses different types of media such as dance, music, art, theatre and movement to educate or entertain. To engage children, interaction and colour is used to keep the children focused. Many people believe that children's theatre comes across as basic and simple but good children's theatre often has a deeper meaning and is for both adults and children to enjoy. It is there to give them a better understanding of life and the world they live in so that they can be taught about issues and learn lessons which may add to the child's knowledge. This piece of theatre is often thought as being a play put on but it can also be a devised piece or facts which teach and entertain the children. Children's theatre should be accessible to all, children often tend to have a short attention span but by using your voice in different tones and positions, buy using your body to portray movement and by delivering words clearly to the whole audience whether to you side or front will create a piece of theatre that is exciting and interesting to watch.

What skills does and excellent children's theatre performer need to possess?

They should be a total artist therefore the should me able to sing to some extent, dance ( have some movement), play an instrument, understand technology and be able to devise. They should also be able to play the space for exactly if someone is speaking to one direction and there whole body is facing that way the rest of the audience is gaining no energy from him so they should have there chest to one direction and their head to another so that they can deliver to the whole audience, this means that no ones view is blocked.. The theatre does not have to be basic they just have to be clear, they should have clear pronunciation, give across energy and speak with accuracy and control. to work on this an actor should exercise there mouth regularly to pronounce words properly, they should know exactly what they are saying and give clear and concise words so that if they do need to speak quickly every word can be understood. They should also be able to change the position of there voice, as well as pitch in order to get the children's attention and keep them wanting more. For children's theatre actors need to have the freedom to experiment they need to release there inner child to make the performance fun and exciting

The actors also need to be able to make eye contact in order to connect with the children and play to the vertical and horizontal so that energy is given to all the seats so the children and adults pay attention. A good children's performer should be sympathetic towards the audiences reaction and understand how to make them feel comfortable so that they all enjoy the performance. Children's theatre should be exciting for all ages and the actors can do this by putting in effort, playing their character to the correct energy level and using the body and voice as one. Exercise like 'I'm a slimy frog' and 'the tension levels' can help actors learn how to use there body and mind to portray emotion and use there voice with their body.

How would you adapt an issue for delivery to a specific audience?

To give facts to a young audience could be seen as difficult because they have a short attention span but we can keep them engaged by giving a exciting creative performance. Our group decided that we could adapt these tiger facts into a performance involving breaking news. Lots of children watching CBBC and Ceebies see presenters and short news flashes so this was the base for our idea. We thought that we could make it slightly 'pantomime' like having the news reporters panicking about the tiger on the loose and then having the tiger walk behind them without them knowing. We also thought by having this news flash we could go to different locations such as the zoo where the tiger broke out and a safari to find out more about the tiger species. Having these changes in set will keep the children excited and engaged, also due to it being a quick newsflash it will not go on to long and we would be able to fit in lots of facts at the three different locations. Involving news makes the performance educational and also having the wondering tiger on the loose will make it entertaining for all of the audience members.