Children's Theatre Research: Polka Theatre

The Polka Theatre

Polka Theatre is a venue dedicated to producing and performing work for young audiences since 1979. It is situated in Wimbledon  and strives to inspire and stimulate their audience. They work towards string emotions, sparking the imagination and entertaining the young people.  According to their website, over 90,000 children come to the theatre every year to watch theatre for perhaps the first time. I think when you are performing a piece for children you always have to be aware of the fact that your piece may be the first piece of theatre they will have ever seen, either because they are very young or because they haven't had the opportunity. It is because of this every piece you perform to a child should be exciting and energetic to give them the best possible experience. 

The exterior and interior of the theatre is designed to make the children feel at ease and make them feel as if the theatre is just for them. I think this is a fantastic idea because when I was younger I remember loving venues that were bold and colourful so I can see children loving this theatre. 

Their audience ranges from the age of 0-14 and the theatre provides workshops and visit schools to occasionally perform or work there. There is a program called early Years where children as young as nine months can come with their families to the stimulating environment of a theatre and can see shows which are designed for them, focusing on the sensory and visual side. Polka often produces and performs new writing and is part of a charity where the public can donate to.

The artistic director and chief executive is Peter Glanville and the executive director is Stephen Midlane. Some shows on at the moment are: Moominsummer Madness, Skitterbang Island, We're Going On a Bear Hunt and Sparkle. Again these shows all have a common link which is that they are bold and energetic, familiar and new for the children. This research combined with the research on the Unicorn Theatre has helped me understand what is takes to perform a piece of children's theatre successfully. 

Singing Development

At our first meeting for Ashcroft, we had to sing a short solo so Rob could assess our voices. I have never been a confident singer and find it hard singing by myself in front of people so I really struggled with this and didn't at first feel comfortable singing at all. However, after Rob explained a few things about the type of singing we would be doing (character signing) I panicked less and started to relax. We did some pirate singing which I really enjoyed and gradually throughout the day my confidence seemed to grow. So when it came to first rehearsals after the holidays I was prepared to throw myself into learning the songs. 

As I'm not as confident of a singer as some other people in the cast, I didn't really participate in organising any vocal warm ups because I didn't feel as if I had any experience, but as the weeks went on and as we did more and more vocal warm ups I felt ready to lead one and did on the day of the show in our dressing room. I found the warm ups incredibly useful because my singing voice has never been trained and I wasn't sure what type of singer I was. Rob managed to, probably without even realising it, help me grow in my own voice through doing the warm ups and near the end I noticed I was singing without even thinking. 

The songs tie in nicely with the scenes and dance routines and can all be characterised which is so key for a children's piece of theatre. As Ashcroft is a musical songs are important and the ones which Rob wrote incorporate the stories perfectly. For example the Pooh Sticks song which Harvey sings has text in it from the novel which I think the children will relish. I've added on my character to the songs so they way I sing them will be different each time according to what my character does in the scene. At first I found the songs difficult to learn because I hadn't had much experience, but I just worked even harder and listened to the voice recordings I made to help me with the tune and pace. I found them easier to learn and enjoy once I had found my character for each scene. Having said this, I struggled keeping the energy up, especially after the dance number in If He Were Here and this affected my singing. To fix this all I need to do is practice and make sure every rehearsal I'm putting in maximum amounts of effort because then I will be prepared for the shows. 

Over the past few weeks my confidence in singing has grown immensely and it has been helped by being able to do what we wanted with the songs and with the security of our company being able to try out new things. I have come along way musically from the first rehearsal in the hut and now feel confident enough to be able to sing solo, which was my own personal goal for this project.  

Stories Left Behind

We're the stories left behind but here forever,

we're the stories that your mind can always see,

we exist in words, and our tales deserve,

to be told and not forgotten in a dream.

So use your mind to sculpt and paint the pictures,

use your thoughts to shape and form the plot,

the chapters are the frames that hold these stories in our names,

for we must never ever be forgot.

We're the stories left behind but we are waiting,

to be let into your mind to tell our tale,

we are wanting to be read, to exist inside your head,

we're the stories left here waiting just for you

We're the stories left here waiting just for you. 

(repeat until the hatch closes)

This is the closing song to our show after the massive pirate number. This song summaries what our whole piece is about and I think the message is extremely strong and poignant. Peter Pan, Alice and Pooh sing an underline tune to the last chorus from one of their scene songs and I love how this harmonizes well and incorporates the stories with the moral of our show.  

If He Were Here

If he were here I would send him flying, down into the stormy sea below.

If he were here he's have no luck trying, for sure I'd show Pan swiftly where to go.

If he were here I would slice and dice him, once or twice in guts and gore

If he were here we would not restrain ourselves in showing Peter Pan our pirate's law.

Kill him says I, for he's surely trouble, I'd snap and bend him double down to hell.

Ooo Argh, say I, break him down to rubble, let's hear him beg for help from tinker bell.

I'd string him up hang him out to slaughter, for he had ought to be out done.

If he were here we would not restrain ourselves in showing Peter Pan our pirate gun!

String him up! Throw him over board,

End his life in misery.

Don't give up, fight him with your sword,

And let him bathe beneath the sea!

Dance Break

If he were here we would make him grovel, just watch him try to get away from us.

You'd see the ship start to shake and wobble, for panicked Pete is not so very tough.

Come on then Pan show us what you're made of, for we're afraid of no lost boy.

If he were here we would end our enemy and celebrate with jubilance and joy,

By killing off this little boy,

Dear Peter Pan we will destroy,

For each of us he does annoy,

And all our weapons we'll deploy...

...So say goodbye to this lost boy!

This song is half way through the Peter Pan scene and I think it is fantastic. I can see the children loving it because it requires so much energy and there are so many tricks that we are doing and can do. It's a very energetic and impressive song which I think our young audience will adore. The harmonies sound great so far and I can't wait to get it onstage with the costume and props. The dance break fits in perfectly and compliments the song and the scene fantastically. I feel like this will be the most popular song/scene because everyone love Peter Pan and I think this number does it justice.

Guilty

Good grief it can't be true that someone else here someone new,

did steal the queen of hearts most tasty tarts now what are we to do,

the nave has been acquitted, even though we thought he fitted

the description of the guilty, who upon those tarts did chew.

We need a new defendant, but this surely is dependent on some

evidence or something sure to pin the verdict on,

so who here sounds suspicious, who here looks a bit fictitious,

for the tasty and delicious tarts are gone.

Could it be him over there, or perhaps it was march hare,

for I'm sure I think I saw her lick her lips,

or perhaps it was the cleaner, she's no longer looking leaner

and a pound or two's been added to her hips.

If we don't find who done it, I'm afraid it won't be fun it will be,

off with all our heads and that is that,

Oh golly this is tricky for the queen of hearts is picky

yes the situations sticky that's a fact.

Is she guilty? Is he guilty? Catch the culprit save my head.

Who stole the tarts from the queen of hearts, 'find the truth' that's what she said.

One among us dares to wrong us, not the nave so who instead,

Find the verdict, as you've heard it's better than to lose one's head. 

This song is near the end of the court room scene after Rupert has been cleared of the charge. As I am part of the jurors I start the number off. We have struggled with characterising the lyrics and dance movements, but after one rehearsal I went home and studied my court room scene character (see character development) and the song seemed to improve after everyone did this too. The lyrics and movements are very clipped and it works with the mood of the scene. The number is now coming together really well and I'm looking forward to getting it on stage at the Ashcroft because then I think the energy will kick in which is needed for this very high tension scene and song. 

Warm Ups

Before every rehearsal we did a warm up for both our vocals (speaking and singing) physicality and to stretch/awaken our bodies. A good warm up is vital before a rehearsal, especially one which involves a lot of physical strain, so preparing your body before is crucial.

Depending on what we were doing that day, the longest warm up would always be what the main focus of the day would be. Our vocal warm up (speaking) would consist of connecting the body to the voice, so opening up our rib cages with breathing exercises and doing tongue twisters with a physical movement such as:

How much wood would a wood 

chuck chuck,

if a wood chuck could chuck

wood?

For this twister we would move around the space clamping at the end of the phrase. Sometimes Tim would make us whisper it or project. This helps ground us in the space and connect our voice to our physicality which helps with character work. We also did a lot of exercises involving the plosive sounds to warm and strengthen our mouths. If I had to run my own theatre warm up session, I would definitely include the plosive exercise and a few tongue twisters because I feel as if these are the most effective when warming up the vocal folds ready to project. We did various tongue and facial warm ups to prepare our voices for rehearsals and singing. I found the strengthening of the tongue muscle the highest in utility because it is the area that I struggle with the most. I have noticed over these past week, with the combination of singing (which is another great technique to help improve your voice) that I have gained muscle in my mouth and have a wider space now, my vocal folds feel more open and awake and my voice clearer and more defined.  I found the breathing exercises useful for my voice change for Eeyore as the voice I used was a lot deeper and breathier than my own, so honing and enhancing my breath quality really helped for this role and for my future career. 

The dance warm up would involve stretching our muscles and warming up our bodies making sure they were ready to receive the choreography. We would move constantly for the duration of a few songs. I found this challenging at first but familiar as I dance regularly. As we had just done a vocal warm up then moved onto a physical one than back to a singing warm up, I found it quite hard to keep my breath intact but this was useful experience because during the pirate scene there is a dance break than we go back into the song so it was good to practice singing fully when tired or out of breath. The warm up did help because when it came to learning the routine's later, I felt awake and ready.

The singing warm up included humming up and down scales, singing tongue twisters and small lyrical scale songs to warm up our vocal range. A few of my favouites were the lyrical scale songs:

Phantom of the opera

Phantom of the op ar a

Phantom of the op ar a

Phantom of the opera

Phantom of the opera

Phantom of the op ar a!

1 2 3 4 5, 1 2 3 4 5,

1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1

These helped me gained confidence in my singing ability and strengthened my voice. My range has also improved over these past few weeks. Sometimes we would practice a song during a warm up or sing parts of well known songs in different accents to help develop our singing style. The warm up was vital to me because it prepared my un-used professional singing voice for the rehearsals without straining it. Also, as I mentioned before, the warm ups helped with my speaking voice as it became more connected and strong. I noticed at first that I could tell who was in musical theatre because they knew all the warm ups, but as the weeks progressed if I had just walked into the warm up I wouldn't have been able to tell who was from what strand because everyone was participating and working together. This was always the aim of this project; to not be able to tell which stand each student was from. I wasn't too confident in my singing before Ashcroft and I found the warm ups challenging to do at first but after a few rehearsals I had forgotten my fear and was singing to my full ability. The warm ups helped my self confidence because it was almost like a test run before we had to sing the scripted songs which enabled me to not feel shy when practicing and therefore I could give the songs my full attention and effort. I learned a lot from my fellow peers about how to do a singing warm up and now I feel ready to lead one myself. 

Overall the warm ups really helped me improve my skills as a performer and are vital to any rehearsal. I feel ready now to be able to lead myself in my own warm up as I feel as if I have received a lot of exercises to help me chose the ones which are best suited to me. 

Children's Theatre Research: Unicorn Theatre

• The Unicorn Theatre in Southwark is a theatre that commits to providing young children with a theatrical experience, perhaps for the first time. Their plays are written for young people with a purpose of educating and challenging their young audience in a safe environment. They have the philosophy that 'the best of theatre for children should be judged on the same high standards of writing, directing, acting and design as the best of adult theatre.' and for our community piece we strive to do this too. Stories Left Behind requires a high level of commitment from both cast and crew and I think we are all living up to this level of commitment because we all want this to be unforgettable for the children.

The Unicorn Theatre was founded by Caryl Jenner, first as a touring company in 1947 with the common purpose of allowing children to experience theatre. The Theatre is an Arts Council England Portfolio organisation and donations are frequently given to the theatre to help run workshops and put on performances. The Theatre today is now the UK's leading professional theatre for young people and is 'dedicated to inspiring and invigorating young people of all ages, perspectives and abilities, and empowering them to explore the world-on their own terms-through theatre'.(quote taken from Unicorn Theatre website) and that goal is our goal for Ashcroft. We want to present a message to the children in a way which is accessible to them and, personally, I would love it if after the performance they said they wanted to read a book because then to me is shows that our musical was successful in it's message and was intriguing and dynamic enough for the young audience to realise the message we are conveying. 

The artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre is Purni Morell and the executive director is Anneliese Davidsen. Some up and coming performances by the theatre are as follows: The Polar Bears Go Wild, The Secreat Lives of Suitcases, The Fourth Wise Man and 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do). These are either opening soon or are performing now. I noticed that all these shows and our own show have something in common; they all involve animals, inanimate objects coming to life and all contain situations and stories which the children can relate to or know already. I think this is really important when performing a piece for children because it keeps them interested and therefore they enjoy the piece more. 

This research into the Unicorn Theatre has been highly useful because it confirmed my hope that we are aiming for the right things and that our story/tale will be vibrant for them and exciting. 

The Unicorn Theatre