Research on children's theatre

1. For assignment1,we had to researchappropriate material forachildren’stheatrepiece,thatwe will be
performinginDecember.We are aimingtoperforman entertainingperformancethatisenjoyedbythe
whole audience.We have investigatedappropriate informationwithdifferenttechniques,including
interviewingprimarystudents,researchingandwatchingdifferenttheatre performancesandlookingat
storiesthatare likedthe mostbychildren.Usingall thisinformation,we aimtocome upwithan ideaof
whattheatre piece we thinkcouldworkwell.
Wheninterviewingthe children,Iaskedseveral questionsthatIfeltcouldhelpusinfindingthe
information.Iwantedtomake sure the questionswouldgive the childrenanopportunitytoexpandas
that wouldgive usas muchinformationaspossible.The questionswe askedinclude “Whatisyour
favourite movie andwhy?”,“If youcouldbe anyanimal,whatwouldyoube and why?”,“Do youlike
music+ favourite singer/song?”,“Whatscaresyouand why?”and “Couldyoudescribe yourfavourite
fairytale?”.Iwantedtomake sure the childrenwere ascomfortable aspossible,inordertogetthe
clearestandrelaxedanswers.Tomyfirstquestion,Ireceivedanswerslike“MaryPoppins”,“Cars”,
“Frozen”,“Star Wars” and “Lion King”.Whenaskingall toexpand,itwasa general theme thatthe
studentsenjoymagical powers.Thisisuseful informationbecauseittellsme thattheywouldn’tjust
wantstandard humancharacters.Alongwiththis,‘LionKing’isveryuseful asthere are several theatre
productionsthatinclude humansplayinganimals,andIfeltthere wasa clear linkbetweenthesetwo
conceptsas there are theatre productionswhere humansplayanimalsthroughunrealisticdance
movement.
The followingquestiongave me anopportunitytounderstandwhattype of
animalstheywouldwanttosee if the performance didn’tjustinvolvehuman
characters.I receivedresponsesincluding“cat”,“t-rex”,”monster”,“Cheetah”
and “Dolphin”.Generally,aninterestof the children istosee wildcats.Thishelps
linktotheirfavourite movie being‘LionKing’asbothinclude similarities.This
answerreceived some responsesthatwe aren’tinterestinginlookingtoodeeply
at, as ‘t-rex’and‘monster’are notsomethingthatwouldbe the targetgenre for
bothmale and female children.Alongwiththis,itisveryhardto finda theatre
piece includingeitherof these.
The third questionreceivedverysimilarresponsesfromall the students,astheymade itveryclearthat
theyall enjoymusic.Whenaskingthemtheirfavourite songstheyrespondedwith“Beatit”,“We will
rock you”,“Money Prince Charlie”and“I’mridingshotgun”.‘MoneyPrince Charlie’isasongtheywere
learningintheirmusicclass.Thisshowsme thattheyaren’t interestedinanyspecificgenre of music
outside of school,astheywill nothave the resourcestoresearchmusicinterestsyet.Thismeansthey
will be mostinterestedinthe musictheyare taughtin school (like ‘MoneyPrinceCharlie’).Thismeans
that the musicdoesn’thave tobe popor upbeat,as the childrenwill enjoythe music,nonetheless.“I’m
ridingShotgun”isn’tasong that we are able touse to back up our theatre choice asit doesn’tseemto
be the correcttitle of an actual song.

2. The penultimate questionwasaimedtogaininformationonthe disturbance of the equilibriumareaof
the narrative.Responsesinclude’“Spiders”,“Lions”,“Dinosaurs”,“Minecraftcharacters”,“Wombats”
and “Seamonsters”.Thisquestionreceivedasurprisingamountof input,althoughmanyanswers
cannot be explored.“Dinosaurs”are veryhardto recreate onstage,and theyare alsospecificallyscary
to a male audience,therefore wouldn’tintrigue the largestpossible,muchlikemonsters.The same
applieswiththe Minecraftcharacter,asthat wouldnotappeal to an audience pastyoungmales,
therefore Iamchoosingto disregardthatidea.The same with“Wombat” as itis notsomethingyou
wouldexpectachildtobe scared.Anideawe wouldlike toinvestigate.
The questionwe endedwithgotaslightlynegative reaction,asthey
were unclearof whata fairytale was.Itriedtodescribe whata fairytale
was,but theywere strugglingtograspwhat I meant.Due to this,Itried
to move iton and ask themabouta specifictheatre piece Ihadinmind
fromtheiranswers,whichwas‘Peterandthe Wolf’.Thishada very
positive answer,astheyall knewthe storyandseemedtobe relatively
excitedbythe idea.Thisispositive as,evenif we don’tgothe rootof
‘Peterandthe Wolf’,the informationtellsusthatthe style of narrationoverorchestral musicworksfor
bothmale and female students.
Alongwiththe interviews,we lookedata few differentstylesof
theatre.Thisinclude ‘LaPetitaMalumaluga’,‘Charlotte’sWeb’
and ‘NotNow,Bernard’.‘LaPetitaMalumaluga’isa production
that focusesprimarilyonthe music,andthenallowsthe children
to interactwiththe musicians.Thisideaworksverywell,asthe
childrencando whatevertheywish,andare entertainedbythe
music.The problemwe sawinthiswas that there isno storyline
and the childrencouldgetbored,anditdoesn’tsatisfyall the
answerswe receivedinthe interviews.‘Charlotte’sWeb’focusesmainlyonthe acting,whichmeansthe
childrencanfocuson a storyline more.Althoughthisisapositive,italsomeansthere islessaudience
interaction.‘NotNow,Bernard’worksverywell foraveryyoungaudience butwouldgetverytedious
for slightlyolderkids.We wouldlike tofindatheatre piece thatincorporatesdifferentaspectsof each.
In summary,the interviewalongwithfurtherresearchhelpsuschoose apiece of theatre thatcan fulfill
a decentamountof the children'shopes.We are interestedinusingcharactersthataren’tjusthumans
(although still playedbyhumans),we wanttouse musicwithinourpiece andfurthermore,we would
like apiece of theatre that doesn’tendupbeingtediousforall agesof childrenunder10.