Much fun and deep and subtle learning had during our time with Bamboozle Theatre Company in Leicester - in December participating in specialised training with other outside artists from the region, witnessing an access collaboration undertaken with the city's main theatre company, joining the company on a special needs schools tour of their "Jilly & the Jellyfish" show, working on the development of their interactive installation show "Winter Sparkle" for special needs kids and their families, and then returning after the christmas break a couple of days ago to help them mount it and present it to very receptive audiences. An immensely rewarding time for us...
Co-artistic Director, Christopher Davies, with one of the company's "Wild Things"
Co-artistic director, Sue Pyecroft, with one of her creations
Francis tries out Sue's "snow leopard" at Bamboozle's training day
Michelle and Francis test their "Winter Sparkle" snow-dropping prototype
working on the "campfire" for "Winter Sparkle"
Looking into part of the finished installation of "Winter Sparkle" - a snowy setting, shown here lit by the glow of the campfire in the middle. In the background are the shiny ice-cave igloo and the polar bear's warm red tummy - two of the several sensory "stations" for kids to hang out in. Furs, fleeces and sheepskins lay on top of large cushions and bean-bags and act as a meeting place for audience and neutral zone in between sensory experiences
an audience member delights in the sparkly sensations of the ice-cave as a cool fan blows crunchy "ice floes" across her body
an audience member is visited by the ice maiden as she lies atop a large tong drum that is being played by a musician, sending the vibrations of the polar bear's tummy all through her body
everybody snuggles under rugs in the snow around the campfire
Much food for thought - about the happy absence of intense narratives in this sort of theatre, the quality of sensory experiences we'd like to provide in the future (see michelle's more detailed blog description of "Winter Sparkle"), the incredibly valuable place of live music, the element of the "unknowable" that is part of working with these kinds of audiences, and the hard-to-describe intensely rewarding nature of creating this sort of work. (Not to mention a whole raft of practical considerations, like some of the equipment we'd eventually like to aquire). Chris' training really got me thinking about being cautious with value-judgements - of the kids' reactions, of our own artistic intentions, of uneccessarily creating hierarchies of the various senses... Difficult to articulate right now, but I think my time with these theatre companies has me contemplating whether the "mystery" surrounding our absolute understanding of profoundly disabled kids' experience of their environment is kind of similar to the impossible-to-define nature of "creativity" - it's "felt" rather than spoken - and you definitely know when it feels "right"... I am leaving Leicester inspired - and excited about Sensorium's future. It's a wonderful feeling as an artist when you can see so many potential avenues for your creativity stretching out into the future!
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