BAG BOOKS - December 5th

Today our last day in London was visit to Bag Books HQ in Clapham - a charity which creates be-spoke sensory books especially for children with learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning disabilities. http://www.bagbooks.org/
The workshop Manger Sophie Baker , trained in fine arts with experienc in set design and carnival(festival parade) workshops leads a team of experienced "craft artists" and volunteers who hand make each book.

We had first come across Bag Books in the Carson Street Library and Bec Bradley and Francis had read a couple of the stories to a class of students. We had throught to make our own bag-style- book resource to accompany the performance of the Jub Jub Tree. During the residency it became apparent that this was not as simple as it had first appeared and we ran out of time. It felt surreal to be entering their workshop in real life!!!!

We were lucky to come in on a day when they were inducting some other new volunteers, so not only did we get to spend time n the workshop but we also heard from the CEO about funding and witnessed the telling of a brand new story Aladdin.

We learnt from Services Manager Stuart Cummings, Workshop Manager Sophie Baker and craft artist (of 8yrs) Magda about some of the considerations that go into choosing what elements are created for each page. Some principles:
Affordability
Ease
Durability
Safety
Repeatabiltiy( sure supply)
Time (goes with affordabilty and ease)

We were curious as to how books were developed - were they written first and then designed - or the other way around??? The answer it seems was both. Of the three recent new books - One had been written first(by Stuart Cummings) and then designed - and the other tow which had been written and designed by Sophie and Magda respectively had taken their impetus from a more "making" place. We asked " were there many books - that were adaptations of other books or stories?" - and the answer was not as many. For example there was an adaptation of Roald Dahl's Matilda - but this was very long with many pages and expensive to produce. (Hmmm - I remember the difficulty to reduce Jub Jub to 15 "pages")


In general stories worked well when they had 8-12 "pages" and one to two sentences corresponding with each page. Audiences tended to be between 6-12 also.

Bag Books was funded (this was part of Stuart's role) to train storytellers, teachers and librarians to be confident to use the books with pmld children.

It was fantastic to see the range of books and the different ideas for different pages. We got very excited about these small sensor pad things - which could record different sounds (they had recorded a squeaky door for the ghost train in the Fairground story)

As CEO Dean explained - each book is sold for around 30% of it's actual cost - and books take an average of 8 hrs to create. Book sales are only 15% of their annual income - the rest comes from charitable foundations, Lottery, Corporate and individual donations.

November 24th – Under the Sea – with Seeing Beyond – Lucy Garland

Today we journeyed to Sudbury in East Anglia to watch a sensory storytelling session with pmld kids at the Hillside Special School at the invitation of Lucy Garland (Seeing Beyond). www.seeing-beyond.co.uk

Lucy was a colleague of Amber’s who is now based in Norwich.

Under the Sea was a new show that Lucy developed and performed with another colleague Kimberly Moore. The school had “bought” the show for the day and Lucy and Kim set up and performed 3 shows in the space of a day. Lucy and Kim were given lists of names but little other information about the children who were attending. In this case there had not been pre-show preparation.

It was fantastic to see the show and observe the children’s reactions – who obviously loved the show. The show was based around a simple narrative of a young girl, trapped in a hot and smoky city who longs to see the sea – she follows the seagulls who take her to the seaside where she dives in and then is helped by a jellfish who advises her to go inside a bubble and journey deeper under the water.

Observations – Lucy began the show with a simple song that enabled each child to be named and greeted. Pretty much each line of the narrative was accompanied by a-hands on sensory experience. The 2 hander enabled also some visual storytelling to continue while objects and experiences were handled by each child so that there was an alternative focus for children who were not involved in the hands-on experience at the time. Music was also key within the show – with original songs being sung to highlight each point of the narrative. These songs tended to continue while the children were experiencing different elements of the show. After each sensory experience the story point was repeated before moving the story forward.  Eg: Tamara jumped into the water with a splash – then all the children had the opportunity to experience the water mister on their face and hands – after the circle had been completed – the story point was repeated by the performers – Tamara jumped into the water with a splash.

Lucy had experimented with a shadow screen which was a great device for changing scenery and bringing objects out of from behind the screen to the children. She had assembled some wonderful objects and effects – including a section under black light with a glowing fluro coral reef. The children then got to experience the coral reef through the device of a hoop which had tied on fluro material strips that were illuminated by a small black light torch. This was a magical effect. There was also a bowl of glowing sea anemone type balls which each child got to handle. The jellyfish was created using a clear umbrella fringed by long threads which was big enough for each child and a carer to sit within. There was a lovely scene behind the shadow screen which utilised a laser pen and a battery operated fibre optic lamp.

Shadow sillehoutes were used to create a city scape, seagulls flying and various kinds of fishes. These worked really well. I particularly enjoyed the effect of the fishes swimming further and closer with the use of a specific torch behind them. The screen itself had been created by making a small stand up frame with an insertable pull down blind and a overhead projector behind it. Again this was interesting as we had talked about utilising shadow puppetry and screen in our work.

The school itself seemed to be an interesting place and a shame we didn’t get to finish our tour with the deputy Gail. I was particularly struck by their use of a “ Reference Object” outside each door – eg: a wooden cooking spoon on the Kitchen room. Apparently the thinking behind this – is that for some children  having a object with a particular smell, feel and look conveys more powerfully the purpose of the room – than a drawn object  - which for some kids always looks, feels and smells like paper (or laminated paper). The child then has a matching object in a special bag that hangs on the back of their chair and matches their object with the door object when they go to enter a particular room.

In walking and talking with the deputy I was also struck by how progressive their approach was in general and this would support the students to experience new things. In the case of  Lucy’s sensory storytelling – it was her third visit to the school – and none of the children seemed overly  disturbed by the turning off the lights to experience the uV scenes or other events that I might of expected some children to have adverse reactions to.

Saturday November 19th - Getting "Lost" Found in Newmarket

Saturday November 19^th – “Lost” in Newmarket

After an epic journey from London we arrived in Newmarket (NE of London) to see Greenfingers perform their show “lost” to pmld audiences at the Newmarket Leisure Centre.

Regionally based outfit Greenfingers production specialise in creating work for pmld audiences. Usually they like to work one on one – that is 5 performers – 5 audience members – but principal artist Mike McManus was also reflecting on whether it would be possible to continue this ratio in the current straightened economic climate.

This show was held within an enclosed environment set which was cleverly created out of velcroing wall panels (apparently those used by police to isolate a crime scene). The roof was a large piece of silk. This made the show environment seemed cosy and contained.  The show’s theme was about self discovery and the audience were invited to help the central character “lost” discover herself through Echoe, Shadow, and Reflection.  Each show element had some fantastically catchy music that was easy to sing along with and interact. “Let’s play the echo game – Let’s play the echo game – clap clap clap – Let’s play the echo game – clap clap clap”. The children were encouraged to get up from their chairs (or be wheeled over as the case may be) and for example see their own shadow on the screen. At another point in the show – audiences were invited to bounce balls (with kinetically triggered lights inside them) inside the tent. At another point the audience were invited to bang on the Tin Buckets which were used to multi effect. The show also used live camera to zoom in on participants and project them onto the big screen as they were exploring different elements of the show. For example zooming in on participant A while she was creating patterns using a torch on luminescent board (nice effect that). Reflection involved physical mirroring and the use of mirrors which participants seemed to really get into.  They also had a really nice mirror cave where audience members could enter and play with their reflection.

Mike was very generous after the show – happy to share all sorts of insights, information and reflections on his work with pmld audiences.

 He talked about some software called Isadora which he said is often used in Dance work – but basically where a computer and camera can be programmed to produce different visual and audio effects responding to different visual, audio and kinaesthetic cues – Definitely something to explore.

A previous show about pirates and mermaids had used alot of UV light effects which he said worked to create magic – children had been given glowing eggs to take home (pearls) – Like the idea of the take home something.

They had created small round flexible screens which also worked to create the impressions of the children’s faces or hands when held over them. In this particular show they had 4 performers and a musician (who also operated the computer and camera) – and they had allowed for up to 14 participants.

Overall this show allowed for a lot of participation from the audience and this made it very dynamic. On the other hand it was not attempting to tell a complex story. I realise looking at Oily Cart also – that the development of the Jub Jub Tree was strongly influenced by the sensory storytelling tradition of Amber – and this was not necessarily the same arc as those companies exploring theatre for pmld kids.

It’s so great to have this opportunity to see other work for pmld audiences. This performance was not accompanied by preparation – or particular follow up resources. Mike said this was a matter of funding and money.