Review: Family Storytime - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

By Rachel Taylor*

Nope. No way. I wouldn’t have believed it either – but there really is something right here in Glasgow which is brilliant for families (including children of any age), loads of fun but still educational, perfectly tailored to young minds yet still entertaining for the grown-ups, inclusive to a whole bunch of people and even helps to grow the kids’ imaginations.Welcome to Family Storytime at Scottish Youth Theatre!

Upon arriving for your storytime – in this instance, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – you will be greeted enthusiastically by your storytellers in rhyme. As they lead you into the theatre space you will find yourselves transported: if the tinkling Arabian-sounding music doesn’t take you to far-off places, the shining fabrics hung from the walls and props and the dozens of costume pieces certainly will.

There is a distinct lack of set and scenery, but this is because the imaginations of the audience are key. When creating Ali Baba’s woodland, the children were invited up to discover where their imaginations took them, exploring what they could see, hear and feel in their wood. The storytellers skilfully guide the process, offering suggestions of their own and asking lots of questions for the children to react to. This process happened several times throughout the story, right up to the celebratory feast at the end.

But back to the “theatre space”. Far from trying to keep the kids in seats while lofty actors proclaim down from a stage on high, Family Storytime takes place in a studio – in simple terms, just a room rather than a theatre with a raised stage – keeping the storytellers on a level with their audience: even the little ones on cushions at the front. Not only that, but the children (as a whole group, not just a select one or two) become part of the production – from picking out each character’s costume to walking through the woodland they have imagined together; from helping Ali Baba chop enough wood to feed his family to hunting around for the greedy Kaseem whilst keeping an eye out for the King of Thieves himself! All of these come with rhymes and songs – short and set to recognisable nursery rhyme tunes so that even the smaller participants  will still have them learned in moments.

These active parts are interspersed with short bursts of the story at only a few minutes long at a time – perfect for keeping the little ‘uns from tiring of the tale. 

Once the story is done, there is a short time where imagination is all that rules the roost as little and big kids alike are invited to explore the props, fabrics and costumes in the room and to see what they can become!

All too soon, though, a bell signals tidy-up time and it’s time to leave Arabia behind with “a round of applause, a seal of approval and a big hand”.

The magical time certainly gets my seal of approval and from the entranced children and fascinated families; from seeing every single audience member participate; from hearing the gushing praise as the audience left, I’d guess it got theirs too.

* Rachel is a member of SYT's Young Reviewers group. A group of young people who are passionate about performing arts for children and young people. If you want to take part or to find out more, you can email kyriakosv@scottishyouththeatre.org.

Bringing Stories Alive - Creetown Drama Summer School July 2012

 

By Megan Monteith

  

On Monday the 16th of July, the Scottish Youth Theatre came down to Creetown to do a workshop with us. There was a junior workshop and a senior workshop, in which I attended the senior one. Craig, Jen and Emma were the three people that came down to do the drama workshop with us.

The workshop was from the 16th of July to the 20th of July so we had a lot of time to learn things. On the first day of the workshop I was quite shy and not sure about doing it, but Craig, Jen and Emma were such lovely, kind and encouraging people which boosted my confidence a lot. Craig also told us that we were doing a performance for our friends and family at the end of the week, which we were all frightened to do but when our confidence kicked in we were raring to go.

Craig was the Artistic Director, and he did games which helped us focus, script reading and role play. At first we found it hard to focus and we giggled quite a lot but after we kept practicing, we were very focused by the end of it. We also read a story which helped us think about emotions.

Jen was the trainee Director, and she did movement pieces with us. We did a movement piece which was based on the story Craig showed us and we had to think of three emotions within the story and show them through movement. I found doing the movement pieces helped me with my confidence a lot before our performance on Friday. 

Emma was the Visual Artist, and she did crafts with us. The first thing we did with Emma was to help us show our artistic side, so she rolled out a big sheet of paper and we drew shapes and patterns etc. We also made our own flying machines, in which we used one for our performance. I enjoyed the arts and crafts because I like doing that sort of thing at home. 

On the second last day we worked hard on perfecting our performance for the next day. Our performance was about Creetown having its own Aviator Club and we did some role play at the beginning and then went into a movement piece at the end. I enjoyed to the movement piece in the performance because we had worked so hard on perfecting it. My job was to carry in one of our Aviator club's newest members with two other people. The whole movement piece was basically about making the new Aviator club member an official Aviator club member by preparing her for her first flight.

Overall I really enjoyed the drama workshop because it really boosted my confidence and I learnt a lot of new techniques as well. I really hope Craig, Jen and Emma will come to Creetown again and do another workshop, and I'm sure everyone else wants them to come again too!

Daily Blogger #2: Rory Beaton

Hi I’m Rory, I’m 17 and I’m from Aboyne.

This Summer Festival I’m on the Technical Theatre Course and I’m the Technical ASM (assistant stage manager) on the production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

My favourite performer would have to be Katy Perry. 

In the movie of my life I think Jackie Chan would be the best actor to play me.

People should come to my show because it’s something completely different. The performance is a promenade AND outside which means that the audience follow the action on foot. From what I’ve seen in rehearsals so far this really helps the action and is uber exciting! It’s a challenging show to work on and there’s lots of different possible problems to watch out for – like the rain! Hope to see y’all there! J RB x

Daily Blogger 1: Sean O'Brien

The first daily blog of #SF12 is here!


Hi, my name's Sean, I'm 16. I'm in the SF 12 production of  'A Midsummer Nights Dream' playing the part of Demetrius. 

Today in rehearsals we did a full read-through of the play, and then after lunch we worked on our characters and their relationships with the other characters in the play, which I really enjoyed and found incredibly useful.

I don’t really know who my favourite actor is, there are just so many. But my favourite performer would definitely be Matt Bellamy of Muse, he’s just so talented.

If I could play any role in any film, it would definately be Batman. It would be so good!

 

I think people should come see my show as it will be really interesting to watch as it’s a promenade performance, and I think it will be really different to any previous Summer Festival show!

Summer Festival is just really great and with the new 6 week course I feel like I'm learning so much, and that it will definitely help me with a career in acting.

Media Release - Summer Season at SYT

The summer season - with something for every age - gets underway at SYT

Drama enthusiasts from across Scotland descended on The Old Sheriff Court (Scottish Youth Theatre h.q) this week to begin intensive rehearsals for the annual Summer Festival. The five week Performance and Production course will see participants rehearse six days a week for up to twelve hours, take part in master classes led by industry professionals and perform in large scale productions open to public audiences.

After focussing on all things horror last year, Summer Festival 2012 will this year focus on all things Shakespeare whilst incorporating dynamic and contemporary twists to the bard’s classical works.

“2012 is the World Festival of Shakespeare so we wanted to acknowledge this and at the same time put a unique spin on things” says SYT Artistic Director Mary McCluskey.

The main house productions this year include Twelfth Night at the Tron Theatre Glasgow; A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Fringe at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and a devised production ‘An Eye For An Eye’, based on the blood bath that is Titus Andronicus, at the Brian Cox Studio at Scottish Youth Theatre.

This year’s Festival sees the inclusion of the new Performance and Production Learning Programme, a six week course that boasts SQA and SCQF accreditation.

Fraser MacLeod, Associate Artistic Director explains why this is such a significant move for the organisation: “This is a major step forward for Scottish Youth Theatre. The work we deliver has been officially recognised as offering educational merit and the young people that take part in the course will now, on completion, have a tangible qualification to show for it”.

During the summer months when everyone else normally take the opportunity to relax and wind down, Scotland’s national theatre ‘for&by’ young people are at their busiest. Just last week, SYT Productions (SYT’s in-house performance group) toured new play ‘The Weegie Board – A West Of Scotland Ghost Story’ to London as part of the Cultural Olympiad. The spine chilling tale about a group of friends meddling in the occult went down a storm with teenagers.

The other end of the age spectrum is also well catered for with SYT’s hugely popular Family Storytime sessions going out on tour around shopping malls in Scotland in conjunction with the Daily Record’s ‘Big Read’ tour. These interactive story telling sessions are tailored for 3-7’s and the whole family, encouraging audiences to get involved, bring their imaginations and become part of the story.

“When the Daily Record approached us to be involved in the Big Read, we couldn’t turn it down, it was just a perfect match” comments Associate Director for Early Years Karen McGrady-Parker. “The first weekend in Stirling was a huge success with audiences at the Thistle Centre and we’ll be out on tour at shopping centres around Scotland for the next month so there’s plenty of opportunity for families to catch a performance”.

Full info on all Scottish Youth Theatre events, performances and activities available at www.scottishyouththeatre.org

SF 12 - Twisted Shakespeare is go!

After much anticipation, planning and general waiting for July to come around, Summer Festival 2012 'Twisted Shakespeare' is finally upon us.

On Thursday of last week, participants on the six week Performance and Production Learning Programme, began a series of master classes. Today they were joined by participants of the five week Performance and Production Course - signifying that rehearsals are already under way and that the countdown to opening night! The three week Intermediate Course participants will began rehearsals on Monday 16th July.

As ever, SF aims to CREATE wonderful theatre, enable participants to not only IMAGINE but realise exactly what it is they are capable of and INSPIRE absolutely everyone involved: audiences, staff and participants alike. This year's strong programme is set to do all of the above and more.

• Twelfth Night: Tron Theatre Glasgow, directed by Mary McCluskey
• A Midsummer Night's Dream: Royal Botanic Gardens, directed by Fraser MacLeod. Part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• An Eye For An Eye: a new devised production inspired by Titus Andronicus, directed by Lisa Gregan 

Box Office info for all shows here. 

In addition to rehearsing for and appearing in the main house productions, Twisted Shakespeare will incorporate a series of master classes and skills workshops, a very special performance from SYT Productions of 'The Weegie Board - A West Of Scotland Ghost Story' (just back from a London tour) and A Midsummer Night's Ball themed social event. 

We're fans of all things digital so like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for regular updates. And chat / connect with us in general as it's great to know what you think. 

Here's to a great festival! 

Review: Family Storytime - The Lion and the Mouse

By Sean Greenhorn*

Children's theatre is a unique offshoot of normative theatrical practice. The dependency on conventional narrative delivery is lessened and the performance instead employs a looseness that allows for, say, the introduction of a rapping explorer in comically over-sized glasses. Scottish Youth Theatre's Family Storytime shows are aimed at children aged between 3 and 7. At such a young age it goes without saying that much of the traditional ways of consuming theatre -sit quietly in the your assigned seat- has not yet been engrained onto their psyche (although this reviewer finds them better behaved than a lot of adult theatre audiences...). The gang over at Family Story Time realise this and not only do they offer a colourful, engaging and easy to follow story but they present the children with opportunity after opportunity to get involved in the story.

This current season of Family Storytime are all based around the timeless fables of Aesop (each season is based around a different theme; we have recently had fairy tales, rare tales etc.). Aesop's fables survived for two connected reasons; their brevity and their strong morals. This makes them perfect fodder for the Family Storytime treatment; in this weeks tale The Lion and the Mouse they spend 20 minutes of their 45/50 minute show  simply taking a tour of the 'safari'. The children were -of course- on board the bus the entire time. It is telling that it is the product of a Youth Theatre; that inherently understands what children want, which is simply to run around and make noise. What better opportunity to do this than by encouraging them to pretend to be monkeys?

A constant musical rhythm is maintained throughout the entire show that keeps the involved in the changing plot, although they may have to stay pretending to be those monkeys, they have got to get back on that bus, as the song (and the show) must continue. This is maintained throughout the entire performance; sure, the songs change but the beat is constant. At moments were there was a threat of disengagement from their audience, the performers are well trained and canny enough to realise this and engage with them on a one-to-one level. For instance, one child who did not involve himself with any of the interactive elements was asked (along with several of the other children, he was not singled out) what animal he was. His response to this was 'An evolved ape' which, whilst being a particularly smart answer, nonetheless demonstrates an involvement with the text on display. Family Storytime is an innovative and engaging way to introduce children to theatre, with 5/10 minutes at the end of every performance dedicated to the children storming the stage and 'playing' (in the theatrical sense, perhaps?) with the props. Each and every show not only presents a fun story for kids to enjoy but also encourages imaginative thought and, importantly, an introduction to the art of performance.     

Sean is a member of SYT's Young Reviewers group. A group of young people who study theatre and they are passionate about performing arts for children and young people. If you want to take part or to find out more, you can email kyriakosv@scottishyouththeatre.org.