From the two performance our story (the story stealer) ran differently both times. This was due to the children being spontaneous and unpredictable meaning we had to improvise/think on the spot when they found something earlier than we had anticipated or answered a question before we had even considered it. We felt that this challenged us to think on the spot and initially created a more exciting immersive piece of theatre. This was also good as it meant that we had the children's full attention as they were giving us imaginative/creative ideas in order to solve our problems that we had not necessarily thought of before.
~ACTIONS WE TOOK RELATING TO OUR FEEDBACK AND OUR FIRST PERFORMANCE~
- From the first performance our group decided that we had to give better instructions to the children as they were very frantic and had high energy levels. This was good however, it then meant it was a little difficult to calm them down to do a lighter, slower activity. For example, we had to give clear instructions to be very quiet and slow around The Story Stealer and to not run up to him and attack him. This was to ensure safety to our actors and the children.
- We then also decided that we should give them the scroll with clues on towards the middle of our piece instead of right at the beginning. This is because, in our first performance the children were very clever and figuring out how to solve our problem quicker than we wanted them to. It also meant that they were slightly distracted by the idea of the scroll and clues rather than listening to what we were saying. Therefore, by giving it to them later it meant more focus was on us and they were listening more attentively to what we were saying.
- One of our keys were hidden in a box filled with shredded paper and cardboard. During our first performance this was a little bit of an issue as the children couldn't find the key. Therefore we had to improvise. Luckily we had a spare key which we hid around the space, just in case which we could use as a backup. From this little issue we hid the key closer to the top of the box meaning it would be found quicker and easier. They also all tried to reach inside the box and put their hands inside. This created a little bit of chaos on stage. From this we decided that we would get all of the children to sit down in an specific area and choose 2-3 volunteer's to look through the box at a time in order to make sure that it was calm and controlled.
After both performances we got feedback from the children about what they liked about it. Here's what they liked about everyone's:
- The dragon
- Turning the Story Stealer good
- Singing the songs
- Doing the wake up dance
- The finale Dance
- Turning the dragon into the prince
- Searching/Looking for objects (the keys and oranges and breakfast things)
By receiving feedback it meant that we knew what was working with the children and what could be changed/incorporated in order to make it better.
~MORE FEEBACK~
- Our group instead of having the mystery box (filled with paper and cardboard with the hidden key) we should have more keys hidden around the space in different colours. As the children said they enjoyed looking for them. We also decided this as the children found it too difficult finding the keys and we don't ant them to feel disappointed if they can't find one.
- When the film of The Story Stealers backstory is being shown, we decided that there needs to be more dialogue as at the moment there are awkward pauses and silences which need to be filled. We decided that myself and charlotte would adlib/improvise some dialogue during this bit to make it a little more interesting and to safe the awkward moments.
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