The ‘Shoe Show’ - a gentle production for a very gentle 0-3 audience.
I feel honored to write about this project that I created in Bucharest, Romania in 2009 together with my good friend Cliodhna Noonan.
At that time in Romania the productions for 0-3 were very rare and because both of us had a background in Theatre and we were mixing with small children on a regular basis, we decided to form a team and to create and produce a ‘small size’ show about shoes and about their journey through the seasons.
I remember the first research on the ‘shoe’ theme. I tested the idea with the children that I was working with during the week in a few kindergartens in Bucharest and Cliodhna organized workshops in her house, exploring with her own children through painting.
One very important thing for me in creating art for such a young audience, was the use of safe materials on the stage, considering that the children were interacting with the sets at the end of the show. We decided to use dill to represent grass, corn powder to represent the sand, torn white tissues for snow and real dried leaves and walnuts for autumn.
As for the music, we used classic excerpts, in order to offer the small, untrained ears a very soft, clear, honest sound.
I was so impressed at the premiere to see such an engaged and quiet audience (about 20 small children, from 8 months to 3-4 years old, together with their parents). No one cried, they were all very attentive, they gradually relaxed into their new surroundings and they were stimulated and happy at the end.
Following the premiere in a theatre space, we took the show to a number of Romanian kindergartens to be performed in the children’s environment and the children just loved the experience.
Shoe Show remains a fantastic moment in my friendship with Cliodhna and we continue to work together sharing early arts projects, even if she is now living in Cairo.
As part of her feature of this project, Corina interviewed Cliodhna about the process of working with early years children. CLICK HERE to read the interview or follow the related interview link.
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