Schools Programme WELCOME A recent study found that children who regularly attended theatre with their school had higher aspirations and better hopes about their future lives. This news sent my heart soaring as this is what this job is all about! The productions presented this year are surprising and eclectic, taking the spectator along visually interesting pathways. The works include a wide variety of theatrical genres from spoken text to puppetry, from dance theatre and musical explorations to acrobatics. Many of the productions are non-text based making them accessible to a broader audience. Central to the Festival are four exciting shows by Scotland based companies as well as a regional focus on Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium, one of the world’s leaders in producing innovative theatre and dance for young audiences. We have also extended the dates of the Festival to accommodate the increased demand from schools with three international productions opening in the week prior to the main Festival week. In line with our mission, this will allow more children access to high quality theatre. I hope that the 2020 Edinburgh International Children’s Festival is full of special moments for you and your students. Exquisitely theatrical experiences that encourage children and young people to wish, desire and aspire beyond their own lives and immediate neighbourhoods, into their potential future selves. Focus on Flanders supported by: Noel Jordan Festival Director Beyond the Festival: • Creative learning project Imaginate offers a year-round programme Artist-led workshops inspired by of projects for schools including: and linked to some of the Festival’s productions • Theatre in Schools Scotland (TiSS) High quality theatre and dance shows • Artists in Residence touring into schools across Scotland Partnerships with schools to enable artists, pupils and teachers to work • Teachers’ Theatre Club together for a term or longer Professional development project for teachers to increase confidence and For more information, go to our website skills with live performance or contact [email protected] (TiSS) or [email protected] (other schools projects). 2 To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 PROGRAMME AT A GLANCE LITTLE TOP SPARROW BOKS SCOTLAND NORWAY BELGIUM 4 5 6 Nursery (0–18 mths) Nursery (0–2 yrs) Nursery – P1 (2+ yrs) HERMIT LIGHT! PLOCK! THE NETHERLANDS BELGIUM BELGIUM 7 8 9 Nursery – P1 (2+ yrs) Nursery – P2 (3+ yrs) P1 – P4 WHIRLYGIG THE PROBLEM THE RIDDLE OF SCOTLAND WITH PINK WASHPOOL GULLY 10 CANADA AND FRANCE 11 AUSTRALIA 12 P2 – P6 P2 – P7 P3 – P7 LEARNING TO FLY UDUL INUK SCOTLAND SPAIN BELGIUM 13 14 15 P3 – S1 P3 – S3 P3 – S3 ROBOT SONG SOUND SYMPHONY BIRDBOY AUSTRALIA SCOTLAND IRELAND 16 17 18 P4 – S2 P4 – S6 (ASN) P5 – S3 To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 3 Jassy Earl Jassy “A gentle but hugely engaging series of skills, tricks and tumbles, which has its tiny audience members bright-eyed and itching to join in.” The Stage Venue: Assembly Roxy LITTLE TOP Wed 27 May 10.00, 13.00 STARCATCHERS & SUPERFAN Thu 28 May 10.00, 13.00 SCOTLAND Fri 29 May 10.00, 13.00 Duration: 40 minutes + 10 min playtime Curriculum for Excellence: Seating: Cushions The performers’ own discoveries through Capacity: 20 balancing, tumbling and playing echoes Level: Nursery (0–18 mths) the children’s own world. This imaginative approach to enquiry and discovery is at the Flashing lights, non-verbal heart of Creativity Across Learning. A magical first circus experience for babies and their grown-ups. Little Top’s beautiful set creates a At a time in their development when colourful, cosy and welcoming space where young children are discovering their professional circus acrobats and jugglers own physicality and the pleasures and perform up close in babies’ line of sight, perils of gravity, Little Top invites babies making eye contact, and interacting and to experience spectacular balances, responding to their young audience. Babies astonishing tumbles and inventive and adults alike are transported into a juggling in a specially-designed set that joyous, topsy-turvy world where patterns miniaturises the magic of the Big Top. fill the air and anything is possible. 4 To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 Venue: Traverse Theatre SPARROW Fri 29 May 10.30, 14.00 TEATER FOT Curriculum for Excellence: NORWAY The playful interaction with the characters Duration: 30 minutes on stage encourages the children to join Seating: Cushions in and make discoveries. That sense of Capacity: 40 creative discovery links well with Social Level: Nursery (0–2 yrs) Studies and Health and Wellbeing. Non-verbal from each other is perhaps the scariest Sparrows are small and chubby and they of all. usually appear in a flock. They aren’t too afraid, almost a bit brazen and they Encouraged by unpredictable stay close to people all year round. Most improvisations on the double bass and children know the sparrows, and maybe the quirky bird-like movements of the they can see that they are curious and performers, Sparrow allows for both playful, just like themselves. In this individual and collective interaction sparrow-inspired performance, birds are between those present. The piece is first hatched under the sun’s warming rays, find and foremost a celebration of play and their way out of the egg and try to tackle social interaction in an atmosphere of their first challenges in life. Straying away light, dance and music. “Sparrow was a complete sensorial experience; Lundstr�m Sivert a beautiful and poetic performance where anything can happen.” Scenekunst To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 5 FOCUS ON FLANDERS Venue: Assembly Roxy BOKS Wed 20 May 10:00, 13:15 DE SPIEGEL Thu 21 May 10:00, 13:15 BELGIUM Fri 22 May 10:00, 13:15 Mon 25 May 10:00, 13:15 Duration: 40 minutes Tue 26 May 10:00, 13:15 Seating: Bench seating Capacity: 54 Curriculum for Excellence: Level: Nursery – P1 (2+ yrs) A humorous performance with skilful physicality and lively percussion that offers Non-verbal its young audience the opportunity to BOKS is a physical production with an consider friendship and the importance of original, composed soundscape that offering help and support to others, a key is created live – a dance theatre piece feature within Health and Wellbeing. about reaching out to someone, about togetherness. discover that they are not alone. Gradually Two people find themselves stuck in a they warm to each other, though not confined space, a box. They can’t get away without the inevitable tensions, clashes, from each other. There is confusion, fear caresses and emotions. Uneasiness turns and a sense of unfamiliarity. They also to laughter and infectious amusement. Laure-Anne Iserief Laure-Anne 6 To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 “A lovely theatrical treasure for all ages.” Saris & den Engelsman Theaterkrant Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre HERMIT Wed 20 May 10:00, 11:45, 14:00 SIMONE DE JONG Thu 21 May 10:00, 11:45, 14:00 THE NETHERLANDS Fri 22 May 09:30, 11:15, 13:45 Mon 25 May 10:00, 11:45, 14:00 Duration: 35 minutes + 10 min playtime Tue 26 May 10:00, 11:45, 14:00 Seating: Theatre seating Capacity: 89 Curriculum for Excellence: Level: Nursery – P1 (2+ yrs) Exploring the idea of stepping out into the world, this visual and moving performance Non-verbal encourages the children to join the Hermit is an original, visual, funny and hermit on a journey of imagination and moving performance about being alone curiosity. Literacy and Social Studies offer and coming home. opportunities to reflect on these themes. There is a square and some strange sounds. Is it a house? A lid opens. Is there work based around music, movement and something inside? imagination, with performances which With a background in music theatre and appeal to the multiple senses of its young modern mime, Simone de Jong creates audience, in a secretive way. To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 7 FOCUS ON FLANDERS Emilie Jacomet Emilie Venue: The Studio LIGHT! Wed 27 May 10:30, 13:30 TOUT PETIT Thu 28 May 10:30, 13:30 BELGIUM Fri 29 May 10:30, 13:30 Duration: 30 minutes + 20 min playtime Curriculum for Excellence: Seating: Theatre seating This delightful production experiments Capacity: 86 with light and encourages the audience to Level: Nursery – P2 (3+ yrs) discover, with the dancers, the effects of light and shadow. Their responses can be Non-verbal explored in Science and Expressive Arts. light! is a performance in which the light is dancing. Tiny lights and big spots traverse The performance teases the senses and the stage. The light dances in rounds and sparks the imagination and little ones get the performers follow suit. The audience the chance to experiment with shadows slowly discovers a world of nuances and and light at the end of the performance light intensity – the gloom of a torch, the when they are invited to join the bright light of a larger spot, each radiating performers on stage. a different atmosphere. “tout petit creates light dance The performers’ feet dance softly, then for toddlers in a playful and stomp, march shuffle. Their movements caught in the rays of light, sometimes tender way.” smooth, soft or powerful. Theaterkrant 8 To book: www.imaginate.org.uk | [email protected] | 0131 225 8050 FOCUS ON FLANDERS Venue: Southside Community Centre PLOCK! Mon 25 May 10:45, 13:45 GRENSGEVAL Tue 26 May 13:45 BELGIUM Wed 27 May 13:45* Thu 28 May 10:45, 13:45 Duration: 55 minutes * Relaxed performance aimed at audiences with Seating: Bench seating additional support needs Capacity: 57 Level: P1 – P4 Curriculum for Excellence: The children firstly observe and are then Non-verbal encouraged to participate in the making Jakob tries to copy the painting of his hero of an action painting in this exciting Jackson Pollock.