Finding Leaves For Soup

WESTERN MAIL, Jun 25 2009 Reviewed by Katie Norman

Tales from mouths of 3-year-olds inspire Theatr Iolo

A THEATRE group has developed a new way of including children as young as three in the play-writing process.

Cardiff-based company Theatr Iolo has devised and performed two successful children’s plays using stories made up by nursery and Year 1 pupils in special workshops.

The exact phrases uttered by youngsters aged three to five have formed the basis for the scripts of the company’s productions Under the Carpet and Finding Leaves for Soup.

Teachers said involvement in the workshops and watching the resulting plays had helped to develop children’s confidence and imagination, as well as introducing the early years pupils to live performances.
The process has also enabled Theatr Iolo to create plays that are bound to appeal to nursery-age youngsters because they utilise the language and ideas of their peers.

Director Sarah Argent said the initiative had been inspired by the writings of American educator Vivian Gussin Paley, who focuses on the importance of encouraging young children to make up their own stories.

Ms Argent said: “We didn’t think it would lead to a production at first, it was initially just a story-making project. “I got a suitcase full of objects I thought were interesting and I took it into nurseries, where each child told me a story based on one or two of the objects.

“Then we had a eureka moment and thought, ‘What if our next production exclusively uses the words from the children’s stories?’ And that’s what we developed into Under the Carpet about two years ago.”

Based on the words of children from nurseries in Barry Island and Grangetown and Splott in Cardiff, Under the Carpet has now been performed in cities including Edinburgh, London and the Czech capital Prague. It will next travel to Seoul in South Korea.

Theatr Iolo’s latest play to be inspired by the stories of early years children is Finding Leaves for Soup, which began as a project called Words in the Woods, organised by the Vale of Glamorgan Forest Education Initiative. It is touring Welsh nurseries until July 10.

To generate story ideas for the production, youngsters aged three to five from four Vale of Glamorgan schools and nurseries were taken to Hensol Forest, near Cowbridge, for a workshop.

In the woodland, the children found ribbons tied to trees and giant pencils hanging from branches.
They were also introduced to characters including a boy called Jack and a fairy, who encouraged them to help make a “magical soup”.

Ms Argent said: “The characters told the children about themselves but didn’t give away too much because the aim of the project was to get the children to tell us stories based on what they had seen.
“We recorded their stories verbatim and the play was constructed from their exact words.”

Mari-Louise Shalom, a nursery teacher at one of the participating schools, St Andrew’s Major Church in Wales Primary School, in Dinas Powys, said it had been a phenomenal project to be a part of.

“I know that none of the teachers will ever forget it because it was so inspirational,” she said.
“One of the great things was that the children who sometimes struggle in class were in many cases the ones who took to this right away. Their imagination just tumbled out.

“For me, I could take a step back to watch, listen and observe the children work out for themselves who had put those pencils there, and who the fairy was. It highlighted to me the importance of stepping back to give the children plenty of time to be imaginative.

“One of the teachers I spoke to had been in the profession for 30 years and said it was the best project she had ever been involved with.

“It was truly a memorable experience for both the adults and the children involved.”

When Theatr Iolo performed the finished play at St Andrew’s Major Primary, Ms Shalom said many pupils were thrilled to recognise parts of their own stories in the script. She said: “They were so transfixed that not one of them moved for 45 minutes.”

 

Finding leaves for soup South Wales Echo, June 23 2009,

Reviewed by Katie Norman

Children as young as three help create a new play with Theatr Iolo

CHILDREN as young as three have contributed to the development of a new play.

Cardiff-based company Theatr Iolo used the stories made up by nursery and year one pupils to form a script for their new play, Finding Leaves for Soup.

The production, touring Welsh nurseries until July 10, began as a project called Words in the Woods, organised by the Vale of Glamorgan Forest Education Initiative.

Youngsters aged three to five were encouraged to come up with stories for the script during Theatr Iolo workshops in Hensol Forest, near Cowbridge.

During the workshops, the children were guided into the woodland where they found ribbons tied to trees and giant pencils hanging from branches.

They were also introduced to characters including a boy called Jack and a fairy who encouraged them to help make a magical soup.

The play’s director, Sarah Argent, said: “The characters told the children about themselves but didn’t give away too much because the aim of the project was to get the children to tell us stories based on what they had seen. We recorded their stories verbatim and the play was constructed from their exact words.”

It is the second time Sarah and her team have used the method to create a play for children, following the success of a similar project called Under the Carpet.

As well as developing youngsters’ confidence and imagination, the process creates a play likely to appeal to children because it was directly inspired by their peers.

Ms Argent said: “You have to bear in mind that the things adults find interesting and funny in children’s stories are not necessarily the things children take to. “They have their own ideas about what makes a good story.”

Pupils taking part in the project were from St Andrew’s Major Church in Wales Primary School in Dinas Powys; St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Penarth; Eagleswell Primary School in Llantwit Major and St Bride’s Major Church in Wales Primary School.

Mari-Louise Shalom, the nursery teacher at St Andrew’s Major Primary, said: “It was a phenomenal project to be a part of. I know that none of the teachers will ever forget it because it was so inspirational."

“One of the great things was that the children who sometimes struggle in class were in many cases the ones who took to this right away. Their imagination just tumbled out.”

When Theatr Iolo performed the finished play, Ms Shalom said many pupils were thrilled to recognise their own stories in the script.

“They were so transfixed that not one of them moved for 45 minutes during the performance,” she said.

Finding Leaves For Soup Theatre in Wales, May 20, 2009, Llanover Hall, Cardiff, Reviewed by Michael Kelligan

A totally captivating gem of a show

Another spectacular diminutive gem of a performance from the twenty-one year old Theatr Iolo, who though now in its mature years continues to produce innovative work that always totally captivates their young audiences. To a degree, influenced by primary school teachers asking to include nursery age children into the company’s plays designed for the 5+ group, the company under the guidance of the sensitive theatricality of director Sarah Argent turned to examine closer and present animated stories for this younger audience.

This production follows on from two previous projects which like Finding Leaves for Soup, the stories and the dialogue have all sprung from children being guided by the company to explore provocative objects and situations. In the first, stories and ideas grew from objects being taken from a suitcase, handed round and talked about. Then the company took their young audience Under the Carpet from which a second delightful play was brought engagingly to life, again written the same way.

For this production the company teamed with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and the Forestry Commission. With education staff from these organisations the director and her actors went off to the Hensol Forest in The Vale of Glamorgan to study the children’s reactions. From this adventure Finding Leaves for Soup emerged.

Whilst the youngsters may have provided the words and the narrative huge credit must go to actors Hannah McPake and her musical forest friend Jak Poore for succeeding so well in bringing all the smells and the feel of the forest so vividly and charmingly to life. McPake’s role demands a lot of sophisticated understanding of the techniques of the stage performer, this she most certainly has but so skilfully does she manipulate them in her performance of a very young girl who thinks she’s a fairy and has the wings to prove it, that throughout the play she has every small and every large eye glued to her. Jak starts a bit on the shy side but he gains more and more confidence with his new found friend as the play progresses. Both live, on his ukulele and with his recorded music he adds to the magic and enchantment of the story.

They nearly eat worms, sail a boat on a pond, get covered in mud and there is a load more than just leaves going into their soup. It never quite gets cooked, that’s something we have to come back for tomorrow.

The Welsh Assembly Government has recently introduced the Foundation Phase play-based curriculum for children aged 3 to 7.The Foundation Phase places great emphasis on children learning by doing. Theatre Iolo were well ahead of them and this production has been presented on behalf of the Welsh Assembly as an illustration of what education through outdoor activity can achieve.

 

Whose Shoes