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LET’S TALK ABOUT EARLY YEARS THEATRE! Online Panel conversations 11 – 13 Dec.

Programme International co-productions / panel discussiondate: 12.12time: 12:00 (UTC/GMT +1 hour) / 20:00 (UTC/GMT +9 hours)Language: English/Japanese (with simultaneous interpretation)…
Small Size

About a virtual festival and its success

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In Memoriam: Valeria Frabetti

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LET’S TALK ABOUT EARLY YEARS THEATRE! Online Panel conversations 11 – 13 Dec.

10 December 2020 10 h 58 min

By: Louis Valente

No responses

Programme International co-productions / panel discussiondate: 12.12time: 12:00 (UTC/GMT +1 hour) / 20:00 (UTC/GMT +9 hours)Language: English/Japanese (with simultaneous interpretation)... Read more →

Programme

International co-productions / panel discussion
date: 12.12
time: 12:00 (UTC/GMT +1 hour) / 20:00 (UTC/GMT +9 hours)
Language: English/Japanese (with simultaneous interpretation)

As part of the discussion, we’ll look at some transcontinental co-productions for very young children. We will talk about the opportunities and obstacles faced by teams working in international groups. How sharing between cultures affects the creative process, the development of artists and – most importantly – the spectators. We will look at past productions and prospects that are built by the current global situation. Will such work still be possible? Is it worth fighting for?
Panelists: Akira Ota (Jienkyo, Japan), Maho Nakamichi (Baby Theatre Project, Japan), Alicja Morawska-Rubczak (Art Fraction Foundation, Poland), Barbara Kölling (Helios Theater, Germany), Anurupa Roy (Theatre Katkatha, India)Moderator: Cliodhna Noonan (Ireland)The panel will be accompanied by online presentations of performance:
„KUUKI” by JIENKYO (directed by Alicja Morawska-Rubczak) – Poland/Japan
Japanese-Polish dance co-production focused on air. Dynamically, lightly, airy, elusively – Kuuki is a quest for energy. Can the wind be touched? How does the air smell? How does the breath sound? Each of us – the youngest and the older one – experiences it on a daily basis, yet the air constantly enraptures us with its elusiveness, under consciousness, enchants with the promise of going up, attracts the possibility of flight, spinning.

Set design and object in Early Years Theatre / panel discussiondate: 13.12.
time: 12:00 (UTC/GMT +1 hour) / 20:00 (UTC/GMT +9 hours)
Language: English (with simultaneous interpretation to Japanese)During the conversation, issues related to various aspects and perspectives of creating set design in performances aimed at families with very young children will be discussed. We will talk about the specifics of this field and the ideas behind the projects of specific artists. We will also deal with harmful myths related to this area. The youngest children learn the world – including the world of art – with all their senses, which is why the issue of set design created in the context of work for very young children seems to be a particularly interesting issue.
Panelists: Karel Van Ransbeeck (Theatre De Spiegel, Belgium), Barbara Małecka (Art Fraction Foundation, Poland), Pernille Bach and Christian Schrøder (Theatre Madam Bach, Denmark)Moderator: Gina Westbrook (UK)

The panel will be accompanied by on-line presentations of performances:
„Blisko / Close” by Children’s Art Centre (directed by Alicja Morawska-Rubczak, set design: Barbara Małecka) / Poland
Dance performance about creating bonds. Two dancers on a round stage – a circle of life and community, and in its centre a matrioshka – a symbol of motherhood, but at the same time an object hiding a lot of surprises inside. Traditional in its form, the doll gains a contemporary touch and can be creatively processed – by both artists and audience. „Beat the drum” by Theatre De Spiegel / Belgium (directed by Karel Van Ransbeeck, set design: Wim Van De Vyver)
Music theatre production filled with catchy rhythms and amazing shadow theatre. In an original set sporting lots of drumheads, we invite young children and their parents to join a percussionist, a saxophonist and a puppeteer for a unique experience. Musical improvisation and shadow play are used to create an authentic story. „JUNGLE” by Wrocławski Teatr Lalek / (directed by Alicja Morawska-Rubczak, set design: Barbara Małecka) / Poland
Puppet theatre production that arose from the fascination with the richness of the Amazon jungle – an area most unspoiled and threatened at the same time, home to thousands of species of insects, animals and plants, where the natural, primeval bonds between man and nature have been preserved. The creators of the show want to share with the viewers reflection on this beautiful relationship; seek together the roots of interpersonal closeness, based on rhythms, rituals of everyday life and harmony with the surrounding world.

We invite professionals, researchers, teachers, parents and all adults interested in EYT.Please note
All presentations of performances are aimed at adults. We strongly believe that EYT should be presented live and that online presentations are harmful to the youngest children.The event is organized as part of the project “NAJNAJ.PL: teatr dla najmłodszych na ASSITEJ World Congress”The strategic goal of the program is to build and strengthen a positive image of Poland abroad through the presentation and promotion of Polish culture.Co-financed under the Multiannual Program NIEPODLEGŁA [INDEPENDENT] for 2017-2022, as part of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute grant program “Cultural bridges”.

Registration

↓↓REGISTER HERE↓↓
https://forms.gle/xpkanL44rhWmis3T9

Organizers

We are a Polish non-governmental organization Art Fraction Foundation, which deals with international cooperation, promotion and development of art for the youngest children. We were planning to meet you at the ASSITEJ World Congress in Tokyo, but our joint plans had to be completely changed. At the end of this strange and frightening year, however, we found a way to share our work with you! We invite you to 3 days of watching online performances together and two ZOOM panel discussions devoted to Early Years Theatre issues.
The project is implemented in cooperation with JIENKYO (Japan Union of Theatre Companies for Children and Young People), ASSITEJ International and Small Size Network.

Categories: Small Size
News from the Small size Network

30 October 2020 15 h 55 min

By: Kaatje De Geest

No responses

The unique circumstances of spring 2020 have activated the members, 91 in total, to undertake many initiatives: a Survey on... Read more →

The unique circumstances of spring 2020 have activated the members, 91 in total, to undertake many initiatives: a Survey on Covid-19 impact and protocols affecting theatre for early years, a common artistic project during the lockdown, a public letter about the needs and rights of small children for arts, and last, but not least, our first brochure, collecting the latest activities from 67 of our members.

From the early spring of 2020 the Small size network members around the world have been mostly restricted to their homes, trying to find ways to keep contact with their audiences. Theatres, cultural venues, even parks have been closed; while the societies try to work virtually, it has not been easy to reach the small children and families with their cultural needs. The artists have been cut suddenly and almost totally from their income; in some countries there have been some support for theatres and individual artists, but in so many countries the artists have been suffering and the audiences, our little ones, have been denied their rights for arts, culture and even play. With this digital brochure for 2020 we declare: we are here, we exist and we have a great variety of proposals to share with our young audiences.

Have a look at the Small size brochure on the web: www.smallsizenetwork.org

There you find also the link to the results of the survey while you can see the Small size bird story on our Small size channel in YouTube.

Katariina Metsälampi

Chair of the Board of Directors of Small size Network

Categories: Small Size

Tags: News, Small Size Network
About a virtual festival and its success

30 October 2020 10 h 26 min

By: Kaatje De Geest

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WE ARE COMMUNITY. WE CREATE IT TOGETHER. LABAS! 2020 overcame the challenges and crossed virtual borders to bring children aged... Read more →

WE ARE COMMUNITY. WE CREATE IT TOGETHER.

LABAS! 2020 overcame the challenges and crossed virtual borders to bring children aged 0-6 a week of diverse activity online (and a little in person!) from 20-27 September in Lithuania.

Dalia Mikoliunaite of Teatrukas Theatre in Lithuania and Cliodhna Noonan of Acting Up! Arts in Ireland have been international partners of this early years project event for six years now. They met at Assitej World Congress in Warsaw and have enjoyed an incredible collaboration since then! “Five months ago we were faced with a huge challenge… we secured funding for our annual festival but the pandemic, which we are all so acutely aware of now, looked like it was going to make our dream of a sixth edition impossible. “ says Dalia.

However, we were both of the same opinion – to at least try to bring the programme to fruition and to involve our international guests as we had planned to do. The question was how?

The following points are reflections on the festival and its success and we look forward to continuing our event into the future! Whatever that may hold. Cliodhna and Dalia firmly believe that even if we cannot meet in person, we are indeed a community and we do indeed build it together and share it with our young audiences!!!!

1. The Zoom Question

We made a decision to try to use zoom for one purpose only – to be the portal by which the artist met the kids. Luckily, during the festival week in Lithuania, creches and kindergartens were still open. On account of our long-standing relationship with our participating schools, we were openly welcomed and provided with an audience in a class group. Age appropriate. (In some cases two rooms were participating separately but simultaneously!) We did not open the zoom session to the general public. This meant that on the session screen we had very few windows. And the children could focus on what the artist on the screen was asking them to do. In speaker view.

Long before the week of the festival, we hired a technology co-ordinator. Interestingly, she was a Lithuanian living in Talinn!!!!! But her sole responsibility was to manage the zoom sessions and watch the technology and its behaviour. Cliodhna joined every session as manager of the international artists but with the screen video and sound off. And it seems to have worked a treat!

2. Matching Artists To Technology

Although we had some brilliant examples of how to use zoom for delivery, (Aisling Byrne presented the dilemma of Princess Penelope who was trapped in the screen room and needed the help of the audience to get out the door they could see on screen!!!) we did not always rely on zoom. For the workshops it was brilliant because the screen became the workshop leader in real time. (Thank you Helen Barry and Andra Burca). However, on two occasions during the week, the events on offer were more performance-oriented. In both cases we opted for youtube live sessions which were open to the viewers for a window of time only. Joeri from Belgium provided a beautiful concert of percussion moments and Theaterhaus Ensemble in Germany performed live from their theatre in Frankfurt into the classroom in Lithuania. Both experiences were fantastic and received with much warmth and engagement by the children. Zoom was open for these sessions in order for the artists performing to at least see the audience they were performing for.
Storytime and Visualisation sessions (by Nishna Mehta and Cliodhna Noonan) were pre-recorded and Dalia delivered required materials for the interaction and participation by the live audience. The artists appeared on screen at the end of the session only to say goodbye and thank you!
And on Friday evening, replacing our usual educator training workshop, we asked SVetlana Patafta from Puna Kuca to present and chair a Conversation with professional peers on the topic of inclusion. It is the highest performing event on our Labas! facebook page so far. “We were thrilled to highlight this important topic and to bring it to a festival table!” says Dalia. Svetlana prepared an engaging and thought provoking conversation with Karolyna Zernyte from Lithuania, Sharon Gavrielov from Israel and Jon Dafydd-Kidd from Wales, all involved in IIAN, a network of Assitej International. This was a closed zoom session which was streamed live on the festival facebook page.

3. The Mediator On The Ground

Absolutely central to the success of the week’s events was the role of mediator on the ground. Dalia Mikoliunaite was present at almost every international workshop (Karolina Zernyte assisted with Nishna Mehta’s session and Raminta Sniaukstaite assisted with Helen Barry’s session). This is key to the connection and its artistic relevance to the children watching the screen. “Actually the children were so excited to discover that they were not passive observers but very active participants and that when they engaged with the artist, there was a realtime answer on screen! They behaved exactly as if they were in an arts venue and I was not expecting this!” Dalia Mikoliunaite says. The role of the mediator is to translate the actions spoken by the international artist, welcome everyone into the room as a community for the duration of the session and manage the goodbyes and any questions at the end of the session. “ We were ready for many questions about the technology but in fact, the children engaged with the activity proposed in each case (dance, story and visual art) without any problems. They were happy to wave goodbye when they were finished and they completely understood the situation! In one case, the children ran to the wall to hug the actors goodbye!!!! “ says Cliodhna. By far the best outcome of the interactions with the schools through the technology that they now have, was the educators’ awareness that the screen can actually be a more engaging experience for everyone. This was the first time the big screens had been used to deliver workshops for most classes. We hope more will follow and that children learn to manage their own engagement with technology as active decision makers and not just passive observers” says Helen Barry from Ireland – who led a play dough making session with the preschool children in Anyksciai – a smaller town about 2 hours outside Vilnius.

The Artists

We are very lucky to now have a team of experienced and flexible small-scale artists who understand the festival profile and the work we are doing together. “For this edition”, says Cliodhna, “we had a quick look at who had been active during the various lockdowns and who had tried zoom … or youtube live…” It is the fear of not knowing how it will be that sometimes prevents us from trying. Artists who had tried were invited to give this international experience a go. We cannot speak for them of course, but it is clear that it is hardest for the artists to engage with the virtual experience for only one reason … the lack of human feedback for them. Bearing this in mind, my role as observer on screen from Ireland was to take screenshots for these artists to show them the moments when they were all doing exactly the same thing across many kilometres… To document the evidence that children can and will engage meaningfully with your proposals as artists and to leave the sound on in some cases so that they could hear the excitement in Lithuania. “We tried to stay online for some time after the physical session had finished to share the wonderful energy that was created on the ground and to allay any fears. “ says Cliodhna. Although it is absolutely a struggle for an artist not to have an audience to physically feel feedback from, we are very happy with their courage and their belief and trust in our system. We can categorically say that children in Lithuania attended an international festival this week in Vilnius, Anyksciai, Zagare and Druskininkai. An unprecedented geographical reach. We concluded the festival with an open zoom session where all the artists could chat to each other and share their experiences, including the Lithuanian theatre companies on the ground who had also provided workshops and performances in the local programme.

A Final Reflection

It took a team of four to six people to bring each international event to the children. A zoom co- ordinator, an observer manager, a mediator and technician on the ground, a school educator and an audience of children! Once these elements were in place, a festival progressed day by day and a first time experience for everyone was delivered and enjoyed!!!! We strongly recommend trying for those artists who are comfortable to share their proposals via the technology available to us. As we all face an uncertain future, we must remember why we do what we do … we want to reach the children. As a community of Labas! artists we feel strongly that this is what we did.

WE ARE COMMUNITY. WE CREATE IT TOGETHER!

Categories: Small Size

Tags: festival, Small Size Network
In Memoriam: Valeria Frabetti

29 August 2020 14 h 32 min

By: Kaatje De Geest

No responses

ASSITEJ celebrates the life and extraordinary legacy left by Valeria Frabetti, in her work for children and young people. It... Read more →

ASSITEJ celebrates the life and extraordinary legacy left by Valeria Frabetti, in her work for children and young people. It was under her artistic direction that La Baracca was the winner of the ASSITEJ Award for Artistic Excellence in 2008 at the 16th World Congress in Adelaide, Australia.
We asked our Treasurer, Roberto Frabetti, to sum up her life and work as only he can do best…
We wish him, his family and the whole Baracca family all strength at this time of loss.

This August, Valeria Frabetti left us.
Woman and artist of the Italian and international TYA, she was one of the founders of La Baracca in Bologna, of which she was Artistic Director until 2015.

Under her artistic direction, La Baracca was assigned the ASSITEJ Award for Artistic Excellence 2008 for the project “0-3 years. Theatre for early years” at the Adelaide Congress.
Valeria has been author, actress and director of many theatre and dance productions for young audiences, from early years to teenagers, constantly affirming through her artistic work the right of children and young people to be loved and respected for what they are – at 1, 8 or 13 years old.
An artistic direction guided by her great curiosity, open to collaborations, attentive to the characteristics of different artists and different languages, always ready to give space to the creativity of young artists. This is how Valeria has allowed the Centre for children and young people theatre of Bologna, first based at the Teatro Sanleonardo and then at Testoni Ragazzi, to be a real space for research and experimentation, able to continuously renew itself in contents and generations.
This “open” way in which she conceived the artistic direction has allowed La Baracca to build a very solid relationship with Bologna, but it has also made Bologna a place known by many artists from all over the world.

She directed by facilitating processes, giving space and supporting creative paths, whether they were production ideas or large research projects, artistic, educational and cultural, such as Small size.

Thanks to all of this La Baracca was assigned the ASSITEJ Award, and above all Small size was able to be born and find its own way.
She liked to define herself “curious” in its double meaning: eager to know, but also “extravagant”.

For this reason she made her being a doctor coexist with her being an artist.
A synthesis that led her to passionately throw herself into the adventure of Arte e Salute Ragazzi (Art & Health for TYA) since 2010, when she already knew about her cancer. For ten years she oversaw the creation and development of a children’s theatre company composed exclusively of actresses and actors affected by psychiatric disorders.

With them she has created plays of great strength and elegance, presented every year to the audience of children in the city.

After 10 years of fighting with her cancer, always proud, with her head held high, Valeria decided it was time to go.
Valeria was a great woman who lived dreaming of a world of great women. Great in dreams and hopes, certainly not in power or vanity, traits that never even touched her.
She was great in always affirming, without any ambiguity, her right to be what she wanted to be.
In her life, as a doctor and as an artist, she has continued to open door after door, for others and for herself, creating and offering opportunities. Without any fear of showing her intransigence, her rigour, but also her irrepressible enthusiasm and her infinite curiosity.

Always showing what she simply was.

A free thinker, an absolute divergent.

For me, proudly, my sister.

– Roberto Frabetti, ASSITEJ Treasurer

Categories: ASSITEJ Italie, ASSITEJ Italy, Small Size, Uncategorised

Tags: ASSITEJ Italy, In memoriam