Polka Theatre: My Research

Polka Theatre : My Research 

Polka is one of a few Theatre's in London to be solely dedicated to Children and their entertainment, the have been based in Wimbledon since 1979, they create Theatre to entertain and influence younger audiences. Over 90,000 children visit Polka every year to be involved in fun and exciting Theatre.

Polka Theatre's target audience is from children aged 0-13 however the age changes depending on the content of the play. 

The Theatre contains two main spaces for performing - a main auditorium that seats 300 and a studio that seats 70 this space is dedicated to the early years performances. Polka Theatre's shows produce performances that tour nationally and internationally.

Polka Theatre first started of in 1967 as a puppet touring company under the Artistic Director of Richard Gill. The Theatre venue opened on the 20th of November 1979 premiering as one of the first Theatre's made exclusively to Children, but previously the building was formally the Holy Trinity Hall's in Wimbledon. For the opening a performance marked with a  GALA  performances was attended by Queen Elizabeth. 

By 1983 Polka started producing and programming shows targeted at children under 5 in its studio space, this was known as the Adventure Theatre,  they host in house productions and visiting productions from the UK and overseas. Over the recent years they have developed its Early Years work for children aged from 6 months/ 

The Theatre offers free tickets to disadvantaged schools whose pupils might not have the opportunity to visit the Theatre due to financial or other difficulties, The tickets may also be accompanied by money to cover transport cost and a free  post-show drama workshop.

References:
Polka Theatre, About Us- Polka Theatre. [Online] Available at: <https://polkatheatre.com/home/about-us/> [Accessed 27 April 2018]

27/04/18- constraints

Constraints 

Time:

Tech/dress run is Monday June 25th that's in two months, we might be moving up to 7 hours a week 

Space

room 420

skills

Arabic/Turkish, Tennis, Karate, Accents, Piano, Guitar, Sword fighting, saxophone, Singing, Drawing, makeup (turn people into fish)  

Budget 

A lot of the props will be made by us, meaning we don't have to buy them, therefore making we will be saving money. 

Prop Making

We will be making the props
Surfboard 

job list
prop making plans
songs about protagnists
sea life information 

Planning

Planning 

• The ability to express 
• We want to question the male stereotypes for example the fact that they don't really show their emotions due to the stereotype of crying being weak as men were meant to be brave and strong 

Surfer Narrator 

-Maya Gabeira

-disdain 

-injury 

A sea of grumbling guys, the wave could be them pushing 

the height of wave could represent/display the anger 

She's scared and hiding, choosing not to listen to the males she is seeing all the beauty of the sea 

she could  see a fish maybe a torch fish, a shoal of fish, lit by luminescence UV, we might do a shoal of fish dance 

link it to pollution  

Marine Biologist 

-Sylvia Earl 

-this story is about finding beauty in nature sort of like magic 

-inspiring 

-didactic song 

-Questing sex and gender stereotypes in the sea life

-clown fish are relevant because they can go from male to female 

-rainbow fish (LGBTQ)

-male seahorses because they carry the fishes 

-starfish are asexual 

commotion in the ocean 

Drummer 

- makes a song 

Interview with Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo - the authors

Interview with Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo - the authors

This is an interview I've taken from Waterstones with Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo:

How did you originally come up with the idea for this book?

Elena: "We originally came up with the idea of the title. We like the idea of having the word 'Rebel' with 'Good Night Stories'. Rebel is usually considered a negative word in many different cultures and languages especially when its associated with women or young girls, so we thought it was cool to put these words together."

Did you feel that there was a gap in the market for this kind of book?

Elena: "We felt that there was a gap in the market, because of course, working in children's media, we've witnessed how children's books and children’s media in general are so packed with gender stereotypes."

How did you go about creating the book, particularly, how did you find the less well known women that you include in the book?

Francesca: "We wanted to feature as many countries as possible in the book. And we wanted to feature as many fields as possible. So part of it was research made based on that balance, so for example we looked for women from countries that are not usually represented in children's media, because children's media don't just lack diversity in terms of gender. So we specifically looked at countries which are not usually represented in children's media and looked for notable women in those countries. And when we realised that we had too many writers for example, or too many ballerinas, looked for specific stories for women in a particular field. So by having very focused research we were able to find stories that are not mainstream – yet."

Are there some women you wanted to included that didn't make it into the book?

Elena: "Yes, we started from a list of more than two hundred women and then we kind of selected those whose stories were more interesting for children. So that was the main criteria."

Francesca: "But there were many more women that we want to include in the future."

How has creating the book affected you and your experience of writing it, and what impact do you hope it will have on the wider world?

Elena: "So we always say that the experience of writing this book about these incredible women was empowering in itself because spending time with them and then researching their stories and then finding their voice, it was an incredible experience and it was made in such a short amount of time that it really felt an inspiring and empowering. What we hope that this book will allow, especially for girls, is, we usually quote one of the women in the book which is the Chinese astronomer: Wang Zhenyi, who says in one of her poems – because she was also a poet – she says that “daughters can also be heroic” right, which is something that we love very much.

Francesca: It's a message that we want to be part of the life of as many families as possible.

Elena: Yeah exactly right, you don't have to be a boy to make extraordinary things or adventurous things. You can be adventurous enough on your own."

Who inspires you?

Elena: "Who inspires us? Wow. Oh there are so many people. In American politics Hillary Clinton was a big inspiration last year, so during the campaign we basically designed and launched the book together with the presidential campaign. So we really hoped that the book was going to come out at the same time as Hillary Clinton's victory."

Francesca: "Marina Abramovich was a big inspiration for me, coming from performance art and, Jill Soloway, the creator of Transparent was another big inspiration for us."

Waterstones.com. (2017). Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: A Q&A with Authors Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo | Waterstones.com Blog. [online] Available at: https://www.waterstones.com/blog/a-waterstones-exclusive-qanda-with-the-authors-of-good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls-elena-favilli-and-francesca-cavallo [Accessed 22 April 2018].

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls 

Goodnight stories for Rebel Girls is a book written by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo and is about teaching you kids about feminism, determination and the ability to believe in yourself no matter what anyone says.
In this book there are 100 stories about women who succeed in life even though people were bringing them down, each and everyone one of these women are powerful and inspiring, they are real life heroes.

What makes this book unique is the fact that all the girls come from different backgrounds and statuses showing that everyone had a chance in succeeding no matter where they come from, therefore inspiring many young girls to believe in themselves and what they want to do.

An inspiring thing that is part of the book is that all 100 women have been illustrated by 60 different people from around the world.

The reason that these authors wanted to create this book because they were both worried about the culture of young kids and what they grow up believing in and aspiring to be. Not only were Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo wanting to empower young girls and destroy the gender stereotypes but also wanted to write accounts of real women and how they changed the world.
They stated that young children "aren't interested in only dragons and princesses" They believed in showing that these women are real people who have made a difference in society.

They didn't just want to write about the notables in history, but wanted to fill the children with wonder and ignite their creativity to a world that isn't ours right now. Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo chose women that were larger than their careers, while also trying to write about loads of different women "so that every girl can find someone that reminded them of their own circumstances"

I believe that this book is a very good thing to be reading to young kids, this is because it teaches them all about real woman and the things they had to face to get to where they are. It breaks the stereotype of what girls 'should' do and teaches both young boys and girls about feminism and determination. 

I feel like this book has a lot of girl empowerment as most of the woman in this book have been spoken down to by men just because they were born as a certain gender, but that shouldn't effect what we can do in life as we are all humans in the end. 

Teaching young kids about feminism is very important, it teaches them that girls can do as much as boys, it gives them the power to speak up and not got discriminated. Teaching girls that they have a right to choose what they want to do and not being held up back from achieving your full potential just because of your gender.

While the book teaches women empowerment it also shows the determination of the women and encourages young kids to have determination. This is good because being determined increases the chances you have of being successful in a particular thing or achieving a goal. While also helping you stay motivated and keeps pushing you until you reach your goal. 

In Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls each and every girl had a lot of determination, that is how they achieved the things they wanted, didn't listen to anyone saying they cant do. 

References 
Laity, P. (2018). The triumphant return of Rebel Girls: ‘We are proud our book has become a symbol of resistance'. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/24/elena-favilli-francessca-cavallo-interview-rebel-girls-2 [Accessed 14 April. 2018].

Beginners by Tim Crouch

Beginners by Tim Crouch - 4/04/18

I really enjoyed watching this piece of children's theatre and though it was fun and enjoyable, even 0though i'm not a kid i found it very entertaining and intriguing as an audience member. When i first heard about it i thought that it was going to be a bit boring and like a pantomime which i don't really like honestly. However it completely surprised me and changed the view i had on how children's theatre should be. 

One of the main things i loved about it is, the way the 'dog' Sandy was acted by a person who was still a human just had the qualities of the animal which i thought was an interesting way of portraying the dog. In the beginning of the play i didn't quite understand who she was but soon after i finally clicked on to it and i felt very proud of myself. Having this character also made the role of the Sandy much more interesting to watch, as you weren't just seeing your usually a human playing a dog, it was different unique, which made it exciting.

In addition to that i thought it was very original and unique the way they done the children as adults but they still had kids in the performance, the age of them was clear from the beginning. I liked how you also saw the connection between both the adult and child actors as even though they were different they all had qualities that signifies who they were. Also the relationship they had with one another were really well portrayed.

Question and answer withe the cast. 

What are the challenges of working with children?
- audience reactions differ, children with their friends behave differently from those that are with their family.

Can you feel a significant difference depending on the audience?
-Kids don't react like a traditional audience, which can be a great joy as much as it is difficult

-Improvisation is necessary based on the crown, for example, lines have to be delivered differently depending on the volume of the crowd,

-Young audiences are truthful, so are great for increasing the success of the play, older audiences tend to sympathy laugh.

How do you approach big issues for children?
-Avoid being patronising

-Adults and children find their own points of reference

-Young audiences can laugh in all the wrong places, we have to be able to accept this

How did you develop the dog Sandy character?
-Direction to not act like the animal

-Children have a deep respect for animals, whereas adults can see them as a 'pet'

Why is feminism relevant today

Why is feminism relevant today

The first movement for equality started in the 19th century and is still relevant in today's time and age. i admit we have come a long way but there's still things that divide men and woman.

One of the main things that we still haven't got passed is the wage gap between genders "More than three out of four UK companies pay their male staff more than their female staff, and in nine out of 17 sectors in the economy, earn 10 per cent more on average than a women. I believe that we shouldn't of ever had this issue because everyone is human we all pay the same price for things no matter our gender so why should we get payed any different. 

Another thing we need to sort out in today's society is rape culture and the objectification of women, especially in schools and universities. One of the main issues is judging a girl on what she's wearing we should not use this as an excuse to objectify each other. For example in school girls have a very strict dress code compared to boys like how short our skirts are, they should be knee length so we don't distract the boys but i think we should be teaching boys that what a girl wears should be up to her and it shouldn't change the way they are viewed.

There are so many more things that are wrong with today's generation and how we all view each other, especially with social media involved like cat calling and cyber bulling. One thing that i really hate about today's society is the double standards we have, its okay for a boy to do one thing but if a girl does the exact same thing her entire life could be ruined. For example if a boy has sex with lots of different girls hes praised for it and seen as one of the cool kids, however if a girl sleeps with a lot of boys she then gets slut shamed by both girls and boys who do the exact same thing. Things like this could potentially result in a girl taking her won life, which is not a society i want to live in, or potentially raise my kids in. 

References: 

Times, T. (2018). Gender pay gap: how women are short-changed in the UK. [online] Ig.ft.com. Available at: https://ig.ft.com/gender-pay-gap-UK/ [Accessed 6 April. 2018].