Target reached!
To enable us to add an extra tour date so more infants and their parents/carers can ...
Orla Tour 2018
Suffolk
Aim
A three week tour across Suffolk & London of Orla's Moon & Orla and the Sun: interactive music theatre for 0-3 years & their parents/carers.
Performed by a singer, dancer & two musicians, Orla's Moon and Orla and the Sun are both immersive music-theatre productions aimed at introducing babies & toddlers to high quality live performance, encouraging them to experience creative play & aid child parent bonding.
Your support will enable us to revive & develop these companion pieces, create an activities pack & CD for Orla and the Sun plus an online digital resource.
“Ah it's awesome! My little man never sits still, but was enthralled through the whole performance today! He then spent the afternoon listening to the CD.” - Beccles Library, Orla’s Moon
The tour is scheduled to take place over three weeks in May with rehearsals starting in April. Identified locations include: Ipswich, Beccles, Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Mildenhall, Newmarket and NW Westminster an area of multiple deprivation & one of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK, here Orla performances will be the focus for Creative Futures’ Early Years festival.
Aims & objectives of the tour:
- Provide free high quality, interactive music theatre for predominantly low income families
- Encourage child social, emotional & imaginative development & parent/child bonding by introducing creative activities in the performance & pack. “Our little boy is chronically shy & it was amazing to see him come out of his shell and interact with others.” Orla and the Sun
- Impact on parents’ singing confidence. A study in The British Journal of Psychiatry found that mothers with moderate to severe symptoms of post-natal depression benefited by joining a singing group; Orla writer/director, Zoӫ Palmer, was a facilitating artist in these Music and Motherhood sessions.
- Support the reduction of social isolation through performances in areas of deprivation
- Legacy: create a free activities pack & CD; an online digital resource of activities for parents to download; create a Facebook Group for parents/carers to share free activities.
“I took my very own Orla to see Orla's Moon in Beccles today. I wanted you all to know how very much you have touched her. Orla is three. She is now listening to your CD upstairs, very much past her bedtime. So thank you all for the magic and we look forward to enjoying another Wonderful Beast production soon.”
To complement the existing activities pack and CD for Orla’s Moon we plan to create an activities pack & CD for Orla and the Sun together with an online digital resource to accompany both shows. The pack involves simple activities and songs which they will have heard from the performance, all devised to encourage parents to engage in creative play with their little ones, and to support multiple areas of childhood development.
“It's absolutely amazing! We've listened to the CD 4 times since we saw the performance yesterday - she just loves the beautiful sounds and voices!” - mother, Orla's Moon
We are currently fundraising for this project and the overall budget for is £37,000, what ever you can give will really make a difference. Here's a breakdown of some of our costs:
Costumes x 4 @ £50 each
Single Chime bars x 6 @ £39 each
Single performance x 25 @ £500 (this includes artists fees, travel and accommodation)
CD Production x 1 @ £350
Design of activities pack x 1 @ £250
Creatives
Composer & Musician: Jack Ross
Words & Director: Zoë Palmer
Designer: Sarah Booth
Choreographer & Dancer: David Ogle
Singer: Abimaro Gunnell
Musician: Rosie Adediran
Stage Manager: Zoë Wells
Producer: Alys Kihl
Wonderful Beast theatre company has been pioneering and touring work for 0-3s since 2014.
Thank you for reading, do give what you can.
This project successfully funded on 23rd March 2018