The objective of the Create a Story project is to use children’s ideas as elements in a Children's Theatre script, to be created by Barnstorm’s company of actors, musician, playwright, designer, facilitator and director.
The four participating schools are St Canice’s National School, Kilkenny; Marymount National School, The Rower, Co Kilkenny; Scoil Naomh Bhríde, Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny and Scoil Bríde, Paulstown, Co Kilkenny. And Barnstorm would like to thank all the schools who applied for the project.
Poetry Ireland’s Writers in Schools Scheme is one of the longest running arts-in-education programmes in the country, marking its 30th anniversary recently. But this is the first time it has teamed up with Ireland’s leading children’s theatre company to devise and produce a piece of professional theatre. In times of economic uncertainty it is hands-on, proactive partnerships like this that will keep the art of theatre and storytelling alive for children.
Originally Barnstorm proposed to create a script from the children's stories and to present a promenade production in a forest in Kilkenny this summer. But with the cuts in funding to the arts in Ireland it is now impractical to mount such a production.
The company is now working on the final stage of the project as follows:
- we have been working on the children's work since last year;
- playwright Maeve Ingoldsby has taken the results of this research and created a final story as the basis for devising;
- beginning the week of 12 April our artist/designer Carol Betera along with our Drama Facilitator Anna Galligan will work in each school with the children using paper, paint and withies (sally rods);
- for the next three weeks the team will work in the studio exploring this story and bringing it to a stage of presentation for the children and their teachers;
- the children's artwork will be used in the telling of the story, and will add to the creating of an environment into which the audience will enter.
The team consists of actors, musician, writer, designer, director and facilitator; and the final presentation will happen on Thurs 29th April (at 10am and 12.30pm) in The Barn.
Actor1: Sarah Johnson
Actor3: Will Pinchin
Musician/Actor: Serena Brabazon
Artist/Designer: Carol Betera
Writer: Maeve Ingoldsby
Actor2: Shane O Reilly
Directed by: Philip Hardy
