Here's our online journal of what our storytellers have been up to! Click here for the contents, or visit our news headlines.
Of Goats and Fabric
17th July 2011
This weekend, Talulah and Chip travelled to the Garden Farm Festival near Matlock to enjoy an excellent performance of The King's Got Donkey's Ears by the fabulous Theatre of Widdershins. Andy Lawrence, Widdershins' co-founder, has been making his own puppets and sharing stories with children all over the country for over 15 years, so we knew he could provide us with excellent inspiration for our new tour, A Bird In Your Ear! His performance was just as good as we'd expected, full of laughs, surprises, and magic.
 |
On Sunday, Andy agreed to sit with the Little Birds team to cast his experienced eye over Talulah's designs. We spent the whole day in an old stable at the Garden Farm, a chorus of goat bleats and hen clucks surrounding us as we discussed how to bring Little Birds' stories alive. Talulah has drawn up a wonderful idea for our show: a clearing in an enchanted forest, in the middle of which will be a nest of eggs just waiting to hatch into exciting stories before your very eyes. Andy's advice proved invaluable for ensuring the stability of the trees — especially since, in our new tour, we want to invite children to move around the clearing and feel fully immersed in the world of the stories!
We talked about how to stick nuts to a hat; how to get a big character out of a very small space; and even how to shrink a storyteller whilst leaving their head the same size! By the end of the day, both Talulah and Chip couldn't wait to get started building the set and seeing all these amazing ideas come to life.