Here's our online journal of what our storytellers have been up to! Click here for the contents, or visit our news headlines.

The Stench of Victory

What a fantastic time we had today at the Kings Hill Community Centre near West Malling! Right from the start we had the warmest welcome from site manager Hilary, who looked after us with two mugs of tea each and two plates of biscuits — including David's favourite, fruit shortbread — and all before we'd even unloaded the van! Thanks, Hilary!

We then got cracking on our "get-in", which is the word used in the theatre world for unloading, setting up and checking sound & lights. Having performances nearly every day for two weeks can take its toll on some of the set, but we keep it looking fresh and dazzling by doing some touch-ups (as you can see Chip is about to do in the picture to the left). Then while David set the props and Chip put together the speakers, Kings Hill hero Pete set up all the chairs for the audience to get comfy and hear some stories! (Pictured right) Pete was such a star because he also helped us ensure the venue would be safe for everyone who came to share stories with us, and then ran a tuck shop as well!

In this performance, we were sharing the tale of The Three Dragons, which was told to us only yesterday by the audience in Oxford. All the volunteers for the Kings Hill rendition of the story were at least as enthusiastic and brilliant! As always, the next step was for this audience to craft a story for us to share further along our travels — and, as usual, they blew us away with their imaginative prowess...!

 

 

Kings Hill told us about two best friends, a giraffe and a monkey, who were out cycling one day when they accidentally crossed the garden of a grumpy wizard. He came out and turned the giraffe into a frog! The monkey got away, though, and ran to seek help from their other friends by the waterhole: a team of warthogs (perfectly acted by absolutely everyone else in the audience). These smelly creatures went around to the wizard's house and launched their flatulent attack until the wizard finally relented, and turned the frog back into a giraffe...!

After the show, many members of the audience were very happy to provide us with some feedback to camera...

 

If you want to see your story turned into a theatre show for everyone to enjoy, why not find out if our Little Birds storytellers can come to your school? Click here to find out more!

And if you would like to try catching us at one of the final three venues on our "Crazy Bird Tour", visit our booking page.

We hope to see you again soon!

2nd July 2012