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Our remote performances went well. We rehearsed our performance multiple times previous to our recording, and every time we rehearsed we had an objective; make the children laugh. I believe our over-the-top energy in our characters really helped us to achieve that objective. We also used the rehearsal time to work on our targets, such as being more interactive. One of my personal objectives was to “break the fourth wall” in order to relate and humour our audience.

Our final remote performance went well because we were confident, which was built up over the rehearsals. Our use of props and sound effects also helped in our efforts to become the character. We could’ve improved our performances if we had rehearsed more. You could see that other groups had taken more time to rehearse because there seemed to be a deeper knowledge of their lines, which allowed them to speak with conviction. We also could’ve used more props, as it would’ve further enabled us to have more depth to our characters.

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WWW: Good use of humour and engaging of the viewer, wide range of props and sound affects. Good amount of range in our various characters.

EBI: We could have rehearsed our remote performance more, to avoid any mistakes. We could have also used more props to make our performances more realistic.

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Changes from performance to remote learning

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Changes from performance to remote learning

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There were a lot of changes we had to make to our performances to suit remote learning, the most obvious example being the fact we could only show our head and shoulders when performing. This made it hard to act out our stories accurately, as in almost all of our scenes, we needed space to move around and be expressive. Some of the many changes we made include:

Limiting the amount of props we could use

Keeping our body still

Only using body language from the shoulders up

Communicating to our webcams, as opposed to our group members faces

These changes were very challenging for us to make, but as a group we felt that we made the best out of a bad situation, and performed well given the circumstances.

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We used a soundboard to bring our performances to life. Here are the list of the effects:

Cow moo 🐄

Witch cackle 🧙

Falling sound 🕳

We also used a Rooster noise, a burp effect and a Wolf howl!

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Fake shotgun prop - this prop will be carried by one of the villagers. It will add to the realism of the play and will make the villager seem more aggressive. It also seemed appropriate for the older audience because if the children were younger it may have been too mature for them.

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This wig will be worn by Hansel. It will make the play more realistic and may even add humour because of how fake-looking the wig is.

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This prop was used when Hansel and Gretel were eating chocolate at the witch’s house. I believe it worked well and added humour to the story.

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If we didn’t have to perform our stories from home, we would have created this costume for the witch. Lewis designed this costume so as it was both slightly over the top, but also realistic to the story.

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Lewis’ story

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We decided to slightly alter the plot of the children’s story so that, instead of the boy shouting “wolf!”, he could prank call the villagers. This decision was made in order to modernise the story, and make it more relatable for the children

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Changes we made along the way - we decided that, instead of the cow being played by a puppet, it should be played by me. I would be standing upright with a sign that read “COW”. This decision was chosen because we believed that it would add humour

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Changes we made along the way - we changed some of the dialogue at the beginning of the story. These changes are highlighted in light blue

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We took time to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses, and came up with some targets to set ourselves:

Be louder - we noticed that at times during our performances, we were speaking quietly. We put ourselves in our audiences shoes and realised that we needed to speak louder in order for them to hear us clearly

Be more engaging - considering our target age, engaging the audience is essential, as young children generally have a short attention span. Engaging our audience with humour is also crucial for us, as the children will enjoy our performances more if they find them funny

Be more enthusiastic - enthusiasm is key when performing for children, as kids are typically hyper and have high energy and, if you can match the children’s energy, it will entertain them and they will enjoy the performances

Be interactive - we believed that interacting with our audience is a great way to get the kids involved, and overall increase the enjoyment of the children

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At first, we had difficulty with spacial awareness. In particular, correctly positioning ourselves so that the audience had a clear view of our face. We solved this problem by consciously thinking during rehearsals, “where is the audience?”, “can I be seen clearly?”. We found that our newfound spacial awareness greatly improved our overall performance.

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We came up with the group name “The BBC” - the BHASVIC boys club

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As a whole, we decided to use constructive criticism to help us develop and grow as performers. After reflecting on our targets we set to each other, our performances greatly improved, and we made improvements on areas of our performances that needed work.

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The age group 6-12, also known as the “Growing Child”, enjoy TV shows such as:

Masterchef Junior

Ben 10

Teenage mutant ninja turtles

- This age group is thought of as the growing ages, meaning the time when a child develops the most
- It is advised that children in this age group aren’t watching shows containing too much violence and gore, as research shows that children exposed to such things from an early age develop issues such as anger issues when they are older
- Most children’s TV shows are suited for 6-12 year olds, meaning there is a lot of Lea way between the ages

Websites used for research:
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies
- https://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/

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Class work for Caelen’s story:

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Class work for Caelen’s story:

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Class work for James’ story:

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Class work for James’ story:

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Class work for Lewis’ story:

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Class work for Lewis’ story:

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The boy who cried wolf - I have decided to choose the boy who cried wolf wolf because I would really enjoy to play the boy as he is the most animated of all the characters. I also chose this story because I believe it perfectly suits are age group, seeing as it has enough gore to entertain the kids, but not so much that it would be too mature for them.

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Jack and the beanstalk - James chose this story because he believed it would be the most exciting for the children. This is because that he believed the giants added humour to the play, and the story as a whole was action-packed. He also said he really enjoyed performing as jack in his school play.

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Hansel and Gretel - Lewis chose this story because, as a child, he really enjoyed being read it before bed. He also thought that there was a wide variety of characters in this story for us to play.

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I used cbbc for research as when I was younger I used to watch loads of it. I watched a few horrible histories episodes, as they were some of my favourite when I was younger. I particularly enjoyed the way the actors used over the top voices to humour their audience.

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Welcome to the home of Horrible Histories. Here you can watch episodes and clips, play games, and even sing along to your favourite Horrible Histories songs!

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I used the unicorn theatre to help research our groups chosen age group. Watching the brother Anansi performance was inspiring to me because it demonstrated the style of acting needed in order to engage the children. In my performances, I tried to implement this style.

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For ages 3 - 8

A Unicorn and Illuminations Production

An online theatre experience about the infamous trickster spider.

Created and directed by Justin Audibert

An online theatre experience about the infamous trickster spider.

★★★★★ A Younger Theatre

Inspired by our 2019 five-star hit show, Anansi the Spider, about the infamous mischief-maker and master spinner of yarns, we've adapted these classic West African and Caribbean tales for Unicorn Online. Made with our film partner, Illuminations, we've creatively responded to the current situation - the cast filmed themselves in their own homes so that we can bring them to yours!

The Anansi videos are accompanied by free creative learning resources for teachers and a free family activity pack for home learning.

As part of Unicorn Online, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering a range of free online theatrical experiences that we hope will be enjoyed by children across London, the UK and beyond.

Anansi the Spider Re-spun can be watched on our YouTube channel until 31 March 2021.

More info

Free schools resource for Years 1 - 2

Created by Storyteller and Dramatherapist Sam Adams and Unicorn's Learning Associate Cath Greenwood, within the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, our free digital resource has been specifically designed to support teachers in using creative storytelling and drama activities whilst offering pupils opportunities to play and explore Anansi's world and to reflect on the importance of these stories in our shared culture and history.

Written for teachers, the activities can be adapted for classroom or home-learning.

To view and download our Anansi-inspired resources, visit our resources page.

Free family activity pack

Our free Anansi-inspired resource pack includes fun and easy to follow activities that explore the themes and characters of the Anansi stories, through storytelling, drawing, drama and writing tasks.

The pack can be used by families at home before and after watching our Anansi stories online. Teachers can also use the pack for remote or in-school learning.

To view and download our Anansi-inspired resources, visit our resources page.

PRESS REVIEWS

★★★★★ 'The infectious energy infused into every aspect of the story allows the performers to transcend the screen, delivering an unbeatably fun and fresh experience ... it radiates pride and inclusivity.' A Younger Theatre on episode 1

★★★★★ 'Audibert and his team have seemingly perfected the art of translating theatre into a digital space ... Anansi has found a new theatrical language that works far better in these online mediums.' A Younger Theatre on episode 2

★★★★ 'It's not only a smart move from a venue that has always provided the highest quality theatre to young people - and continues to do so in strained circumstances - but a real joy too.' The Stage

'A joyful piece of storytelling with a charming anti-hero.' British Theatre Guide

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

Cast:
Afia Abusham
Sapphire Joy
Juliet Okotie

Creative Team:
Creator and Director: Justin Audibert
Editor and Technical Director: Todd MacDonald
Designer: Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey
Composer and Sound Designer: Duramaney Kamara
Movement Director: Lucy Cullingford
Assistant Director: Alice Wordsworth
Costume Supervisor: Maybelle Laye

CREDITS

Unicorn Online has been made possible with the generous support of the Backstage Trust and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

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Anansi the Spider Re-spun - digital theatre

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★★★★★ A Younger TheatreInspired by our 2019 five-star hit show, Anansi the Spider, about the infamous mischief-maker and master spinner of yarns, we've adapted these classic West African and Caribbean tales for Unicorn Online. Made with our film partner, Illuminations, we've creativel

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Although CBeebies is mainly thought of to be suited for an even younger audience, I still used them for research as some of the techno shown by the actors in their performances were worth noting and implementing.

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CBeebies helps pre-schoolers learn whilst they play fun games, watch clips, sing songs and make things with their favourite CBeebies characters and shows.

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- It gave us more room to include graphic themes, such as gory scenes.

- We wanted to create a children’s story that could include mature humour, which may have been unsuitable for a younger audience.

- Choosing an older age group was also appealing to us because it meant we could relate to the audience more because the viewers would be closer to our age.

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As a group, we decided that each member should direct their own chosen children’s story. Here are the 3 stories we each chose:

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There is a rich tradition throughout Africa of oral storytelling. Although written history existed for centuries in West Africa, most writing was in Arabic, and the majority of people did not read or write in Arabic. So the transmission of knowledge, history and experience in West Africa was mainly through the oral tradition and performance rather than on written texts.

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Storytelling is a unique part of Irish culture and heritage. Rich and vivid tales of Celtic warriors and legendary battles, along with folk tales detailing the lives of ordinary people, were passed on orally for centuries.

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Traditional story telling - key features 

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Traditional story telling - key features 

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- Traditional tales such as Little Red Riding Hood usually follow a typical structure
- They usually contain recognisable features such as animal characters
- Take place in non-specific countryside settings  - Have a simple moral lesson
- They also frequently include repeated phrases such as “what big eyes you have!”
- These repeated phrases are seemingly designed to allow the stories to be memorable for the kids, as a repetitive phrase usually sticks in a child’s head.

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Before there was writing, there was storytelling. It occurs in every culture and from every age. Here are a few purposes of traditional storytelling:

Stories communicate values - at the heart of storytelling are the values we live and share. Through a story a protagonist faces a challenge, makes a choice, and that choice reflects a core belief or value.

Stories inspire action - a well-told story can have an emotional effect on the viewer, which can inspire action.

Stories are great tools for learning - storytelling promotes brain development and imagination in young children and teaches them about language and emotions.