These final two days of working with the children have been fantastic. On Monday we had a technical rehearsal, and two dress rehearsals, and the show started to really pick up in pace. After another dress on Tuesday morning, we were ready for the school audience. At 12pm, 280 children came in, and about 20 staff, and we had our first run. We had the acknowledgement of country (delivered by 2 year 5 indigenous children), followed by the animation, then the show. Everything went to plan and now, that the opening is done, we are ready for our final show tonight (open and closing in a day – not your usual theatre timeline!).
The final show went brilliantly. This was the first (and only) show we had in the lighting we had designed the show for – evening. With the darkened space, the shadow puppets and silhouette performances truly popped. Showing the animation followed by the performance helped the audience understand the depth and breadth of the work that we have all undertaken over the past 9 weeks. Showing the two art forms telling the same story really highlighted this.
The animation is now up on Vimeo, and the 3 compositions on Soundcloud. The production stills and webpage will be ready over the next month and links will be on the Barking Spider Creative website, but for now here are the links to the animation, live performance and to Soundcloud::
Animation:
Live performance:
Soundcloud:
As part of the school's Expo, some of the children worked as curators, setting up a display of some of the Old Lens, New Light artworks. Here are some photos:
Artist Reflections
Penelope
I cannot believe we are done! After the midday showing, I was slightly stunned that were already there – across the finish line. We had a reflection session after showing the year 5 children the animation. The children observed the points of difference between the two art forms, and the fact that the story and all the content had come from their creative input and work. It was really satisfying to hear this, as this was the point of the project – to take us from the days of magic lanterns, including old fashioned methodologies of animation using thaumatropes and other hand-made devices, right through to I pad animation using an app for stop-motion.
I feel pleased at what we were able to achieve, and so proud of the kids for the creative work they have done. Lynne pointed out that in any year, this cohort have 20 hours of art. Across this term, with us, the children have been having 5 hours of very diverse art activities per day, which adds up to around 5 years of art – extraordinary. As usual, this Creative Victoria Creative Learning Partnership has enabled certain children to shine who don’t normally do so. This is the most rewarding part of this work. Enabling children to flourish because they are presented with new opportunities, ways of thinking, and creative approaches to tasks and learning. I’m proud of the work that we created, and I hope that Old Lens New Light has lasting benefit and impact for this school and community.
Jason
Monday morning was spent bumping in the show into the St Michael’s hall. In my usual hurried fashion I cleared the space, put carpet down backstage, hung the curtain, organised the PA, positioned the lighting and set up my work station. After that I set up the auditorium lighting for the narrators and connected the monitor to play the animation.
Everything worked well and there was little for me to do then except rehearse. We had a number of rehearsals and the operation improved every time.On Tuesday I hung a new light for the narrators and did some camera tests and made some last minute changes to the puppets used on the OHP. The run for the school was the first mistake-free run I had. I may have mentioned that I had hoped a child might be able to operate but the set up was too complicated. We were able to give Anthony a filming role backstage to fulfil our promise to work with him in a technical capacity, which is great because he's such a clever kid and we wanted to support him to develop his particular skills.
Now that the project is done, I feel proud of what we have achieved and deeply impressed with the children's ability to step up - especially the performance kids and backstage crew. Liv (in a photo above) was an amazing stage manager, and Rachel was grea to have working with us too. This has been one of the best experiences I have had working in a school, and my creative learning has been to practice animation.
Laura
The final two days were extraordinary. What a sensational group of young people we’ve had the pleasure to work with over the past term. Seeing all the pieces come together for the final performances was incredibly fulfilling. Witnessing the excitement, nervousness and sense of pride the year 5 cohort had when sharing the work they created with their school community and then broader family and friends was simply wonderful. I hope each student came away from this with a new perspective. Perhaps they achieved something they didn’t believe they could do, maybe they listen to the sounds in their environment in a new way, or have shifted their perspective on what it means to be storytellers. I feel certain this experience has been more than just skill acquisition.
I came into this project with a lot of experience working with children and young people in various capacities, however, not often as co-collaborators. More than anything, the past nine weeks have reaffirmed for me the power of the performing and creative arts as a part of education across Victoria and indeed the whole country. In every student I’ve witnessed growth in confidence, leadership skills and the important role creativity plays in connecting kids.
On a personal note, this project has been immensely valuable in reminding me just how very capable a group of 10 and 11 year olds are in making theatre. I was continually amazed by the way they rose to every occasion. Tasking the year 5s with roles and responsibilities and giving them enormous agency in this work not only meant they essentially created, designed, conceptualised, stage managed, curated, performed, sound designed and operated the work themselves but it also meant they constantly came up with creative suggestions and solutions for the work that only made it better than anything we as artists could have come up with. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with both the year 5s, St Mary’s Colac and Penelope, Jason and Callum. It’s been immensely joyful.
Callum
This week was the final week of the project - preparing for showtime!!! The kids were incredibly excited, and so was I. The first day we bumped into the space and got it ready to do a tech and dress run. I was a bit nervous for the tech run, but the kids were amazing, and smashed through it. I think the excitement of the performance and being in a new space, as well as it being a shorter performance made it easier for them. We got through the tech pretty quickly and moved onto the dress run. It was during this run I began to teach Lincoln, my assistant sound director how to use QLab (software for designing and playing back sound, video, light, and show control cues).during the performance. He did really well and also made some great suggestions for sound changes which enhanced the show further.
The next day, it was show time! The students performed the show for the rest of the school, and it really gave them a great confidence boost for the show later that evening for parents and the broader community. Across the bump in, tech and dress days, the runs became smoother and smoother each time we did them. By show time the performance was running super well. The kids were so excited - absolutely buzzing and with how well it went, I think they had such an amazing time.
I consistently find it rewarding working on projects with children. Over the course of Old Lens, New Light, watching the students grow and develop into young artists was a beautiful experience. There is so much joy I experienced working on this project, in every element of the process. It’s a skill and mind set I want to continue to develop and take forward with me into all future projects!
