The Polka Theatre

This is the information off of their website telling you about them...

"Polka Theatre is one of the few venues in the UK which is dedicated to producing and presenting work for young audiences. Since the doors opened in 1979, this unique venue has been entertaining children with resonant, engaging and exciting theatre.
Over 90,000 children a year come to Polka and are inspired, stimulated and engaged by theatre, often for the first time. Polka strives to stir the emotions, spark the imagination and, most of all, entertain. Its two theatre spaces, the Main Theatre and the Adventure Theatre are designed especially for children so that their first taste of theatre is welcoming and relevant.

At Polka children aged 0 to 14 enjoy a wide-range of experiences designed to make theatre a natural part of their lives: from the powerful drama Stamping, Shouting and Singing Home; to hilarious family shows like Flat Stanley; fantastic world-premieres of new plays for children like Cloud Pictures; and adaptations of well-loved stories like We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

Polka Theatre for the very young is a vital part of Polka’s artistic programming. Over the past few years Polka has developed its Early Years work and established itself as a centre for innovation in this field. Children as young as 9 months and their families are brought into a colourful and stimulating environment where simple stories are told in a sensory and visual way. Early Years shows also visit Polka from across Europe encouraging the telling of a diverse range of stories in a varied and exciting way.

Creative programming keeps Polka’s work fresh and relevant. Audiences can expect imaginative new writers, dynamic performers, inventive adaptations of popular stories and resonant subjects. Everything we do is focused on providing children with thrilling world-class theatre.

At the heart of Polka’s work is a programme of learning that encourages children to explore and develop creatively. Every Polka show is supported by a learning programme. Schools visiting the theatre can benefit from online free resource packs and rehearsal diaries, show-related workshops and after-show talks. Polka embraces family learning and encourages it through exciting family days, after-show events and show-related activities packs. It also runs a regular programme of out-of-school clubs and summer schools giving children the freedom to explore their creativity and learn a wide-range of performance skills from storytelling to puppetry.
Polka is first and foremost a local theatre, loved by the people of Wimbledon and the wider London community, but enjoys an international reputation, known the world over as a pioneer of theatre for children, consistently setting the standard and raising audience’s expectations.

It is playful, fun and interactive - Polka stimulates even the biggest child’s imagination and is a magical place where you can share a special moment with your children."

Unicorn Theatre

This is information about the theatre company from their website...

"The Unicorn Theatre was founded by Caryl Jenner as a touring company in 1947 with a commitment to giving children a valuable and often first ever experience of quality theatre, and a philosophy that 'the best of theatre for children should be judged on the same high standards of writing, directing, acting and design as the best of adult theatre'. 

Today, the Unicorn is the UK's leading professional theatre for young audiences, dedicated to inspiring and invigorating young people of all ages, perspectives and abilities, and empowering them to explore the world – on their own terms – through theatre. 

We strive to push the boundaries of imagination in everything that we do; welcoming families, schools, and young people for unforgettable theatrical experiences that will expand horizons, change perspectives, and challenge how we all see and understand each other. 

Our purpose built home at London Bridge contains two theatres, four floors of public spaces and two rehearsal studios; allowing us to work with some of the world’s most exciting theatre-makers to produce, present and tour a surprising, innovative and broad range of work that is honest, refreshing and international in outlook.

We serve over 60,000 children and their parents and carers every year through our extensive programme of work both on and offstage."

The Unicorn Theatre provides entertainment to children aged between 2-21. They also go into schools and run workshops for the children to get hands on with and learn key drama skills. 

2nd June

Today we worked on creating the rap for the Bean Man (Dan), we decided to use the song Magic. We have adapted the words so that he is singing about the magic beans he is trying to trade to Jack. I think this song is good because it is funny and lighthearted so should be entertaining for the children to watch. It is also a happy jokey song and is completely suitable for the ages we are performing for. 

22nd May

Today we started with staging the opening to Jack using the script we had already written. We are starting the piece with some music that's from the opening of Beauty and the Beast, when we create a market placewhere Jack goes to sell his cow. The added music in the background adds another level to the performance and I think makes it more professional and adds more of an atmosphere to the piece, helping the children to be entertained and keep interested. Staging the rest of the script was quite simple, having the script already written really sped up the process for Jack in my opinion and was a good thing to do. Now everyone just needs to learn their lines so we can run it with scripts down and perfect it. 

18th May

Today we spent the lesson writing the scripts for Jack and the Beanstalk so that we can get on quickly with setting it next lesson. We need to work on the description of the settings as we will not have set or backdrops so we need to help the children to imagine the places. Also in my part of the script I need to work on portraying the relationship between Jack and his mum in a way that the children will understand. 

12th May

11th may

Today we started planning how we would set the stage for each of the stories and decided where we would actually perform them. After contemplating whether to use the stage or not we decided we would per from on the floor and have the children sitting on the floor in a semi circle. I think a semi circle is a good way to make the children feel part of the performance, it means we can be centred in between the children and talk to them all in a more informal way. Also having them on the same level as us will make it easier for us to interact with them and make them feel like part of the story instead of just watching it. 

We then started planning what was gonna happen in Jack and the Beanstalk and thinking of ideas for how to create it. For the beanstalk I thought we could have some scaffolding we have covered in vines as the bottom of the stalk. As jack starts to climb up the lights could fade out as he descends up into the clouds. Then as the lights come up another world above the clouds is seen, which is the Giants Kingdom. 

8th May

Today we finished Goldilocks, made the house for the Bears to live in and planned the narration for Freya to say during the piece. Teamwork is very important in this piece as we have to work together to create all of the shapes, if one Preston is not in the right place it will not look right so we all have to concentrate. I think after the full run through we have just done it isn't looking too bad, but we need more work on the transitions between each part of it and making the shapes clear. Also because there are so many different scenes it is quite hard to remember what comes next and what we are supposed to be going in to, so we need to keep running it to get it in our heads. 

5th May

Today we started thinking about the story of Goldilocks and how we could make it interesting for the small children to watch. We decided to have Goldilocks as a sort of narrator to come in front of the sheet so the children still have some interaction so their attention is kept. We started by creating a forest for the initial scene, using small groups of people to make different things in the forest, such as trees, bushes and flowers/plants. Then we created the three bears using different combinations of shapes to create the head, ears, arms and body of each sized bear. We then carried on with the story by making the 3 chairs and the 3 beds in the three different sizes which was difficult at first trying to make them significantly different but we got there in the end. Now we just need to work on the transitions between the different scenes, making sure that it looks smooth and easy moving from one thing to another.