The Pale Baron by Kopergiertery

This was definitely my favourite of the 2025 Edinburgh International Children's Festival. Why? I was moved by the relationship between the two central characters who played in a band and were to separated by the actions of the dystopian state they were living in. Moved because it was also funny. The actor playing the female character Felka had written the piece. The two actors had worked together or known each other for twenty years - so there was a warmth and intimacy in the playing. This drew me in and made me care and allowed for the rest of the world of the play to be more strange and unusual, because there was this very human heart. The big idea of the play about the dangers of a dictatorship were held by gentle playing, nothing too forced but an unfolding of the story, piece by piece, like the new words that Felka learnt to find her way through the new country she lived in, 'gems on her necklace', as she called them. Photo credit Lucille Kaempf

Animation - co-created with children & Lizzy Hobbs - what I like about this is seeing the excited children's heads bobbing up and down in the bottom of the frame... as they see their work for the first time

Toby Thompson's The Little Prince, produced by The Egg Theatre, Bath

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the most translated book (excluding the Bible). Translated into over 600 languages, it wins this competition by quite some way – with Grimms, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio & Marx translated into around 200 languages. And there are many adaptations into many different mediums, the latest big budget ‘80-year commemoration production’ touring the world tells the story with song, dance and a massive cast; so a production as this one, telling the story with a single performer in one hour, left much to the imagination of the audience.

The choice of a single performer was a good one and the choice of Toby Thompson is a perfect fit. One that chimes with excellent theatre for young and active imaginations. That it worked for young audiences was clear by the way young voices called out to fill in essential elements/questions in the story. It also worked for this adult, I was able to lose myself in the depths of a multi-layered story on a flat Thursday morning. And to remember in the words of the original, that all grown-ups once were children and “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what's essential is invisible to the eye.” So how did performance poet Toby manage to do this so well. Here are some of the bits I remember… He is confident in setting up and then with moving between the different layers of story within story… moving between playing the piano and addressing us with a question, “How shall I begin? Once upon a time?... then do I have to end with ‘happily ever after?” We, the audience, are already complicit in how the story will be told and we can follow between Toby, as narrator, the pilot aged 6, the pilot as an adult, the character of the Little Prince, the multiple characters in the stories that the Little Prince tells. He pin points precisely that dynamic between child and grown up, the thread that binds the different layers of story together. "Grown-ups love figures… When you tell them you’ve made a new friend they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you “What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies? “ Instead they demand ‘How old is he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him."

He includes many of the Little Prince’s encounters with different characters, through a relaxed transformation between each vignette; the king with no subjects, the conceited man who wants selfies and followers/friends, the businessman who must count everything (because if it can be counted it can be managed). In keeping the tone simple, and avoiding too many actorly acrobatics, it means his narrator character stays closer to us, the audience, and we stay closer to the story. Toby’s telling of the story is well supported by a creative team responsible for the set, the music and the projection. Little steps of beautiful poetry move the story along, grains of sands portraying the multitude of stars, a secret written down and hidden in a shell, water hidden in a planet to save the pilot’s life, the big blue heart at the start, the flight of birds projected flying the little prince away… Not all the characters are included, the snake is a notable omission, making the ending ‘happier’ - but that doesn’t mean we don’t get there without feelings of loss and sadness. The character of The Rose is simpler than in the book, but the production still lands this key relationship in which the Little Prince struggles to love his Rose. And how he learns from the fox about the nature of friendship… “if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....”

“People have forgotten this truth," the fox said. "But you mustn’t forget it. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.” The text of the original book mixes with Toby’s own poetry seamlessly, he owns both and finds his way through the different layers of story with confidence. In one beautiful moment, he connects a sigh and his breath to a text about sadness. And at the end The Pilot/Narrator challenges us the audience to take on the sadness of a bleak ending. He proposes that the story is false, that it never existed, that we’re stupid to believe in these things and he exits the stage. This is a powerful theatrical moment, all the characters have left, the stage is empty, we are let down, disappointed, hopes dashed and left facing the silence of ourselves and the illusion of theatre, dreams and the imagination. However, Toby’s return as the Little Prince is perfectly timed to catch us from that barren moment. “What?” the Little Prince insists, “You don’t believe?” And he gives us, children and grown-ups alike, the hope of imagination and the possibility of seeing with the heart.

Involving children & young people in the arts - presentation for #BrightGenerations Assitej Artistic Gathering 2025

I was invited to speak on a panel at the Bright Generations Artistic Gathering on how we can involve children and young people in artisitc creation. Here are some of the questions we discussed. What deeply motivates you in involving children and Young people in your projects? Is it an artistic or a political action? Is it a widespread approach in your country? Or is it innovative? What status do children and Young people have in your projects? What more do they bring to the table compared to adults in the creative process? In your opinion, from the perspective of the children, their parents and their communities: What difficulties, fears and doubts did they encounter in these projects? What joys, what meaning, what beneficial changes did they gain from this experience? What have been the greatest challenges or frustrations and the greatest joys for you as a creative artist in these projects? What matters most? The experience, the creative process, or the final work? Can you have high standards in all the different areas? Can we create today for young audiences without young people ?

Some key elements of how we create an authentic artistic experience from my practice of story-writing are to give children: - authority to write a story as a singular author - freedom of their imagination - agency to use their story to make change And one of the key outcomes of involving children from schools is that when we make a community performance we connect across the range of the community (not just segments), because all families go to school. And we are experiencing the live performance with the children as collaborators/accomplices. Dominique Bérody spoke about how this impacts on the reception of the show - something changes, a democratisation with a different type of aesthetics and more plural, non-hierarchical relationship to audiences. The session was moderated by Séverine Coulon and Céline Garnavault; With the artists Zoë Demoustier, Cie Ultima Vez (Belgium), Sue Giles (Australia) and Michael Judge, New International Encounter Theatre (UK). Keynote speakers: Dominique Bérody, artistic consultant and Sylvia Girel, sociologist. An example of working with children and with objects from a Museum to make a show in Fenland.

Marseille - City of Grafitti

The city embraces public art, self-expression and hip-hop culture

Top 3 Shows of Assitej 2025 - in no particular order...(and I didn't see them all)

1. Harold: The Game An analysis of the Bayeux Tapestry and its depiction of the Battle of Hastings from both the French and the English points of view. Audience on 4 sides, a game show format which descended into a Rugby match complete with bags of earth and a projection of the tapestry itself on the screens above the audiences heads. Where was the tapestry made? Canterbury or Bayeux? Is it in fact an embroidery, not tapestry? The battle for the truth was played out by six grown men with some bias towards the French - 5 to 1. A French collaboration between Bob Théâtre and Vélo Théâtre based on an original idea by Rina Vergano, The Egg Theatre in Bath (GB), this spectacle was much enjoyed by the young audience and, with a pile of bodies in the earth at the end, provoked reflection on the futility of warring nationalism, not just between the French and the English.

Penguin A funny, moving story of a journey from Syrian refugee camp to Gateshead. Performed and co-created by Hamzeh Al Hussien · Directed and co-created by Amy Golding. The simplicity of the telling gave direct engagement with the performer making the story more powerful.

L'Oiseau (Bird) - La POLKa, Anne Noziere. When Mustafa loses his father he connects with Pamela his classmate who has lost her dog. Its actually a light, funny poetic piece - more than this opening scenario might intimate. These two characters meet little Francou who can commune with the 'other side', the dead. This is acheived with such widespread success from those who have lost loved ones... that the headteacher is alarmed and call a meeting for the parents at the school, "Its serious - she says - its a situation that I cannnot speak about in front of the children...I must speak to you in English." And there it is. The inability of adults to speak about death. The children take control and, in a section projected on film, we see the funeral cavalcade, and the children driving and the cars and stepping out to dance around the grave. One caveat - why only 2 white actors telling the story of Mustafa who clearly is not white?

Friche la Belle de Mai - What an exciting venue for #BrightGenerations Assitej Artistic Gathering 2025

A converted Tobacco Factory with 5 performance spaces, a skate park, library, garden, roof terrace and multiple other spaces for cultural activity. France repurposes architecture very well.

Assitej Awards for people from UK - Lifetime Achievement Award for Vicky Ireland & Emerging Scholars Award for Dr. Kitty Morley

Vicky Ireland was a member of the first Theatre- in-Education team at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and started the charity Action for Children’s Arts in 1989, and she co-founded the International Inclusive Arts Network with Daryl Beeton in 2011. Dr. Katherine Morley is an associate researcher at the University of Manchester, UK and researcher in residence at The Egg, Royal Theatre Bath. Katherine recently contributed to Mapping Research: A map on the aesthetics of performing arts for early years.

Bounced - Magnet Theatre

 

Entendemos La Historie, Esta es La Revolución - Understand History, This is the Revolution

 

A word about Cuba the country... So much complexity around the economy, the government currency rates, the pesos for dollars on the streets... power cuts... some notes here to help find a way through.

Why does the US have Guantanamo?  It was 100 yr lease for 1902 when the US helped to fight the Spanish.

My airbnb host told his story of the revolution. 1953 and Castro's fight against Batista and subsequent capture and trial where he defended himself...'History will observe me.' His exile.

His return in 1956 in a boat with just 82 men. And his fight from the East to the West of the island between 1956 to 1959.

Until December 1958 when Batista flees to the Dominican Republic with 300 million dollars. 

The Bay of Pigs 16th-19th April 1961.  And cuban missile crisis in 1963, when Castro was unhappy that Kruschev did a deal with Kennedy. 

He told me about the The film I am Cuba. It is a proud history. However, it now seems it may be in the way of the best interests of the people, when some struggle receive basic supplies. 

Bedtime - Drak Theatre

 

Batu - Artefactos Bascos

 

Baracca Theatre

 

To Hell with Paradise - Batida Theatre, Denmark

The show takes place outside, under a metal roof, in case of rain. Bated are experienced at playing in Cuba & they have brought their own generator in case of power cuts. 

The Festival goers arrive on a bus & are greeted with much excitement by the group of local children. However once the actors descend from their bus, the excitement doubles and the show begins.  The serpent enters, and there is Adam and Juliet and an apple.

Each scene has captions in Spanish and is separated by a musical number from a Rock Band. The mix of Shakespeare and Genesis temptation story unfolds. There is a moment of death & tragedy when Juliet's pregnancy is discovered. 

However the magic of theatre steps in via the Serpent, who explains that Juliet's pregnant stomach is 'only a balloon'. And the star-crossed lovers are given a ticket to Freedom

 

Kopergierty - a theatre for young people in Belgium - Culture Is Not Only Inherited From The Past, But Also Borrowed From Next Generations!

Johan De Smet gave a detailed view of how this theatre operates including approaches to dramaturgy for young people. Simple cards to analyse the length of time for each element of the drama.

 The overall emphasis is on working with contemporary artists, and to attend to the new developments of a rapidly changing society - and to the need for children to access new technology.

This is alongside the need for well-being, education, playful chaos and a sense of belonging. 

The Value of Theatre for Young People - Can we discuss the value of the Art? Or are we stuck with secondary outcomes of Education, Health and Social?

What was most surprising was to attend a seminar on the value of theatre for young people and to find that none of the value measurements included the aesthetic value.  This is ASSITEJ's 'Building Collective Resilience' strand of work, a part of which aims to bring together published academic papers as well as evaluation reports (so called 'grey papers' written by practitioners and theatre companies but not peer reviewed) to build a bank of evidence for the value of theatre for young people.  Evidence needs to include an element of self-reporting by children.  Whilst it is not surprising that this includes aggregating evidence in terms of sectors such as education, health and social, what is surprising is that there is no acknowledgement of the aesthetic value. 

Whilst this is notoriously hard to measure, there has been the important findings from the New Victory 2021 

Spark Report

and there are approaches that were discussed at Assitej Capetown 2017 (see below)

Are we measuring what matters? Or is it even possible to measure? Probably not, art is inherently subjective so it is not possible to find a metric to measure definitively.  And in live theatre different performances will vary with different audiences. To paraphrase Francois Matarasso, we do not look to find if the show is excellent in some abstract sense but if it is excellent on this night, with this audience, in this place. And everyone will have their opinion, judgment and discernment. For Mr. Hisashi Shimoyama, from the Rica Rica Festival in Japan, a good piece of theatre for young people was one that encouraged children to continue to live. How do we measure this? Are their eyes engaged in the action? Is there a collective gasp at a reveal in the plot? Are they laughing at moments you expect, or at other moments? Are they talking about the show afterwards?

Mary Rose Lloyd from the New Victory Theatre suggested a definitive system of measurement is elusive as a Unicorn.

However, it is useful to have some questions and statements to prompt those conversations, whether with peers, with children and young people, teachers or other stakeholders. So for the record, here are the ways, as discussed at Assitej2017.

The Danish Seven

1. Artistic objectives

Does the company have a genuine commitment to its work?

Why this production? Why are they making theatre at all?

Is it evident that this particular company see the need of playing this particular play in this particular way at this particular time?

2. The Text (Alternatively in the case of productions with little or no text:the dramatic development)

Is there a dramaturgical development?

3. The Solutions to the staging

Meaning all the decisions taken in relation to the text eg. Design, music, direction.

What is the impression as a whole?

4. The Actor’s work

The characters – are they credible? Do they develop? Are they multi-faceted?

What is the interplay with the spectators?

5. Relations to the audience

Are the children (in the audience) taken seriously?

Does the production captivate its audience?

Is it clear that this particular company is concerned about addressing this particular audience on this special day?

Are they prepared to respond to the audience?

6. Relations between the intentions and the abilities of the company

Do the ambitions match the skills of the company?

7. Ethics

The ultimate and overall idea of the production.

What is the encounter?

Arts Council England Seven (for children and young people – all arts)

1. Striving for excellence and innovation

2. Being authentic 

3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging 

4. Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience 

5. Actively involving children and young people 

6. Enabling personal progression 

7. Developing belonging and ownership

The Australian Five (all arts)

1. Captivating

2. Emotional resonance

3. Intellectual stimulation

4. Aesthetic enrichment

5. Social bridging and bonding

The Arts Council England Nine (all arts)

Statements from which artists can invite audiences to tell them what they value about the work.  Each statement is scored on a simple metric scale.

1. Concept: it was an interesting idea

2. Presentation: it was well produced and presented

3. Distinctiveness: it was different from things I’ve experienced before

4. Challenge: it was thought-provoking

5. Captivation: it was absorbing and held my attention

6. Enthusiasm: I would come to something like this again

7. Local impact: it is important that it's happening here

8. Relevance: it has something to say about the world in which we live

9. Rigour: it was well thought through and put together

ASSITEJ CUBA - We need new voices for a new world; let us make them heard!

The 21st ASSITEJ World Congress & Performing Arts Festival for Children & Young People

Entitled Voices of a New World, the event took place in Havana, Cuba from 24th May to 1st June 2024

1000+ Artists from 70+ Countries     •     65 Workshops, Talks & Discussions     •     25             Performances from 5 Continents

                 

   A key challenge was to make space for the next generation voices to be heard

 

Co-creation internationally - Children are the same all over the world - As crianças são as mesmas em todo o mundo

We asked children in Rio, Brazil and London, England to share thoughts on theatre and, more generally, their fears. 

The idea that commonalities for children predominate more than differences, was clear from discussion with Teresa Rotemberg. Her talk identified the need for friends, the fear of being alone, the sadness, the desire to be perceived, the pleasure of being in a family... common to children across the world. 

These are some of the co-creation methods from the collaboration with the Wisbech and Fenland Museum.

I give a specific example of the artistic process. 

I give some detail of how we make the project. 

-              We work in a region called Fenland, where there is very little cultural provision, but there is a museum

-              We work in partnership with the museum

-              Take objects from a local museum to schools

Patrimonio/Museos

Doy un ejemplo concreto del proceso artístico. 

Doy algunos detalles de cómo realizamos el proyecto. 

- Trabajamos en una región llamada Fenland, donde hay muy poca oferta cultural, pero hay un museo

- Trabajamos en colaboración con el museo

- Llevamos objetos del museo local a las escuelas

 

-              Make a map of the local area, a co-created map

-              Children write stories inspired by these objects.

-              And for this process we create a space of quiet when the children can write uninterrupted for about 20 minutes. 

- Hacer un mapa de la zona, un mapa creado conjuntamente.

- Los niños escriben historias inspiradas en estos objetos.

- Y para este proceso creamos un espacio de tranquilidad en el que los niños pueden escribir sin interrupciones durante unos 20 minutos.

 

-              We say that every story will be read by us the artists

-              We give special paper and pens and a freedom to write whatever they want.

- Decimos que cada historia será leída por nosotros, los artistas.

- Les damos papel y bolígrafos especiales y libertad para escribir lo que quieran.

 

-              We sometimes give a frame – and use a limitation as a stimulation.

-              A story which involves the object, the location…

-              A story where something happens, where characters change/transform

-              A story that may have action, horror, comedy, romance, adventure…

-              A mix of fact and fiction – and there are different ways into a story – for example - I ask the children to include 2 truths and a lie – some things that happened but something that you have imagined.

- A veces damos un marco y utilizamos una limitación como estímulo.

- Una historia en la que interviene el objeto, el lugar...

- Una historia en la que ocurre algo, en la que los personajes cambian/se transforman

- Una historia que puede tener acción, terror, comedia, romance, aventura...

- Una mezcla de realidad y ficción - y hay diferentes maneras de escribir una historia - por ejemplo - les pido a los niños que incluyan 2 verdades y una mentira - algunas cosas que sucedieron pero algo que han imaginado.

 

-              If they can’t write, we can support and ask them to tell us a story and we will write

-              If they can’t think of a story I might say, I am thinking of a story can you guess what it is.

-              Always a child will find a story

- Si no saben escribir, podemos ayudarles y pedirles que nos cuenten una historia y nosotros escribiremos.

- Si no pueden pensar en una historia, puedo decirles: "Estoy pensando en una historia, ¿adivinas cuál es?

- El niño siempre encontrará una historia

-              It is important that the child has the authentic creative process, to experience how to make something from nothing – and this is what is special – seeing the children enjoy this - for 20 mins you can feel in the room the silence and the noise of young imaginations at work

- Es importante que el niño viva el auténtico proceso creativo, que experimente cómo hacer algo de la nada, y esto es lo especial, ver a los niños disfrutar de ello: durante 20 minutos puedes sentir en la sala el silencio y el ruido de la imaginación de los más pequeños trabajando.

-              The show works because the stories are from the children, telling of stories we could not imagine, and because it has been co-created with historical objects and tells a story of a landscape which has not been told. 

- El espectáculo es maravilloso porque los relatos proceden de los niños, cuentan historias que no podríamos imaginar, y porque se ha creado conjuntamente con objetos históricos y cuenta la historia de un paisaje que no se ha contado.

 

One teachers said to me… “the children must take ownership of their history, it is their past, they own it and they must draw upon it to shape the future going forward.”

Uno de los profesores me dijo... "los niños deben apropiarse de su historia, es su pasado, les pertenece y deben basarse en él para dar forma al futuro que les espera."

 

ASSITEJ FESTIVAL HAVANA - How do we listen to and create with children?

Some notes from a talk at Casa Simon Bolivar, Old Havana

I shared a platform with Teresa Rotemberg from Argentina/Switzerland.  We had different disciplines, Teresa - dance/movement, myself - stories/theatre. I spoke about co-creation as a producer and as an artist in terms of work with and for children. 

As a producer, this involves collaborating with other non-artistic sectors, like council, health and education. The benefit of this is to be able to create work with other sector budgets, and to be able to expand the influence of the work so more children are listened to by more people.  

Education has a different function to art, but it is useful to quote Paulo Freire to demonstrate education's qualities of transformation.

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity OR it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.”

In producing work with non-artistic partners, it was important to set the best artistic context for the children to create with the key artistic impulse being story. Children are given the opportunity to write their own story, because if they don't someone else will. It is important for children to feel the power and agency to imagine something different... and with the possibility for imagining comes the possibility of change. 

Its Ok Not to Know... Co-creating the future

What will the future be like in 50 years’ time? 

This is the question that began a journey into the unknown. Seven theatres from seven different European countries telling newly minted stories written by 3000 children. There were many unknowns.    

·      How do we start the journey as artists? 

·      How will the audience encounter the art? 

·      What role can the art play in the children’s lives?

As artists, one quality we need for the journey of artistic endeavour is the ability to be ok with not knowing. We know we are making something, and generally we know the time-frame but it is an open-ended creative process. We don’t know what the art will look like at the end. We shoot the arrow over the hedge and then run around to see where it has landed. Creativity is essential, but it’s a simple word for a complex process. 

And beneath lies a host of words: invention, imagination, expression. The recent UK Durham Commission[1]defines creativity as “the capacity to bring into being something that was not there before.” There is no single word for the ability to be ok with not knowing—the poet John Keats has the phrase ‘negative capability[2]’, the capability of “being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts.” This is a ‘must have’ when we begin the artistic journey towards the unknown. 

The project is targeted at children aged 7-11 years old. One beginning was to place a ‘box from the future’ in the centre of a circle of children and to invite the children to imagine it had arrived from the future. What is in the box? The children crept towards the box, eyes wide, full of excitement and tension, the moment before the box is opened. Imagination is always bigger, wilder, and more fantastical than the reality.

 

The audience at the start of a play are ready for surprise in the story. Even though we may not like surprises in real life, we enjoy a twist or the unexpected. The atmosphere can be set by the actors meeting the audience outside the theatre space and standing alongside them, or directly meeting their eyes as they enter the space, with the message, we are going to tell you a story, it will be exciting, mysterious, scary, playful, sad, funny, we are not quite sure what will happen, but we will be there alongside you, not ahead of you, discovering, as the story unfolds and the characters transform. It is a journey into the unknown. The audience welcome the thrill of stepping into the unknown, but feel reassured by the contract that this is art, the story will end and they will be returned to their world with the hope of possibility. 

When we ask what role art can play in children’s lives, or in our lives, it is a bigger, much harder question to answer. Aside from the inevitable final full stop, our lives keep going and move from one experience to another without the frame of art. There are many approaches to measuring the impact of art on children’s lives but ultimately the experience of art is subjective and defies objective measurement. One child will imagine differently to another—that is the infinite power of the imagination.  However, it is still a question worth asking. 

So, another beginning for our project was to ask the children to write a wish for the future on a postcard. Our contract with them was that we would send this postcard back to them one year from the date they wrote it. In addition to asking what role art can play in children’s lives, we could also ask what role children can play in art? They are the future, so it is right to include some of their words. Here are some of their wishes. 

To see my grandma one last time before she passed away

To stop humanity producing so much waste

To be a footballer, work for NASA and go to space

To win the lottery because my mum has not got much money

When they receive their postcard in the future, one year later, it will bring a reflection both on their past, their involvement with the project, but also a sense of time and the future. No one knows what the future holds but art can imagine it and give it shape.  

This article was commissioned for the ASSITEJ Magazine Towards the Unknown: Starting the Journey published for XXth ASSITEJ World Congress and Festival in Japan. 

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[1] https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/creativitycommission/DurhamReport.pdf

[2] Keats uses this phrase in a letter to his brothers on 22 December 1817