The Story of Leaf An Environmental Quest
On Sunday 29th May at 2.30pm we were thrilled to deliver an environmental promenade theatre performance as part of the Imagine This Festival 2022:
“Leaf needs to find good soil and clean water in order to plant the last tree, but planet Pridd is dying from pollution. Leaf travels to Cardboard City, Plastic Town, Tin Town and finally sees the water spirits, but no one can help. Only the Green Planet can save the little tree now, but has the Green Planet also started to be taken over by litter…?”
The Story of Leaf consisted of a 2-day collaborative production with local young people supported by Drama & Performing Arts Students from the University of Gloucestershire
Here is a Young Producer Report covering the event:
The Story of Leaf
Young Producer: Matty Woollaston
Arts Mentor: Karen Benjamin Senior Lecturer University of Gloucestershire
Collaborating with Play Torbay
Days Saturday 28 May and Sunday 29 May 10.00 – 4.00pm
My name is Matty Woollaston, I am a Junior Placement at Play Torbay and regularly support the ASRUS club on Wednesday evenings. I was approached by Play Torbay who asked whether I would like to be involved the production of a contribution to the second Imagine this… Festival as a young producer. The suggestion was that children and young people could be invited to come together for the weekend to devise a ‘quest’. Play Torbay has for a number of years collaborated with staff and students at the University of Gloucestershire to develop quests as playful promenade performances for family audiences. Everyone joining is encouraged to take part, work out challenges and make something memorable to take home. The difference with the proposal this time was that the children and young people would be given a story and would devise the production during the festival, in just two days! I was able to meet with the Karen and the students from Gloucestershire on Zoom and talk the ideas through beforehand.
Day 1
The event was well advertised with an invitation for children and young people to join the event for the two days. There was both a invitation to young people to join and a poster about the Imagine this… festival event.
There were four students, George, Abbie, Courtney and Anna with Karen who welcomed the children as they arrived. We were based in the Italian Garden next door to the house. The plan was to devise and develop the Quest between 10.00 – 4.00pm on the Saturday and 10.00 – 2.00pm on the Sunday with the final performance on Sunday afternoon. The Imagine this… Festival itself was scheduled to run from 2.00pm – 8.00pm on both days. There were 26 of us in total, 12 young people, 10 Junior Placements and 4 students. We started with ‘getting to know each other games’ and ‘drama exercises’ which helped us build relationships with each other and not to feel too awkward. Some children seemed happy to be outdoors and just to play. After that we all gathered together to listen to the story of LEAF. The environmental quest tells the story of the main character ‘Leaf’ who needs to find good soil and clean water in order to plant the last tree, but planet Pridd is dying from pollution. Leaf travels to Cardboard City, Plastic Town, Tin Town and finally sees the water spirits, but no one can help. Leaf is told that only the Green Planet (Earth) can save the little tree now, but has the Green Planet also started to be taken over by litter…?’
At this point the children were completely engaged in the story, came out of their shells and started to build the cardboard city; they were really comfortable and absorbed in their play. In the afternoon as the Festival started with lots of other people wanting to join in the situation was much harder. But even with so much going on most of the cast stayed engaged. Some children needed one to one support and the Junior placements and the students worked hard to help them. There were good examples of collaboration, young people leading and improvisation.
Day 2
Rehearsals went well and young people all had a part to play. The wet weather started to be a concern so it was agreed, with support from the organisers, to move from the Italian Garden into the large marquee which made it so much easier to create a performance. The young people were able to focus and work together as a cast. It really helped that people attending the festival didn’t come into ‘their space’ while they were rehearsing. The students were excellent role models and supported young people to lead the performance, helping them to remember their lines. One young man, decided to be in his cardboard box throughout but did not forget any of his words.
Both the uncertainty of the weather and the way the young people had responded to being in their own space, it was felt it would be best to hold two performances in the marquee along side the planned ‘making’ element of the quest. As a memento of the Story of Leaf, all the audience members who came to watch the performance were encouraged to make a small rocket-like planter, fill it with compost and plant a sunflower seed (in recognition of the suffering in Ukraine) and take it home to grow. It worked well and lots of people took part.
Lessons Learned
Most of the children taking part had additional needs and it can take staff and Juniors time to get to know their differences and how best to support them. A possibility would be for parents to be encouraged to stay initially.
Parents and carers coming to the performances were genuinely interested and impressed with how much had been achieved over the two days. For a number of the young people involved this was their very first performance.
Having a separate rehearsal space at such short notice was invaluable – it genuinely helped to bring the performance alive.
The opportunity to work with a diverse group of young people to create a performance from scratch and to be part of large Festival event with hundreds and hundreds of people was an amazing experience.
