By: Malaika Kegode
Nov 2024
Theatre Royal Plymouth (TRP) is a multifaceted building and organisation – we are many things to many people, but one thing that consolidates all that we do is the importance of stories. Stories help us make sense of the world, and from an early age we look to them to guide us in how we interact with each other and grow.
This Autumn half term, alongside the exciting opening of our show The Creakers, we transformed our front of house space into a pop-up library called The Nook. We wanted to create a safe space to play, explore and celebrate multi-sensory storytelling, and we did so with gusto! The Nook was a huge team effort between our various departments including Producing, E&L, Artistic, Front of House, Marketing & Comms, Estates, and Technical to name a few! This impressive team even extended outside of our building to include the wider community of Plymouth and the southwest. We partnered with and programmed storytellers and organizations including Literature Works, Plymouth Argyle, Plymouth Children’s Book Group, Mama G, The Roaming Librarian, Far Flung Dance Theatre and many more to create a diverse mix of stories for our library.
A special shout-out is due to Sarah Farrow-Jones who was a key collaborator in the creation and day-to-day running of our library. If you popped in over the week you will have met Sarah who, alongside Assistant Producer Jodie Paget and our Project Manager for Children & Families Dani Hamlin, kept the space looking brilliant while making badges and reading stories!
Inspired by the eco-conscious themes of The Creakers, we wanted to ensure The Nook was sustainably built, so our beautiful dressing was sourced from Plymouth Scrapstore CIC, shelves from Gumtree, and books being donated by many staff members and friends. We also used sustainable bookseller Awesome Books to kit out our library, and in doing so 36.52kg of CO2, 4565 Liters of water, 0.2739 trees, with 46 books donated to global literary projects.
Our programme included activities for young people across the city, from teen writing workshops to sensory exploration for 0-3 year-olds. The latter offered even more opportunities for sustainable practice, as these interactive sessions run by Dani in addition to being a magical way of playing, were also a way to explore the first stages of creating our new Christmas show – The Star Who Danced!
Each year in The Lab, our underground studio venue, we create a Christmas offering especially for very young children and their families. This year, we’re presenting The Star Who Danced, a sensory delight for 0-3 year olds. Collaborating with local talent including Clair Sargeant, Grace Lightman and Amber Emily Palfreyman, we will tell this story of a little star who dances through the sky on a winter’s night, meeting lots of different dance partners on their journey. It’s sure to be a magical tale full of dance, music and play.
Our sessions in The Nook took this story and explored its tactile elements with young people, learning from babies, children and their families what sparked inspiration and joy. From frozen teething toys to the feel of soft fabric against tiny hands, all these learnings have gone into our rehearsal room to create a show custom-made for little ones to engage in.
Stories are so important to us here at TRP, and there are so many ways to enjoy them. The very best stories are the ones we feel part of, that we can hold with us long after the final page (or curtain call!). We hope that you can join us at The Star Who Danced from 04 – 28 December, so that you can be part of this one.