A Ticket To Thrive from Little Supernovas & Onceupona Children’s Theatre
Welcome to our #TicketToThrive campaign. We believe wholeheartedly that doing something creative with your child will benefit you both. We’ve asked some other people who believe in the power of creativity to talk a little about a benefit they have seen when families get creative, and to suggest a simple activity that you can do at home. Today, we hear Brooke Conway and Hannah Mathieson from Little Supernovas and Onceupona Children’s Theatre.
Tell us about Little Supernovas and Onceupona Children’s Theatre: Little Supernovas & Onceupona Children’s Theatre have been bringing adventure stories to children and families for over a decade. Brooke Conway is the founder and Creative Director of both companies and has been a huge success across the UK as a published writer, performer, director & producer. We believe everyone should have access to the arts and storytelling. Our aim is to bring adventure storytelling to children from all backgrounds and provide them with confidence and a chance to develop their communication and creativity skills in a fun environment.
Little Supernovas run interactive Adventure Storytelling classes and holiday schools for babies to big kids and perform original storytelling plays. We currently run regular classes in nurseries, primary schools, community and youth centres across London and are always looking for new storytelling opportunities. All of our stories and adventures are fun and educational and cover a range of EYFS and National Curriculum topics.
Onceupona Children’s Theatre Company adapts and produces original and traditional tales that are exciting and fun for everyone from the youngest in the audience to the oldest to audiences. Onceupona brings a unique and magical fusion of adventure storytelling and pure theatre performance and puts your children centre stage to become a part of the play as it unfolds whilst capturing the hearts of the parents. We perform our shows across the UK, in London, Edinburgh & Newcastle.
Ticket To Thrive is all about encouraging families to do something creative together. What benefits do you observe for families and children at your shows and classes? Little Supernovas currently run classes in nurseries and schools across London and we have found that combining music and movement is an effective way to keep the children’s focus and engaged throughout the sessions. Some of our stories require teamwork and various commutation skills during the adventures and we encourage the children to have an input by letting them follow their imagination and voice their creative ideas. Our stories cover a range of National Curriculum and EYFS topics such as: Greek mythology, the great fire of London, Shakespeare. We also use phonics and number counting so children can learn through fun role play. For example children will have to crack a code to move further into the story by listening to the phonic sounded out to them and thinking of a word that start with that phonic. We introduce numbers by counting down to blast off in our Space Adventure or counting the puddles we jump in and the number of sounds we hear. We also encourage the children to handle our props to develop strong, fine and gross motor skills.
All of our Onceupona children’s shows and adventures are interactive, as the participants are encouraged to join us in the adventure, and through this the children develop dance and drama skills. With a little guidance along the way from our trained and highly experienced Adventuretellers, we believe that it is the children that are the main characters in the performance, and we invite adults to come and watch their child’s imagination & confidence explode whilst being centre stage! We do also encourage accompanying adults to join in to give them an opportunity to play and have fun with their children.
How can families get some of those same benefits at home? We encourage families to read to their children and bring stories to life through creativity and emotive storytelling. We would advise families to act out stories and add fun voices to characters.
We also bring our action adventure stories to your home for a fun filled party! They’ll travel to mystical lands, boogie with baboons, trick dragons, tickle an octopus or even blast off into space — wherever our imaginations take us! I can tailor an action adventure to your child’s wishes and theme and include all their favourite magical characters and music! Our parties incorporate action storytelling, music, props, drama, movement and plenty of giggles.
Little Supernovas run regular workshops full of action storytelling, music, props, drama, movement and plenty of giggles at schools, nurseries and after-school clubs across London. They are running an action-packed and creative Summer School where the children take control of the show. The Summer School runs from 9.30am — 2.30pm on the 19th — 23rd August at St Andrews Church in N19, and is aimed at 3–8 year olds. For more information, and to book, visit their website. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to learn more about their classes. Onceupona Children’s Theatre have two performances of their Fairy Tales With A Twist coming up this month on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th August in Walthamstow. For more information, please see their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. They have kindly given us one free day at their Summer School to give away. To enter, please visit Let’s Play London’s social media accounts at the links below.
Let’s Play London shines a spotlight on the best theatre and live performance for Under 5s in London. Find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
