Creating Outdoor Theatre for Families

How do we create outdoor theatre for families? There are a lot of things you have to think about, especially with a show that tours to lots of different places. A big one is the set, the backbone to any production is the scenery, but, with outdoor theatre, it needs to be able to adapt to its surroundings such as rocky terrain, or a hilly area. On top of all that, you have to create something that can survive the weather. So this job is left in the more than capable hands of Babbling Vagabonds Artistic team Tara and Mark who – in my opinion – have created something magical! 

The Rehearsal Process

Now rehearsing the show, whilst it is hard work, is also bundles of fun! Creating children’s theatre is all about playing, so we start each rehearsal by playing a few games, having a laugh and helping unleash our creativity. Each individual character within the story is stripped down to the very basics. How do they walk? How do they talk? How do they move their body? This can be very challenging when most of us play more than one character in the show! The characters need to be completely different and larger than life.

Making sure that our characters are big is very important in an outdoor show, as you never know what will happen when you get into the space. You may have people who can’t see as much as others, you may have someone right next to you, or even behind you! So by creating these comically large and exaggerated characters, you’re ensuring every audience member has a good experience.

Story Development

After we’ve spent some time developing our characters, we then leap right into the story. We take each scene at a time and create some freeze frames! These are little snapshots of what happens in the scene, they help us stay on track and have a good idea of what we need to accomplish by the end of the scene. From there we then start adding more detail, bit by bit, until we can start improvising. We’ll make up lines and do the scenes multiple times until we’re happy we have a decently structured scene.

In front of an Audience

What’s lovely about this show is that there is a lot of freedom to play. The show is highly interactive, so no two shows will be the same. We react to what the audience says and does which is why we don’t script the show too heavily. It’s much more fun to adapt the show to the audience we have (and we hope they find it fun too!) This way, I think everyone that comes to see us, will leave having had a completely unique experience.

That’s it for now, but I hope to see you at one of our venues this summer. Come and say hello, and make sure you stay for a photo after the show!

Writer – Company Actor, Emily Jane Vinnicombe