The Voyage Continues...

We're delighted to have been funded by Arts Council England and the Foyle Foundation for Ulla's Odyssey's UK Tour. The team will be collaborating with children's theatre company, Big Wheel to devise engaging workshops exploring Greek Myths and environmental issues to go alongside our Ulla's Odyssey performances on the road.

These workshops will enable young people to feel confident about opera, develop their music and drama skills and explore issues of human impact on the natural environment. Watch this space for regular blog updates on Ulla's new journey into the realms of Theatre In Education!

Next up…Partnership, puppetry and pollution!...stay *tuned*

Ulla’s Odyssey Workshop Training at Big Wheel

by Valetina Ceschi, Director

Friday 27 May

For the past week we’ve been training the musicians from our children’s opera Ulla’s Odyssey in workshops facilitated by Big Wheel (see information below). The first day of training started quite unconventionally. We were greeted by a mysterious man wearing a long grey trench coat and rimmed hat, with strong american accent; taking down notes about each of us, and asking us what books we had read recently. Suddenly a woman entered - a femme-fatale creature complete with feather boer - she and this Bogart-like character started enacting the opening scene of a book by Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep. At one point they both broke out of character and introduced the name of their workshop, The Great Big Book Project. There were some exercises while we learnt different aspects about books, from first impressions of book covers, to what genres there are and so on. All this was done through fun and interactive games. We were blown away by how engaging this was and disappointed when Roland and George brought the Big Book Project to an end. Now it was our turn to learn how to do something similar with Ulla's Odyssey.

We started with a feedback session where we all listed the elements that made their workshop so engaging. We said the element of surprise was really strong. By this we meant that, as the audience, we didn’t really have a choice but to go with it, it was very visual, there was loads of audience interaction which felt empowering and not intimidating. We also noticed how it relied on strong teamwork between the two facilitators. Roland and George had great chemistry, they were relaxed, and comfortable with each other. So these are - just some of - the skills and elements the Ulla company are going to learn for their very own workshops around the opera for children.

First off: how to work as a group. The singers are already very familiar with this as they have to work together as an ensemble in the show itself. One exercise required the two small groups to enact a ‘potted’ version of Ulla’s Odyssey - these were basically long-form improvisations so you had to be very open to things changing course, and to accept each other’s propositions. It was a lot of fun! Interesting aspects emerged from performing these, notably that less is more, props are useful and free you up, and teamwork is essential. Comedy also played a big part in these mini performances and we learned how to control this.

Later on, our group was invited to each share a skill that they use in Ulla's Odyssey that they could teach or demonstrate to the group. First up was Ruth our woodwind instrumentalist. Ruth, of course, plays many instruments in the show and would be able to bring them along with her to the workshops. However, once she'd demonstrated how she plays, the flute, for example, she wouldn’t realistically be able give her instruments to the audience to play. She therefore came up with a great idea! It was a hot day and everyone in the room had a plastic bottle of water. She used hers to show us how to produce a sound by blowing into the funnel of the water bottle. Everyone tried this on their own water bottle. This produced different sounds according to how much water was in each bottle. So there it was: a mini orchestra. A simple and effective way to show how our breath can produce sound through an object.

Oskar (Garibdis & Binnacle) and Pamela (Sylla & Binnacle) both talked about the skills they use either for their characters, or for the very physical style of the performance which often requires quick changes and the illusion of calm on the surface when everything is actually working really hard underneath. While Pamela talked about being perfectly still to create high status and power in her character of Sylla, Oskar demonstrated the challenge of singing after a frantic scene change by asking the audience to try running really fast on the spot then stopping to sing a single note all together. This exercise was very physical and being set a challenge made it fun.

Pamela and Oskar are also the main puppeteers of the cat Binnacle. They demonstrated how to invest ‘life’ into an inanimate object, but also how the mood and feel of a person, or animal can be mimicked in your own body. Physicality was also key in Flora’s (Goddess of the Sea) demonstration. She talked about when her character summons the four winds at the equator. Each wind has a different character. She and Sarah, who plays Ulla, show this by how each wind is gathered and then put in the sack that collects them all. Musically each wind has a different feel as well. So the audience has a go at physically depicting each wind, guided by Flora. The North Wind is cold and shivery, the South is like a warm hug, the wind from the West is tropical and groovy, and the East is very strong and powerful.

Finally Alex, our Musical Director on the show, showed us how he starts the opera. As a conductor he has to raise his hand to signal the upbeat and drop it to signal the down beat on which the first note of the opera falls. The speed of his dropping his hand depends on gravity (he demonstrated this by dropping a pen in his hand) and because you don’t need to be a trained musician to feel or comprehend gravity. We were all able to clap at the right time when he did it. (This was very impressive, even for a group of adults who work in the arts!) We all felt like we’d genuinely learnt something new, and yet it was so simple. It was empowering!

So by the end of the day the team realised that they already have a huge amount to offer, even without being fully trained in how to deliver these workshops yet. We definitely felt that each of us has so much we can contribute to a child’s first experience of opera, and to everyone's enjoyment of Ulla’s Odyssey.

Who is Big Wheel?

25 May 2016

Big Wheel started in 1984 as a group of students from Oxford University doing fairly serious fringe theatre, moving soon after into the realm of school workshops and TIE (Theatre In Education). The core team of four is based on Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell. The company regularly tours the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria and parts of Germany. Since 2002 Big Wheel has worked increasingly for the National Health Service and related organisations, providing staff training and tailor-made presentations at conferences.