From the puppeteer: Moominsummer Madness

Hello I’m Claire, and I am in a puppetry show called Moominsummer Madness. The show is based on a rather brilliant book by a rather brilliant lady called Tove Jansson , who wrote lots of books for children and adults.

In our show there are four performers including myself, and we each puppeteer 2 characters. For each character we spent lots of time practicing the movement and what the voice should be like (which really was a lot of fun to do!).

In the show, I puppeteer Emma the Rat and The Snork Maiden. Emma is a mysterious character that the Moomins meet after their home is ruined by a flood. The Moomins find what they think is a floating house, which is where Emma lives. She thinks she is very important and is always busy working  and bossing people about.

My other character is very different to Emma. She is called The Snork Maiden, and despite looking a lot like one, she isn’t a member of the Moomin family (she is a Snork with a little blond fringe and anklet) but is loved by the Moomins as though she were family. She is very curious and loves pretty things and would definitely say that Moomintroll is her best friend in the entire world.

In the show we sing, play instruments, act, and puppeteer, which is a lot of things to remember, so we spent 4 weeks learning & making up the show with our two directors before we opened. (Its important to tell you that during this time we also ate biscuits and cake, and drank lots of tea, which is very,  very important when working hard to make a theatre show).

We are doing the show at Polka Theatre until August 16^th (by then we will have done the show about 70 times!) and it would be reeeeeeally brilliant to see you there. You can book tickets here!

 For your chance to win four tickets for the Moomin Midsummer Madness Show* and all these lovely books- simply tell us ‘What does Moominpappa wear on this head?‘  Tweet tweet @puffinbooks your answer using the hashtag #Moominsummer by Wednesday 30th July for your chance of winning! 

*transport not included, full terms and conditions

Puffin’s trip to the theatre – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Not far from Puffin’s home, only a short waddle across a
busy road and up a small hill, it loomed large and bright. An enormous,
gigantuous, humungous purple-wrappered Wonka Bar – with a glint of a golden
ticket just poking out of the corner. It was Puffin’s first visit to the
Theatre, and he was going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

Puffin had always loved the tale of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Settling into a plush velvet
seat that was far too big, clutching his copy of one of his favourite Roald
Dahl stories, his lifted his beak to survey the rows of seats that reached up
to the ceiling, and the hundreds of children swarming into the theatre,
escaping the grasp of their parents, sensing more than any grown up could that
there was magic in the air.

 

”I wonder when we’ll see Wonka?”, Puffin thought, taking a
nibble of his chocolate bar. Before Puffin could wonder any further, the lights
dimmed and silence fell over the auditorium. The show was about to begin.

The first act passed in a whirlwind of whizz-popping sound,
bombastic dancing, shrill and soaring singing and toe-tapping body-thumping
music. It was a whirlwind of cowering parents, buckets of Buckets, choco-mania
and expertly disgusting children. Puffin felt awfully sorry for skinny little
Charlie Bucket, and tried in vain to give him his chocolate bar that he’d
brought along as a snack, nudging it with his flipper, until rather  unfortunately it fell into the orchestra pit.

 

Puffin didn’t have to wait long until his hero appeared.
There, against the backdrop of the factory’s windows, alight and blinking,
stood Wonka! Top hat proudly atop his head, vividly dressed in his purple velvet
coat and jade green suit. Puffin was thrilled to see the figment of his
imagination strutting, stalking and even skating around the stage.

Too soon it was all over, and Puffin hopped off his seat and
bid the Puffin team goodbye , his mind full of the magical Glass Elevator and
the super fluffy Squirrels who could detect the Bad Nuts.

Snuggled safe back in his burrow, Puffin opened his copy of
Roald Dahl’s Charlie, to return to a version of the story that he knew and
loved so well; unfolding, before him, in his Puffin paperback. 

Puffin

The Winners – Write Here Write Now with Matilda

This year the Royal
Shakespeare Company launched a fantastically, phizz-whizzing new online resource:
Write Here Write Now with Matilda. Completely
free it’s a website packed with videos from the show’s creators and tips to
help aspiring playwrights. To celebrate its launch
the RSC set a National Writing Challenge. Students aged between 8 and 13 were
tasked with creating an original script or song to be performed live by the
West End cast.

More than 200 entries were
received and closely inspected with the thoroughness of the Trunchbull
polishing her shot-put. It wasn’t an easy decision but at last 8 winning entries
were chosen and then the rehearsals began . . . 

 

We were lucky enough to
be invited to the final performance and our socks were most definitely knocked off.
The likes of Miss Honey and Mrs Wormwood swapped their usual costumes for
school uniforms, and with eight schools packing out the Cambridge theatre the atmosphere
was electric. The final pieces were brilliant, moving, funny and occasionally utterly
bonkers and we couldn’t have clapped more – the proud father sat beside me very
nearly exploded right there in his seat.

Here are 5
things we learnt from the young scribes:

1. Heliophobia means
to be afraid of the sunlight. Set to specially composed music, the new kid on the playground skipped between the stage's shadows.

2. If Miss Honey
broughat a pet to show ‘n’ tell it would be Rocket the Pocket Tortoise – one lucky actor donned some rather fetching green
tights for this enviable role.

3.  The first
day of school can be scary. VERY SCARY.

4.  Tim Minchin must be regretting not thinking of ‘Aggy Aggy
Aggy’ – OY OY OY  first! Full audience participation was in order when Mr Toreador attempted to woo
Agatha Trunchbull with this catchy sing-a-long.

5.  A little
genius really can change the world – or at least make for a very exciting
school trip. As Mrs     Phelps (our host) pointed out, the next Roald Dahl could have been sitting in the auditorium!

The Write
Here Write Now resource continues to inspire online, so whether you’re a
teacher trying to plan the best lesson ever or a grown-up writer interested in writerly ways, visit http://www.matildawritenow.org.uk/