The PaperBoats is an international partnership platform for theatre-makers invested in co-creating meticulously crafted performance events for children, which inspire their arts engagement. The platform was conceived and founded by Dave Brown in 2016 after 20 years as Artistic Director of Patch Theatre Company.
The 7 Creative Principles and other ideas underpinning work of The PaperBoats is outlined in a separate website: thepaperboats.com
BRIEF SUMMARY of OUTCOMES
Since 2016, The PaperBoats has created three new sophisticated and nuanced South Australian works for 3-8 year olds using The PaperBoats creative principles. Each new work has evolved over a two year+ period of theatre-making, trialing and refining. (Especially on Birthdays, When the Mirror Bird Sings and Seven Little Wonders)
The PaperBoats has co-created six additional works in partnership with other artistic teams (Gimme Please, Wonder, Wonderkind, The Chrysalis Box, The Strangest Dream, the Boy and the Ball) and another two works are currently in development. (Precious Things and SEVENWELL.ORG)
THE FIRST FOUR YEAR PHASE of The PaperBoats theatre-making activity (2016-2020), was prompted by a simple animating idea ~ explore TWO in any which way.
Especially on Birthdays ~ A poetic visual theatre work for 3-8 year olds about a pair of twins and a 6th birthday one of them doesn’t want to have. This visual narrative about sameness and difference was directed by Dave Brown and co-created by many artists in Adelaide, South Australia and abroad.
“I was so captivated by the beauty and energy of Especially on Birthdays.
So many of the images left me breathless.”
The Strangest Dream ~ A 70 minute online performance from the US composer of Especially on Birthdays, Matthew Wilder.
Directed by The PaperBoats AD, Dave Brown, Matthew shares his roller coaster ride across four decades to finding his path as a pop-star, record producer, movie composer, song-writer, TikTok celebrity, writer of musicals and parent to two talented sons. Watch it at your leisure, via video rental. (link below)
The Strangest Dream is a partnership project between The PaperBoats, Hallelujah Productions and Boat Rocker Entertainment.
From the first hyperspeed minute of info and images, when I hurriedly strapped on my mental seatbelt and prepared for a wild ride, to the very end, singing at the top of my lungs and dancing, I was riveted.
Gimme Please! ~ Two friends persist in getting what they need from one another in the process of finding their path. This poetic, visual theatre work for 2-5 year olds about control and letting go was directed by Megan Alrutz and Sam Provenzano in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia in a co-creation process between Australia and the US. Learn more …
“Oh the audience loved Gimme Please!
Everyone was laughing and feeling everything that the performers were feeling on stage.
It was really remarkable.”
Sam Provenzano and Megan Alrutz (theatre-maker/directors ~ USA) are guiding an Egyptian team in a remount of Gimme Please! for performance by an Egyptian cast for the Hakawy International Festival in partnership with The PaperBoats, UT Austin and the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta.
When the Mirror Bird Sings – an immersive visual theatre experience unfolding a mythical tale of kindness overcoming greed. The performance is orchestrated by Max Richter’s astounding recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with children’s participation amplifying the themes of hope and renewal. This visual narrative about “lines that connect and lines that divide” was directed by Dave Brown and co-created with Juliette and Scott Griffin in Adelaide, South Australia.
“From the very beginning of When the Mirror Bird Sings, I was completely captivated, mesmerised!
It was a deeply moving performance which was archetypically layered and elegant.
The Vivaldi was sublime!”
THE SECOND FOUR YEAR PHASE of The PaperBoats theatre-making activity (2020-2024) has been prompted by another simple animating idea ~ explore wonderment.
Seventological Wonderment
This is a cluster of projects which will explore the wonders of light, colour, music and the number seven
This framework was inspired by Sir Issac Newton’s discovery in the 17th Century that white light could be split into the colours of the rainbow using a prism.
Because seven was a magical and mystical number in those times, Newton imagined that he saw seven colours in the rainbow (ROY G BIV ~ red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) which beautifully coincided with the observation that there are seven notes in the musical scale.
Thus he conjectured that light, colour, music and sound were intrinsically intertwined as a wonder of the universe.
Our seventological.wonderment framework is finding expression in the following projects:
sevenwell.org
the project is a playground of unabashed, come what may, whimsical content-making by The PaperBoats being joyfully and randomly brewed by Jon Bode and Dave Brown.
It is inspired a host of improbable characters who seem to be unwittingly connected to a mysterious force that is playing in their lives and linking them to something wondrous.
The game is being played out on sevenwell.org in the form of of a podcast featuring drawn from accumulated content of Jon and Daves’s songs, music, graphic art, video and storylines.
“odd-ball odyssey of close encounters of the seventh kind”
Wonder
Wonder is a dance-theatre project by director/theatre-maker, Sally Chance and her team in association with The PaperBoats and Insite Arts.
Using her Family Dance Labs process of working with babies to three year olds and their adults, Sally has created a work with communities ~ exploring the universe of us.
Together, mums, dads, grandparents with their babies, toddlers and two year olds have artistically explored light, star gazing and the interconnectedness of us all in a wide and wondrous universe to make Wonder!
Seven Little Wonders
Director and conceptualist Dave Brown worked with Gavin Clarke, Sarah Brokensha, Bob Weatherly, Fay Cakebread and Anya McKee to create a theatre-performance event for 3-8 year olds incorporating light, colour, music, sound, video projection and deep participation.
The show premiered to over 1300 children at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre in Mt Gambier across a two week season in March 2022.
The shows main character, Imogen, is a story-maker whose imagination manifests itself live on the stage when StarMan Sam arrives and begins to share the power of colour and music with six children selected by Imogen to be in her story.
It soon becomes apparent that Imogen herself will need to enter the story if StarMan Sam is to complete his mission.
Seven Little Wonders was a Mt Gambier based project of The PaperBoats, employing Mt Gambier based professional artists through ArtsSA and Country ArtsSA.
Beyond seventological.wonderment are a number of more open-ended WONDERMENT projects, being supported and scafolded by The PaperBoats.
The Chrysalis Box
Children in a K-3 class are sent a mystery box by an artist from The PaperBoats and the children and educators respond to the mysteries of the box through art and play.
When the children’s responses are shared back with the artist an artistic relationship emerges between the children, the educators, the artists and the box spawning wonder, learning and joy.
In one iteration of The Chrysalis Box project, artists Temeka Lawlor and Angus Leighton share their Chrysalis Box with students at Clare Primary School.
Temeka and Angus have been mentored and supported by The PaperBoats as emerging artist/theatre-maker/producers across the last 4 years in a project generously funded by Thyne Reid Foundation and auspiced by Patch Theatre Company.
The Chrysalis Box was a partnership between The PaperBoats and Patch Theatre Company.
Lift Off is a research and development project by Stephen Noonan in partnership with The PaperBoats.
In 2021 Stephen created performance modules and shared them students and staff at Kilkenny Preschool. His aim was to test these performance segments with students to explore how they responded.
In 2022, Stephen developed his 2021 investigation into a performance for 3-5 year olds with the support of director, Dave Brown, designer, Greg Cousins and composer, James Brown.
His non-verbal, interactive performance entitled the Boy and the Ball will be premiered at the Goodwood Theatre and Studios in August 2022 as part if the COMEBACK Festival.
Temeka Lawlor is the new Associate Artistic Director with The PaperBoats SA, where she will have artistic management of Especially on Birthdays and When the Mirror Bird Sings whilst developing a new work of her own called Precious Things.
Temeka has been a key theatre-maker/performer in Patch Theatre’s production ZOOOM and The PaperBoats Especially on Birthdays and brings her astute talents and insight to her new role with The PaperBoats.
Temeka and The PaperBoats will present Especially on Birthdays with Tim Mackie, Bob Weatherly, Robyn and Dave Brown in small communities tours to the Limestone Coast, Murray Mallee and Eyre Peninsular in 4 weeks of regional touring throughout 2022 and perform a 2 week holiday season in September 2022 to the Out of the Square circuit of venues.
Wonderkind is a non-verbal show for children aged three to seven conceived and directed in Wellington, New Zealand by theatre-maker, Kerryn Palmer and devised with performer/theatre-makers, Timothy Fraser and Emma Rattenbury in partnership with The PaperBoats and other collaborators. It follows two friends as they explore everyday objects to create magical worlds filled with music, light, puppetry and transformation, leading them to discover that endless possibilities for wonder and joy lie in friendship.
With original music by Craig Sengelow, design by Sean Coyle and puppetry by international puppeteer Ana Lorite of Naranjarte, Wonderkind will be performed at Circa Theatre from 9-30 July, 2022 after three years in development.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The PaperBoats Partnership Directors: Dave Brown – Adelaide, SA, Dr Brant Pope, Dr Megan Alrutz – University of Texas, Austin, Jim Weiner, Boat Rocker Entertainment, New York, Luanne Poh – The Artground, Singapore, Stephen Blackburn, Kerryn Palmer, Wellington, New Zealand, Robyn Brown, Business Development Manager – Adelaide SA.
The PaperBoats Partnership Platform has been assisted by the South Australian Government through ArtsSA and Country ArtsSA and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory group.
The PaperBoats thanks the many artists, advisors, educators, carers, kindergartens and schools who have offered their support and insights during the development and trialing of its works. We are also deeply grateful for the support of the following partner organisations without whose support our venture would not be possible.
Adelaide Festival Centre
ArtsSA
Auspicious Arts Projects
Australia Council for the Arts
Adelaide College of the Arts
Alliance Theatre, Atlanta
Boat Rocker Entertainment
Commonwealth Games Festival 2018
Country Arts SA
Goodwood Theatre and Studios
Hopgood Theatre
Hayawy International Festival, Egypt
International Performing Arts for Youth
Insite Arts
James and Dianna Ramsey Foundation
JonesMacQueen Business Consultants
Kueh Tutus, Singapore
National Arts Council of Singapore
Naracoorte Lucindale Council
Marion Cultural Centre
Out of the Square Touring Circuit
Patch Theatre Company
Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre
Sally Chance Dance
TYA/USA
The Artground, Singapore
Thyne Reid Foundation
University of Texas – Department of Theatre and Dance
Victoria University, Wellington, NZ
Wilder Kingdom Music ~ Hallelujah Productions, Inc
