The Opening

As a group, we thought about how we were going to get the wow factor at the start. We decided to start with a boring assembly hosted by two 'teachers' (Freya and Toby) but this assembly is interrupted by two other characters (Tom and Meg) who have found a 'big book full of stories'. We wanted to start boring so that the children are more excited to watch our stories. Tom and Meg then ask the audience if they want to hear some stories and can they help them wake-up Toby and Freya by using the magic words. This audience interaction grabs the attention of our audience and keeps the children paying attention while we open the show. Once Freya and Toby have been awaken and are enthusiastic about the stories, another technique to get the children excited about the stories, Meg offers three story titles that we could tell the children at each one either Tom, Freya or Toby act out a memorable moment from it (i.e. Freya pricks her finger then falls asleep, Toby calls for Rapunzel to let down her hair and Tom jumps, becomes a merman and flops on the floor a bit) all of these stories Meg finds a reason not to tell it. This adds some funny moments that the kids will enjoy and therefor will remain interested in the performance. We then have Freya, Toby and Tom all pointing in the book and asking for "that story" and Meg agrees. Since we don't tell the audience what the story is, they will still be captivated by what is happening on stage and wait to find out what story we are telling.

I really like our opening, I like the way it involves a lot of interaction with the audience to keep them engaged. I also like its simplicity in that there isn't a big musical number with a complicated dance and over the top lighting techniques as that, I feel, would be too much for the performance. My biggest worry is that the funny moment of Freya, Toby and Tom acting out moments from other story's wont get a reaction and we will loose the focus of our audience from the start. So I think that if after our first performance it doesn't get a reaction we should take that moment out and skip straight to Freya, Toby and Tom all pointing in the book and asking for "that story" and moving straight into our first story.