The second of our littletinySPACE2 projects happened in Sligo and was led by theatre-maker and Artist-in-Residence at The Hawk’s Well Theatre, Miriam Needham.
Miriam collaborated with three artists over the course of two and a half days: Charmaine T Matonsi (writer, actor, facilitator), Hilary Bowen-Walsh (actor, writer, director), and Jackie Maguire (actor, musician, arts lecturer).
Together, they explored ideas for an immersive theatrical experience for babies that uses neon lighting and spaced-themed objects to create a world of wonder and connection.
On August 1st, they tested out some of their ideas at two open sharings at The Hawk’s Well Theatre. Each sharing invited eight babies and their caregivers to come into the space and experience a work-in-progress theatrical adventure.
Miriam is now planning how to take this project forward into 2024.
It was magical. My baby was transfixed by the artists, music and movement, and was so calm and relaxed after the performance
My little girl was mesmerised during this show. She felt really comfortable to explore her surroundings and crawled around the area, interacting with the performers and their props.
I loved it because my baby really loved it. All of performers were knowing what they are doing and were very gentle with babies. It was a sensory festive. Music was used during performance in a very calming and soothing way.
It was a lovely bonding experience for both mum and baby. My son (7.5 months) was captivated from start to finish. He loved the one to one attention given by the performers at the end, and also the chance to interact with the props used.
Each and everyone was engaging and very aware of the babies' interests, knowing when to interact and when to pull back.
As part of our 2023 Arts Council funded programme we have five tiny delightful R&D moments happening across the country as a further development from our 2022 littletinySPACE artist incubator project. For littletinySPACE 2022, we brought together 8 diverse established artists from a range of disciplines along with Anna, dramaturg and Performance Corp SPACE programme facilitator, Hanna Slattne, Production Manager, Ashey Smyth and internationally reknowned early years research scientist Dr Suzanne Zeedyk – and these facilitators continue their mentoring support into the 2023 projects.