How to Engage Young Ambassadors
For the ConnectUp project, we developed a program for groups of young people to follow festivals from home and also travel abroad to attend other festivals. We called it Young Ambassadors and involved the young people in discussions about the performances, gave them workshop experiences, and also allowed them to report the performances to their friends and followers on social media.
This is a report on the way the Young Ambassadors’ work was followed up after Skupova Puppet Festival in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
On the last Saturday of Skupova Pilsen, we called our students together so they could help me and Lucy promote The Theatre Alfa to children and their families so they would come or just spend some time with us and play.
We were in charge of games and activities during the performance breaks in Doubravka (a district in Pilsen where Theatre Alfa is located). We set up puppet-themed stages and games for kids:
- A quiz – You get a pencil and an answer sheet, and you have to find numbers in the neighbourhood. You have to start with number 1. You choose an answer that will send you to another number. If you choose the wrong answer, the quiz will send you back to the last answer. If you choose correctly, you just move on – but there were 22 answers and only 8 of them were the right way to finish. The questions were connected to Theatre Alfa, its performances and actors.
- A wheelbarrow – An activity for two people. The person sitting in the wheelbarrow is a puppeteer and has ropes in his/her hands that are tied to the hands of the puppet – the other person who is moving the wheelbarrow. The puppet has its eyes closed and reacts only to the puppeteer’s movements of the ropes. Together they had to walk between trees as a slalom.
- A children’s puppet show – A small wooden puppet theatre for children was a prop for the next activity. The curtain of the theatre was closed, then it opened for a while and closed again. The child watching the theatre had to say what puppets were on the set. It was a good memory exercise.
- A suitcase – An activity with a suitcase inspired by actors, who sometimes have to find their props in the darkness with no light. The children who played this game had their eyes covered and they put their hands into the suitcase and had to feel the items and say what it was that they felt.
- A puzzle – We showed children different photos from different Alfa performances. They had to choose one and they had to find the eight pieces that made the photo they chose. There were probably 80 pieces of puzzles on the tables, so it wasn’t always easy.
We enjoyed the day with our young friends who accompanied us in Palmela and Forli and we had a very good time. They all miss the times being in Palmela or Forli, so we thank you for this opportunity and wonderful experience – not just for them but also for us.
