When the What’s Coming Out of the Box team couldn’t take their festive show into Ramsgate Arts Primary due to pandemic restrictions, the children received the next best thing – their own Christmas show, in a box!
They have been presented with the story of The Seashell Stew and each container has everything a family needs to create their own cut-out puppets and set to then act out as they listen to a 20 minute audio play.
The creative crew say: “It will provide entertainment and food for thought during the festive season.
“The Seashell Stew is the perfect story for this year: it is a widely-spread folk story in which a hungry stranger convinces the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal that everyone enjoys and brings the community together.
“With original art-work, sound design and music, The Seashell Stew brings a little bit of theatre magic into peoples’ homes this winter.”
Estelle Rosenfeld, Creative Producer and Theatre Maker at What’s Coming out of the Box, explained: “It has been a tough year and this holiday season is going to be very hard on everyone. While social distancing is still in place and live theatre looks unlikely, I wanted to create something really plug and play that offers an opportunity for families to get together and provide entertainment and food for thoughts away from screens.”
Head of School Nick Budge said the home theatre kits will go to 60 Key Stage 1 children at RAPS. He added: “This is such a lovely idea – it is so innovative and I know our children and their families will have lots of fun staging their own mini shows at home. I am keen to hear from them all about individual their productions of The Seashell Stew.”
The boxes were donated thanks to the support of the Loveday Family Grassroots Endowed Fund administered by Kent Community Foundation.
To find out more about What’s Coming Out of the Box go online to www.what-box.org.
To take a virtual tour of Ramsgate Arts Primary go online to www.ramsgateartsprimaryschool.co.uk and click on the home page link.