The Little Mermaid

In March 2009 Ian Smith from Creative Partnership and teachers Ellen Johnstone and Basceema Mills from the Robin Hood Primary School in Birmingham went to Cape Town to find a suitable partner school to collaborate with. They wanted to connect children from their school to children in a South African school. The Birmingham Repertory Theatre came on board and it was decided to work towards a theatre production co-produced by South African and UK children. The production based on the Little Mermaid story, would combine projected footage recorded with South African children and would be performed by children from the Robin Hood School on the Birmingham Rep main stage.

Moving Hands Theatre is uniquely placed in that both directors Caroline McDowell and Alison Scott travel frequently between SA and the UK and are involved in projects in both countries.

Caroline introduced Ian smith from Creative Partnerships and the teachers from the Robin Hood School to the Kleinmond Primary School situated in the small coastal town of Kleinmond in the Western Cape.  

The UK teachers brought letters, pictures and photos from the Birmingham children and spoke to the South African children about life in the UK.  A Skype connection was set up so children could talk directly to each other.

Caroline co-ordinated workshops in both countries, the children began by exchanging ideas, stories and poetry based on the Little Mermaid story.

In South Africa Caroline was joined by Alison Scott and John Charalambous to run animation workshops where the South African children created animations in response to input from the UK children, for example the Kleinmond children created animations of what the mermaids saw when they first rose up out of the ocean and English poems were translated into Xhosa songs. The Kleinmond children were filmed dancing to originally composed music played on instruments made out of junk.

Caroline then took the footage over to the UK and began to work with 60 3rd year children over 2 weeks. The children in the UK composed their own music and choreographed dances that were performed live alongside projected film of animations and dance made in South Africa. Bangra dancers in the UK danced with projected Xhosa dancing children from South Africa.

We used a variety of mediums including projection, shadow play and a variety of puppets made from recycled materials. The children were responsible for all aspects of the production.

The show included three languages: English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.

The production and the making of was filmed by 5th year pupils as part of another creative partnership initiative,  where older children learned about filming, editing and making a DVD. This side of the project was lead by community film maker Rachel Gillies.

The DVD was shown to a huge turn-out in the township in South Africa, where the Kleinmonders also  showcased some of their dance moves.

View the video below

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The project continues, in Feb 2010 four teachers from the Robin Hood school visited the Kleinmond school and looked at ways to continue the relations which in future will involve sending school children from South Africa to the UK.

Follow the progress on their home page www.robinhood.bham.sch.uk

Teachers get a tour of the informal settlement

Teachers from the UK were able to donate football gear collected form the UK to the local football teams