LITTLE LEAP FORWARD - Horse + Bamboo Theatre...

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE FROM ALISON DUDDLE A POSTER FROM THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION We were first given LITTLE LEAP FORWARD to read two years ago by Tessa Strickland, the Editor in Chief of Barefoot Books. It had not yet been published, and she was very excited about the story that Clare Farrow and Guo Yue had written. When we read it we could see why she loved it so much, and we felt instantly that it was a perfect story to tell using masks, puppets and music. We were overjoyed that Barefoot Books wanted us to work on the story, but the next important thing was to make sure that Clare and Yue were happy for us to take their very personal story and translate it into a piece of theatre. We agreed some very important things when we met them for the first time. We agreed that because Yue’s style of flute playing is so unique, the sound of the flute should only be heard in the show when he played, so, when you hear the flute in the play, it is Yue playing. We also agreed that whilst we would stick closely to the central story of the book, that we would have to leave out certain things and add in other things in order for it to work as a piece of theatre, in particular one without words. It has been a great honour and an exciting journey to make this show. We dedicate it to the millions and millions of people who have lost their lives or their freedoms as a result of oppressive regimes both in China and around the world, in the past and still today. And we offer with it a hope that everyone who sees it will feel inspired to play, paint, write or invent the very special, beautiful song that they have in their own hearts. ABOUT HORSE + BAMBOO Horse + Bamboo Theatre make theatre in which images, music and story-telling are very important. Their work is normally made without using words; instead they employ a wide range of other techniques to tell a story. Horse + Bamboo tour within the UK and internationally but also have a strong commitment to their local community in Rossendale. Their space, the Boo, is a venue and creative space for other artists, as well as a centre for visual theatre and is the workshop where Horse + Bamboo create their own productions. ABOUT BAREFOOT BOOKS The play LITTLE LEAP FORWARD is based on a book, written by Claire Farrow and Guo Yue, illustrated by Helen Cann and published by Barefoot Books. Publishers work with authors and illustrators to prepare and print their stories. Barefoot Books work with illustrators and storytellers from all around the world. They want to create books which are beautiful, playful and interactive, which celebrate art and story, which encourage independence, creativity and discovery and which celebrate the world’s diversity. WHY NOT? Imagine you are setting up your own publishing company. Write an advertisement to recruit artists and illustrators, telling them about the kind of books you want to produce. What themes would you like the stories you publish to focus on? What would you like your books to celebrate?
THE CHARACTERS Little Leap Forward, an 8 year old boy. Little Little, his best friend. He goes to school with him and likes to play with him at the riverbank. His mother, a teacher. She was sent away to be ‘reeducated’ in the countryside, as were many educated people – doctors, teachers, dentists. Chairman Mao believed that education and ‘high culture’ separated people and made some people think they were better than others, so he had intellectuals sent to learn how to labour in the countryside. Little Leap Forward’s older sister, Victory. She makes food for the family and looks after the house. In the book, Little Leap Forward has more sisters than in the play. Clear Waves, Victory’s sweetheart, the bicycle rider. He is a sort of father figure to Little Leap Forward, as his own father, who was a talented Erhu (Chinese violin) player died before this story begins. Blue is a little girl in Little Leap Forward’s class at school. During the Cultural Revolution girls’ hair was often cut short as fancy hair was thought to be un-revolutionary. The Red Guards were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and young people, who were mobilised by Mao Zedong in 1966 to carry out the aims of the Cultural Revolution. They carried out public ‘shamings’ of people they accused of being counterrevolutionaries – often school children attacking their own teachers. CHARACTER SKETCHES FROM ALISON DUDDLE’S SKETCHBOOK WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE IN A HORSE + BAMBOO SHOW? INTERVIEW WITH PERFORMERS MARK WHITAKER, NICKY FEARN AND FRANCES MERRIMAN What is it like to perform with a mask on? FM – At first it can seem quite daunting; because you can’t see in a mask as well as you can normally. But once you get used to wearing it, you tend to look, think and feel past the mask itself, so that you almost forget you are wearing it. Also, because it is often harder to hear in a mask, and you have much less peripheral vision, you have to develop a very heightened sense of where you are and a great awareness of other performers in the space. All your senses have to be on hyper-alert. Why do you use masks and puppets to tell the story? MW – Masks and puppets have a lot of things in common. They both rely on movement to communicate and both work better if you don’t use words. Masks and puppets also make it easier for a small number of performers to play lots of characters. In LITTLE LEAP FORWARD 4 performers are able to play 11 people, 2 birds, 2 dragonflies and a fish! Why do you like using masks? FM – I like performing with masks because, if you allow them to, masks can let you in to a whole new world, physically. They can release you from the constraints of your actual self – what you actually look like, and how other people see you or cast you. You can explore a character that may be a very different age from you, from a very different country, or even from a different world. I like the fact that a mask doesn’t even have to look like a person and, if used well, an audience can still believe in it and read expression on/in it. I think the same is true for puppetry. How do you make masks change their expression? NF – The masks look like they are changing expression because of the way the performers use their bodies – performers can change their body shape and head angle to make the mask appear to portray a different emotion. Lighting or music can also help to change the mask’s expression – if the audience expect to feel a particular emotion because of the lighting or sound, then they will “read” that from the mask. The audience does the work.
Page 1: In a creative partnership with Bare
Page 5 and 6: MUSIC Music is very important in LI
Page 7 and 8: KITES Kites have a long history in

LITTLE LEAP FORWARD - Horse + Bamboo Theatre...

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