No stick in sight

Since the start of the pandemic, creatives have been doing what creatives do best: they've been innovative, adaptable, and resourceful, especially when it comes to providing high quality arts education and entertainment for children. Rachel Whibley, managing director of Carrot Productions, is no exception.

‘Schooltime Showtime didn't exist before the pandemic’, she explains. ‘It came about because we assumed we wouldn't be able to do any of our usual performances. Between lockdown 1 and 2, we somehow got in a filming session with the orchestra – it was the most amazing day, filming and recording our materials so that we could share our usual The Snowman Tour with schools.’

From there, the Schooltime Showtime project grew, resulting in a full package of learning resources, brilliant musical performance, and festive fun for Early Years and primary children to watch at home or at school. ‘Show and tell’ Zoom calls could be included in the package, allowing children to ‘meet’ professional musicians, learn how to make instruments, or chat to David Litchfield, author of The Bear and the Piano. ‘They worked really well, barring WiFi issues!’ adds Whibley.

When there isn't a global pandemic keeping us all at home at Christmas, Carrot Productions takes The Snowman Tour around the UK as a live performance, combining a big screen with the iconic film and a live orchestra of professional musicians, hand-picked from the BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé, to name just two. All going to plan, the team will be performing Wallace and Gromit: In Concert to schools in April, which Whibley hopes will go ahead with a socially distanced audience. If not, she plans to record it in a similar way so that children can still enjoy the show. ‘You can't help but be happy – it's just an hour of happiness basically. It's delightful, as you can imagine it would be.’

Whibley's 17-year-old son, Patrick, has Down's Syndrome, which she explains has partially contributed to her awareness of the need to make Carrot Productions’ shows accessible to all. ‘We put on completely free performances, or we charge £1 for people with special needs or who are in sheltered housing. I just know, from him, that there are not many places that parents of disabled adults or children would feel comfortable taking their child. We make it so accessible so that nobody is uncomfortable.’

© DAVID LITCHFIELD ANIMATIONS
The Bear and the Piano has been adapted and put to music

This last Christmas, restrictions prevented them from taking The Snowman Tour to Manchester Children's Hospital like they usually do, but Schooltime Showtime was offered to all children's hospitals and care homes around the country for free. When in-person, the show is performed in the atrium in the hospital, so that children can be wheeled down in their beds or can watch from balconies above. ‘Gosh’, adds Whibley, ‘I cry a lot that day.’

As part of the package, Whibley and the team have created lesson plans, differentiated from Early Years to Key Stage 2. They also created ‘how to’ videos to go alongside the Snowman's waltz, or to show children how to make a Diddley Bow (I had to Google this, too). ‘The show ends with the snowman waltz and we have the snowman mascot, so the dancer invites the Snowman to come and dance with her – and the Snowman is me!’ Although most of the videos are part of the Schooltime Showtime package for now (the Diddley Bow video is available for free on YouTube), Whibley says, ‘We'll just have to see where this goes – I'm really keen on as many people seeing it as possible.’

In terms of financial accessibility, Whibley explains ‘We had two packages, so it was financially accessible in that respect, because it was for the whole school. If the school was quite small and they had, say, 80 children, we always offered a really good deal. I think it worked out at less than £1 per pupil for an average primary school and it provided months of resources.’ The whole project cost Carrot Productions around £27,000, but Whibley adds, ‘I do hope next year to use it at Christmas and make it much cheaper once we've covered the costs, because I want people to see it.’

As well as Wallace and Gromit coming soon – potentially with modelling workshops on Zoom from the modelers at Aardman – Carrot Productions also creates a new adaptation each year. ‘I'm always looking for things that would work really well in animation, like books. The Bear and the Piano is stunning. I was looking for about six months and I came across it in WHSmith, and I just knew it would be wonderful. Luckily, David Litchfield [the author/illustrator] is the nicest person that you could ever meet, and then we got Joanna Lumley to narrate it.’

Whibley's husband Daniel, who creates all the music for the shows, is also hoping to reduce the score for The Bear and the Piano from a 26-piece to a 13-piece orchestra because, as Rachel points out: ‘That way it's smaller, cheaper for people, and also, social distancing’ – a consideration that seems to be here to stay, but that doesn't have to stop children enjoying a live performance.

The Bear and the Piano is currently available to rent or buy from £1.99. Further resources and more information about Schooltime Showtime and Wallace and Gromit are available at www.carrotproductions.com