Travelling Light Theatre Company

THE COMPANY

Travelling Light Theatre Company perform Boing! at The Place on Friday 3 February.

Travelling Light is a company that specialises in creating extraordinary and exciting theatre for young audiences. The company was formed in Bristol in 1984, when it toured mainly to schools and venues in the South West. Now the company tours on a national and international scale and is widely recognised for the quality and innovation of its work. Through collaboration with other artforms – eg. puppetry, circus, dance – we keep the work fresh and challenging.  Most of the work is now created in partnership, which maximises resources and adds new visions to the mix.

In recent years Travelling Light has created a series of new productions for very young children, including CLOUDLAND, CLOWN, SHADOW PLAY, HOME, HOW COLD MY TOES, BOB THE MAN ON THE MOON and LOST AND FOUND. This programme has been created by a strong core of local artists. The company believes in nurturing and strengthening the skills of its collaborators as well as seeking out new talent. A strong participation programme is key to its success. Three youth theatres and holiday schools are run alongside, and involved in, the creation of professional work, as well as an ongoing programme of work in local schools and colleges.

THE WORK

Boing!

Choreographers/Performers: Wilkie Branson and Joel Daniel

Composer: Alex Vann

Design: Katie Sykes

Director: Sally Cookson

Duration: 46 minutes

It’s Christmas Eve. Joel and Wilkie have hung up their stockings and cleaned their teeth. If they want Santa to come, they have to go to sleep. But it’s not easy. They have a huge, bouncy bed and  boundless imagination – and lots of nervous energy. Try as he can, Wilkie can’t restrain his younger brother, and is drawn into wilder and wilder games…

Boing! was commissioned by Bristol Old Vic for Christmas 2010. The two companies have collaborated on a number of productions for young audiences, including HOW COLD MY TOES, which was their first partnership with Champloo.

Director Sally Cookson:  “The idea for Boing! came during rehearsals for TOES. Watching Wilkie and Joel choreograph that piece made me want to work with them as performers. The dynamic between them combined with the skill and style of their movement convinced me they would be perfectly cast as young brothers. I wanted to make an early years show about ‘going to bed’, so I simply put the two ideas together.”

While celebrating the b-boying skills of the performers, Boing! fuses a variety of dance styles with clowning and play. Originally created for a target audience of 3-7 year olds, the show has a very wide appeal.

CONTACT

Jude Merrill, Artistic Producer

E: jude@travellinglighttheatre.org.uk