Well first and fore-mostly I would like to extend a warm and sincere CONGRATULATIONS to all the – as I am now naming us – ‘Puzzia Players’ of Poppy’s Magnificent Puzzle. It has been a long journey, it a reasonable short amount of time, and I think it was thoroughly well done on our part (even if I do say so myself).

I would like to quote, at length, a section from Tarlington and Micheals book Building Plays: Simple playbuilding techniques at work(1995), as I believe they have a more succinct and academic summary from which I can springboard. I have already cited a few lines in a previous post, so forgive the repetition – I feel it bears a new significance in hind-sight of our process:

“Actor’s involved in the playbuilt play take ownership in a special way. Since the final play reflects the views and voices of all group members, there is an enormous individual and collective satisfaction and a sense of having created an artistic piece. The playbuilt play reinforces the idea that we are all creative beings, that everyone has ideas, and that collectively we are strong” (pg 8).

I truly believe this quote has hit the nail on the head! I know, as a group, we have had some struggles in adjusting to the way one another work and negotiating through all our individual skills and ideas. However, I feel in the end, by allowing some group clusters to take-a-lead in certain areas - such as Emily with her oh-so-fabulous face- today - while still providing the opportunity for others to assist, we triumphed and formed a strong ensemble! Every group member contributed as a ”creative being” to Poppy’s Magnificent Puzzle: the end result, combining original ideas, with script, costumes, make-up, lightening, sound and performance was a product of all our group members.

Of course I can only speak for myself but I feel a special kind of  collaborative ownership for our dear little play (in-fact I want to make it into a story-book for children!!) and an enormous amount of satisfaction – as an individual and group member – from the process and product of our efforts: especially given the instant gratification from the audiences reactions to today’s performance…  The children clearly loved it, and I think there can be no higher testament to our success than that!

Finally, I would like to say I have enjoyed the playbuilding journey immensely – particularly in regard to a new experience for me of exploring children’s theatre. I have always loved the work of child performers (as a kid, and an adult) and really treasured the chance to try my hand at it! I know we all voiced concerns about the participation of children and the boundaries and conditions of this, however, our performances today proved that children are very intelligent little beings who love to contribute animal noises, and count backwards to blast off rocket ships! My only qualm was not being able to pick all of the ones in the second group who wanted to get up and find fairy ingredients… it was a shame they couldn’t all have the same magical experience!

So I truly am done now, but I never was going to say all that in 150words! All that is left is to give you all a round of applause…

Love Heather xxx