Looking at how Stories left behind communicates with out audience

The piece that we are performing at Ashcroft has the purpose to be entertainment and possibly open new doors and ideas to the 2000 children coming to see it. In order to be successful the content of the piece is very important. It is based around two very big themes in child culture today , being effects of technology and also classic stories.

Technology in recent years has become a very contentious issue among society in general but in particular its effect on children. Children are exposed to high level technology at a very young age and many can navigate around an ipad before being able to read. This to me is worrying as when i was a child which was only 10 years before the children who will being seeing the show, i used my imagination to play and read books and watched a bit of TV. Apart from TV and a little bit of computer I was hardly exposed to technology therefore had fun through imagination and importantly through playing with other children. With the rise in technology it has been found that many children are less good in social situations and if there is an ipad available they will zone out by themselves for hours rather than if there is a toy or book they will interact with others. Also many children read a lot less as it is all available on technology. Even books can be read to you virtually. This I think kills a very important part to childhood, it is very important to play and use your imagination and make your own stories rather than relying on something superficial.There is danger that with growth in technology we will see reduction to imagination.

 In 'Stories left behind' we explore what would happen if technology broke in a certain rooms leaving only books to be explored. The kids in the loft are transported to amazing exciting fun worlds of the books where characters come to life and they are living in the stories. I think this idea really shows the power that these books have and also where your imagination can take you rather than just staring at a screen. Hopefully through the piece children in the audience will want to read more and take a break from technology to experience there own experience not a programmed pathway with 2 outcomes.