Ferdy enters the scene, stage left.

 

We love the theatre. We've written about quite a few of our trips on this blog; one of our favourite places is Derby Theatre where our early flexischooling days began with Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Horrible Histories Deaf and Dead through to A Christmas Carol and The Jungle Book and we have plans to see Treasure Island at Christmas

This term, Ferdy is going to be learning about the features and layout of play scripts and using stage directions in text, so, imagine our excitement when the lovely backstage staff at the theatre agreed to let us have our own personal visit to discover how the stage works.

We were treated to our bespoke tour by Head of Lighting and Sound, Ele, who told us all about how the weight rigging system works enabling the cast to fly; how the set is brought up from the carpark in a gigantic lift and sometimes assembled in one day and how the set and props are built. We had taken some vocabulary cards with us with words such as stage left, backdrop, set, wings, props and auditorium written on them and Ferdy then went around the stage, placing them in their correct positions. He was also allowed to act out a little sketch on the stage about a clumsy man who kept slipping over (there was a slippy covering on the stage to flatten it out).

Our new friend Ele then took us into the control room and explained how the sound and lighting work, and we agreed that it was useful to have a loud voice like Ferdy's when you are acting. She had engaging answers for all Ferdy's questions like what would happen if someone was fast asleep in bed when they should be acting on stage, and Ferdy found it hilarious that once one of the child actors had been unable to act and the only person who could stand in for him was an adult... Ele didn't even mind when Ferdy requested she name all the characters in Treasure Island, and seemed to quite enjoy his idea that instead of her afternoon task of cutting the stage covering, she should go and write her own script for Treasure Island.

Inspired by his newly acquired knowledge of the stage, Ferdy later wrote a play script based on a Billy Whizz story in the Beano, and we built a stage set and made characters with which he could perform his play.

We are so grateful for this amazing opportunity, thanks a million Derby Theatre!