Beginning to build a new Spellbound Show

Last week Spellbound launched the process of creating a brand new show as part of the New Victory Theater LabWorks Residency. This was the first of three weeks over 2016-17 in which Sepllbound artists are given the studio space and mentorship needed to create quality work for young audiences.

The project we embarked on, "The World Inside Me", is a celebration of how awesome the human body can be. We spent the week talking about how our bodies grow and change between ages 0 and 5, how children think and feel about their bodies, and devising theatrical and musical ways to celebrate the amazing things our bodies can do, from bones to brain circuits to lungs to blood.

Spellbound artists were joined by Dave Brown of Brown Paper Boats, an expert in devising theater for young audience, and Lina Chambers, a graduate student at the University of Texas in Austin studying ensemble devised theater. Together, we played and explored how to theatricalize abstract ideas about the human body in a way that would be exciting and relevant for very young children.

It can take two years or more to fully develop an original professional theater production, whether that is for young children or adults. Often the resources for this type of project are not readily available for shows for young children. We are appreciative of the commitment of our artists and the support of the New Victory and Dave Brown as we embark on this exciting new project, and we look forward to sharing our work as the project continues!

In the meantime, we are busy getting the final rehearsal process underway for our previous New Victory Theater LabWorks project, "Ears, Nose, and Tail", which we began in 2014 and which will premier for Brooklyn audiences in February 2017. Check out http://Spellbound theatre.com/ears-nose-and-tail for more details!

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