Just bring your imagination…continuing the creative adventure!

Published on 4 June 2024.

As we celebrate our 40^th anniversary milestone in 2024, we are taking time to look back on our journey and look forward to new beginnings and adventures.

Times of change can challenge us but also open up new possibilities and create opportunities to imagine the future.

We have been imagining a future where...

Children and young people’s stories, ideas and experiences shape the work that is made for them, in a way that is meaningful, equitable and authentic.

Children in a children’s centre or school are able to experience theatre just as bright and brilliant and beautiful as children who are able to come through the doors of a theatre venue. 

Children and young people are valued as artists in their own right, with brilliant and inclusive opportunities to create and imagine both in and out of education.

Travelling Light’s work is agile, flexible and genuinely responds to need, combining the specialism of a theatre company with the ethos of being a children’s charity.

Children and young people’s voices have been at the heart of our thinking, and we consulted with children and young people, families, schools, artists and members of our community to help shape our plans. Read what children and young people think about Travelling Light’s work.

Re-imagining what it means to create theatre with and for children and young people

Our participatory work with children and young people will be the foundation of the artistic programme, continuing impactful engagement with children and young people (many of whom would not otherwise be able to experience theatre) and celebrating their diverse and often unheard voices.

This means creating theatre with and for children and young people in our studio in Barton Hill, in communities, schools and early years settings. Developing and shaping our work in response to need and children and young people’s ideas and stories.

We will explore how to bring together the voices of our participants, genuinely using their diverse and brilliant stories to inform our work. This is more than just involving some children in a research and development workshop, it’s about children, families and communities as genuine collaborators.

We’ll be developing this approach with our Winter Light’s project. Read more about this project.

Testing and exploring new approaches

This will mean a new way of creating theatre, with a much longer research and development process that will work deeply and actively with children, young people and families to create and devise artistic work in a way that embeds children and young people’s participation and engagement throughout.

We may share this work with the community, on tour, or more widely, depending on what gets created. The work produced will be new and original. We will get things wrong but that is ok as the journey is as important as the product.

We are looking forward to a year of play, with our Artistic Director Lizzy Stephens leading on trying ideas and approaches through research and development.

"Travelling Light" and reaching children in schools, early years settings and communities

We will “travel light” going directly to where children and young people are. Our touring theatre productions will reach children, young people and families who wouldn’t otherwise experience theatre, especially in their schools, community venues and children’s centres, combining impact with artistic aspiration.

We will bring together Travelling Light’s specialisms, utilising our strong track record in creating theatre with children and young people’s voices and stories at the heart - and working directly with children through our participatory programme.

We will build on the learning from our tour of Igloo in January and February 2024, which piloted bringing together our expertise in both creating theatre and participatory practice, with a performance, creative child led play, and resources for activities at home. This tour reached children in children’s centres and community venues, many of whom would not otherwise have experienced theatre. Read about this approach in our 2024 Igloo Stay and Play story.

Continuing to champion theatre and creativity in education settings, we will develop new partnerships and relationships to create theatre with and for children in schools and early years settings. Our offers will be developed working closely with teachers, early years practitioners and pupils.

Building on the success of Igloo, we’re trying and testing a new way of working with early years settings with Little Lights - a project exploring child led creative play. We can't wait to share more as this project develops.

Join us on our creative adventures

Over the next couple of years we will be playing, exploring, creating and trying new things, building on the strong foundations of Travelling Light’s ethos and values.

We will continue to work with children, young people, schools and families to shape a programme of work that is agile, flexible and genuinely responds to need.

We’ll be building our resilient business model, with a diverse funding portfolio and a wonderful team of staff and artists.

We can’t wait to share and collaborate with all our supporters on our future plans.

To be the first to know about our plans, join our mailing list.

To find out how you can help us provide more creative adventures for children and young people, visit our support page.