Theatre and creative play for the very youngest audiences

Published on 28 February 2024.

From 30 January – 21 February 2024 we toured Igloo – our show for the very youngest theatre goers (0-3 year olds) – to early years and community settings in Bristol and around the South-West.

We reached 1,203 children and their carers on this tour, many of whom would not otherwise access the arts, both through targeted community performances and engaging with early years settings and children’s centres.

The tour included community performances at Bristol’s Wellspring Settlement Hall, Easton Community Centre, Trinity Community Arts, Trinity Henleaze URC and Oldbury Court Children’s Centre.

Invited community and early years groups included Easton Community Children’s Centre, Raised in Bristol, Cashmore Nursery, Toybox Nursery, East Bristol Children’s Centres, Speedwell Nursery, Little Hayes Nursery and Wellspring Settlement Family Hub.

All performances were relaxed and designed to create a warm and welcoming environment for those having their first experience of theatre.

Each show included a facilitated play session following the performance and audience members were also given an Igloo picture book and a free activity sheet to enable families to continue with creative play at home.

Here's some of the audience feedback we received:

"So wonderful, simple and inclusive."

"Joyful, magical. All the kids were entranced!"

"Really creative! Exciting to see the joy in lots of engaged little faces!"

“So enchanting, engaging and joyful.”

“Amazing. Best play activity I’ve ever been to. Really communal, safe, inclusive and fun!”

“Brilliant! The longest my son has sat still ever! The set was wonderful. My son was fascinated by all of it. Such a lovely thing to share with him.”

“Mesmerised and sparked wonder.”

“What a heartwarming, engaging experience! Have never seen Travelling Light so was a real treat.”

“It was calm and engaging, great for our child with sensory needs. The activities were stimulating and allowed our daughter to jump lots!”

Here's some feedback we received from nursery staff:

“The play session with loose parts was amazing. Children loved it and learned lots of play skills by engaging with the facilitators and other grown-ups in the room.”

“It was really well set up. I loved the fact that it was a circle, we could see each other and that really brought a community feeling to the whole session”.

And here's some of the feedback we received from children:

“The penguin was so funny.”

“I loved the rainbow ribbon.”

“I loved when all of the colourful bits came down.”

“I liked how the friends danced and jumped on the pillows.”

“Mum, I’m having so much fun.”

Resources for creative play

Families and early years settings were given a special Igloo picture book and ideas for creative play at home. Our evaluation showed that the nurseries and families have really enjoyed using these resources, encouraging creative storytelling after the show, and supporting speech and language development.

The tour has demonstrated a clear need in early years settings for inclusive performances and creative play, and all nurseries have fed back that they wouldn’t be able to take children to a theatre venue.

We’ll be developing our relationships further with these early years settings, including follow up workshops in two nurseries who were unable to make the show.

Thanks to our brilliant cast, creative and production team.

To find out more about Igloo, visit our show page here. You can see more photos from the tour on the show page, or over on our Facebook or Instagram.

Thank you to everyone who supported our Big Give campaign, enabling us to offer free performances to community and early years settings, alongside the wrap around creative resources.

Thank you also for the support of our individual donors and funders - our Travelling Light Friends, Bristol City Council, Thresholds, Charcoalblue, Arts Council England Project Grants, and trusts and foundations.