Adapted by Sarah Richardson
From the book by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen.
Published by Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins).
The town Annabelle lives in is cold, dark and grey, smothered in soot and snow. Until, one day, Annabelle finds a miraculous box of yarn and sets about transforming the monochrome landscape.
Join Annabelle and her dog Mars, in a tale of craft, colour, and the power within us to change our community.
Extra Yarn was commissioned by Appetite Stoke and performed as part of Light Night Stoke-on-Trent 2019
It is 1918 and, with Britain enduring its fourth year of the First World War, food rationing has just been introduced. Join Annie and Jack as they explain the impact of the war on their day-to-day lives and how women and children are now playing a vital role in helping to win the war.
Kitchen Goes To War is an installation and audio drama, which will be touring schools and libraries throughout 2018. For more details of the tour schedule visit here
Kitchen Goes To War was created in partnership with a group of nine & ten year olds at a primary school in Staffordshire. The children were integral to the development of the piece throughout the creative process; workshopping story ideas, editing the script, and recording the audio play.
Kitchen Goes to War has been specially commissioned by Staffordshire County Council’s Libraries & Arts Service in partnership with Archives & Heritage thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund award. It is a Filament project, created in partnership with the children, staff and families at Springhead Primary School, Talke Pits.
It is the end of World War Two and the soldiers are returning home. Avant-garde bard Balthasar is eager to join in the celebrations, but his band mates, Beatrice and Benedick are not getting along. Can Balthasar devise a plan to reunite the warring pair, or will his dreams of the band playing be thwarted by their arguments?
‘A Muddle in Messina’ is a brand new storytelling show, created in association with world-renowned theatre company Northern Broadsides. Suitable for children aged 4-11, this entertaining introduction to Shakespeare will bring ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ to life for young and family audiences.
This autumn, in partnership with Creative Industries Trafford and Waterside Arts, we have created ‘To Stop Her Mouth’, a new piece commissioned by Trust New Art for Lyme Park, Disley. This exciting new sound installation explores the abduction of wealthy heiress Ellen Turner - later the wife of Thomas Legh - by a fortune hunter, a scandal that shocked society in the early 1800s.
For more information visit: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lyme/features/to-stop-her-mouth
For items lost but not forgotten.
The Restoration Agency was an immersive theatre event for families which explored the feasibility of school playgrounds as venues for live performance.
Funded by Arts Council England and created with support from Wild Rumpus and Appetite the project took up residency at two primary schools in Stoke-on-Trent. At each school two dedicated, but slightly confused, Restoration Agents invaded assemblies, interrupted classes and generally spent a lot of time loitering in the playground before and after school asking passing children and parents if they had any new clues or ideas about the owner of a mysterious lost globe.
The agency also appeared at Just So Festival, Dig the City in Manchester, Appetite's Big Feast, Ramsbottom Festival and the Great Big Noise Festival at the Royal Exchange Theatre.
A theatre adventure for young children and families.
Based on the picture book by Mac Barnett and John Klassen Extra Yarn follows the journey of Annabelle, a young girl living in a black and white town, as she discovers how small gestures make a big difference.
Currently in development the project will tour to primary school and small-scale venues in 2018 (funding permitting).
Click here to view Spinning a Yarn, our recent research & development work with children and parents at a primary school in North Staffordshire, funded by Staffordshire's Community Arts Fund.
