Founding Director of London Talents and mother to a 3 year old girl, Jumana Kapadia recognised that constant verbalising is not the best way to connect with children. Qualified by the Trinity College of London in Speech and Drama, Jumana found that theatre works as a wonderful medium to empower children with ideas and concepts. She set up London Talents in 2009. The company specialises in 'Theatre in Education' for young children, their parents and teachers. The company is visiting India for the first time with its show FROM HERE...TO THERE. Post the performance, there will also be various theatre activities related to the show that children and their parents can participate in. Click here to read more about the performance and its shows in Mumbai.
Deepa Punjani
What is special according to you about the application of 'Theatre in Education' at London Talents?
'Theatre/Drama in education' has often been commonly mistaken as an extension of a playful activity for children. It is generally positioned in the 'arts' segment of the school curriculum and thought of as a way to overcome stage fright and build self-confidence. While that may have its advantages, it is important to distinguish conventional drama activities from TIE (Theatre in Education). At London Talents, we emphasise the vital role educationalists play in developing practices that use theatre techniques to foster children's creativity and to promote educational concepts amongst children and parents. We use techniques such as puppetry, emoting through material, movement, vocal rhythm, music, dance and play to look at concepts from a child's perspective and explain the logical outcome from a child's perspective.
Your show, FROM HERE...TO THERE, which will be performed for the first time in India, is for children in the age group of 2 to 7 years. What are the things that children as young as 2 years can comprehend or relate to in the show?
They can relate to the games in the show between the performers such as peek- a - boo that is played behind large pieces of card. Here, boxes are turned into planes, trains, boats, etc and also used to emote - re-enacting little moments between a child and a parent. These situations are very familiar to 2 year olds, and they naturally identify with them. The constant conflict and resolutions between the performers reflect young children's behaviour when learning to share and play together, and these have powerful resonances for very young children.
What are the defining aspects of your productions that you think encourage children to watch your shows and participate in them?
Our shows are highly visual. They attract children and help in keeping their attention focussed. Importantly, the content of the work is relevant to children, because we create shows with children's input and we ensure it is not an adult's idea of what children should watch. We use participation and interaction within our shows to ensure that the audience is actively engaged. Finally we use 'play' at the heart of our work, and this is a universal language for all children.
Various theatre companies focused on children's theatre routinely work with adult actors who have imbibed the particular style or ethos of that company. Your company also works with 'specialist actors'. Can you tell us more about the actors who lead the show in your productions?
We like to work with the best actors. Actors that enjoy playing, and who also enjoy the unexpected reactions of an audience. Our actors know how to improvise and can keep an emotional honesty to their performance. It is important in children's theatre that children have the chance to observe genuine emotions within a situation. The great skill of our actors is to make sure that there is an emotional truth to the performance. We often work with actors who have experience of street theatre as they can readily improvise and expect the unexpected. We also ensure that our actors are involved in the observation and creation process with the children, so that they have a clear understanding of who the work is for and to what purpose.
Your shows are an outcome of research with Educationalists, Performers, Neuroscientists in child development and even with focus groups of children. Can you tell us a little about how each of these specialists may contribute to the making of the production?
The Educationalists observe and research the content of each show in educational settings. We ensure that we involve the staff in our aims and objectives. They give us valuable feedback on the relevance of the work in progress, and also help us identify key learning outcomes of the work - sometimes outcomes that we (from a theatre background) don't necessarily see.
We always involve the performers in the research and development process. It helps them to understand their audience and gives them a chance to play with young children and observe their interactions to help them later portray these characteristics while devising and performing the show. The performers analyse and try to understand what they have observed and that helps us in creating the content of the show.
As artistic directors our job is to keep abreast of latest developments and discoveries in child development. We discuss our work and seek advice from leading experts who acknowledge that theatre and the creative arts play a vital role in the development of young children
Finally, it is the children themselves who form an integral part of our research. We observe children's behaviour within the context of what we are exploring. In FROM HERE...TO THERE for instance, we were observing children within the context of shared and individual play. We also provide the planned materials from the show for children to play with, to see if they have any meaning and relevance for them and we also explore different ways of using the materials. This in turn gets fed into the show. Sometimes children's comments, their body language, expressions are also used in the shows.
Children in different cultures respond to things differently. As you may go on to find young audiences in different countries, do you think you will need to modify your productions for them?
Very much so. FROM HERE...TO THERE has been performed in the UK and in Spain. We recognise the smallest cultural differences and change the delivery of the show accordingly. London Talents prides itself with the high quality of actors it works with. These actors truly prove themselves as good actors as they can fine tune the delivery of the show depending on the audience.
Having met many educationalists and parents during our recent trip to India, we believe we understand the cultural differences and know that parents want to be involved with the process. Certain scenes of the show have been modified to make them more culturally relevant and our percussionist has modified certain sound effects as well. Our parental awareness section, parental guide, special reading corner have also been modified in terms of an Indian audience's expectations.
Since this is also the first time that many children and parents will be exposed to our form of theatre, the format and delivery of the workshops and play sessions have been changed so that parents and children can get the most out of it.
Are you planning anything long term with schools in India?
Yes, we have already linked up with several leading educationalists. Apart from shows at public venues, we have also been signed on by several schools, who will be hosting our shows exclusively for their students. Our education theatre specialist will be working with these schools on detailed activity packs created by London Talents, which will further help reinforce the concepts of the shows amongst their students.
What is special according to you about the application of 'Theatre in Education' at London Talents? 
Your shows are an outcome of research with Educationalists, Performers, Neuroscientists in child development and even with focus groups of children. Can you tell us a little about how each of these specialists may contribute to the making of the production? 
