Children's theatre brings you gnomes for the holidays
For its current season, Carousel Theatre for Young People is presenting a series of audio plays aimed at children ages 6-12 and their families. Audio plays are a new frontier for most theatre artists, including Manami Hara. Her experience with teaching acting and storytelling to kids ages 5-13 helped her write the first in the series, Nom Nom Gnomes.
“I knew that the kids would need to connect with the characters in the play,” the playwright/producer/interpreter said. “In my gut I knew what would tickle them, what would really hit their heart as well. It came very, very naturally, just being with that age group and spending time teaching and learning about them.”
Carousel is billing its AudioPLAY series as the start of “a new style of artist-centred programming,” where “established and early career artists will team up to create audio plays from conception to execution.” Hara directed as well as co-wrote the play, and chose her own creative team, including co-writer Kanon Hewitt and voice actors June Fukumura, Brent Hirose and Jennifer Tong.
Jivesh Parasram, artistic director of Rumble Theatre, is helming the next audioPLAY. Derek Chan, co-artistic director of rice & beans theatre, and Nancy Tam, composer, sound and performance artist, will close out the series with their production Little Shrimp.
Hara, who also works as a producer, interpreter and translator, said she has “a soft spot” for Carousel. Thirty years ago, fresh out of Langara's theatre program, her first professional acting job was in Carousel's touring production of Romeo & Juliet. She volunteered to take on the first audio play for the series, which also happens to be the first one she has written, in late September. “I had to come up with an idea quite quickly.”
For inspiration, Hara drew on her own family traditions.
“I come from a family that puts a lot of emphasis on food. I thought, especially now, that it would be important for family members to feel connected, and cooking together and eating together came to my mind first.”
The gnome idea followed. “We needed a title for the press release, and I was driving around, and `nom nom gnome' came to mind. And everybody seemed to like that, so we had to incorporate gnomes into the story.”
Hara said the story is about an immigrant, interracial family “appreciating each other through cooking, and sharing meals, as the mother tries to help the children navigate through the reality of pandemic during this holiday season.” An unexpected package from the kids' grandmother in Japan arrives, revealing memories about their great-grandmother and drawing the family together.
Hara and her team, including sound designer Matt Horrigan, are employing methods such as binaural sound and interactive instructions for audiences to follow to help engage and hold young attention spans.
“While Kanon and I were writing, we put emphasis on which part of the play would suggest connecting to those elements. It's all about imagination for the kids and the family and the school to connect the dots of storytelling and visually imagining what that is.”
Hara herself will likely have a gnome-free Christmas, spending it in North Vancouver with her husband, their dog and their two adult children. However, Nom Nom Gnomes listeners will have a chance to meet the title characters — in clay form. Visual artist Cindy Mochizuki has created five gnomes, which Carousel will place throughout Granville Island for audiences to find.