When the Birds Sang: Ideas Catcher

We would like to invite children up to the age of 10 to draw us a picture, write us a poem, send us a few words, or make us a video about what they are thinking and how they are feeling to inspire us to do some brilliant things at The Hullabaloo.

“When Coronavirus came, that was when the birds sang” (Lily, 8 years old)

**You’ve been sending us some amazing stories, memories, drawings and photographs from your children about their experience of lockdown – thank you so much for all of these. We now have a series of questions we would like to ask them. Click here to find out more**

We know that this is a strange time for everybody and that during this period of lockdown lots of families are spending much more time playing and talking together. Some of you have been in touch with us to tell us about the brilliant ideas and vivid dreams that your children are having, as well as the things they are noticing – the air smells a bit fresher and the birds seem to be singing more loudly.

We would like you to help us to capture these and the chats that are happening between you and your children, in order to inspire us to do two exciting things here at The Hullabaloo:

• to make a new brilliant new play installation that will be available at The Hullabaloo when we can all get together to play again.
• to create a beautiful new show for the babies who are being born at the moment for when they are a little older and able to enjoy it.

What are we asking you to do?

We would like to invite children up to the age of 10 to draw us a picture, write us a poem, send us a few words, or make us a video about what they are thinking and how they are feeling. We’d also love it if you could fill in the text box and tell us about the conversations that are happening in your homes with your children at the moment, particularly on behalf of any little ones who are too young to tell us themselves.

We will gather all of the poems, stories, drawings, thoughts etc in what we are calling our Ideas Catcher. This Ideas Catcher will be a special way of capturing a moment in time. The Ideas Catcher will keep all the ideas safe and we won’t share them except with our Hullabaloo artists who are making the installation and the production for babies. We’ll put a long list of thank yous with all the first names and ages of everyone who has helped to inspire us with their ideas on our website.

If you are happy for us to share your contributions on our social media, website and maybe even the windows of The Hullabaloo then please let us know using the checkbox below and we’d love to do that too.

Stay safe inside but let your imaginations fly free.

Submit your answers by June 30th and you will be entered into a prize draw to win a goody bag including tickets to The Hullabaloo to use when we are reopen.

When The Birds Sang

It was a time when the birds sang loudly and more sweetly
A time when the trees blossomed
A time when the sun shone and only a few aeroplanes flew across blue skies
A time when people stayed home
Some played games together
Some read stories together
Some danced and sang together.

It was a time when people laughed together but were sometimes sad or sometimes a little bit afraid.
It was a strange time but a beautiful time – when the birds sang.

Sarah Argent, Lead Artist