EVENT PREVIEW
“Toddler Takeover: An Arts Festival for the Very Young”
Activities include live performances from Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, baby yoga, drama workshops, art making at the High Museum and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Petting Zoo.
8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. May 31; 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. June 1. (Activities are also planned for June 2, which is for educators only.) Tickets $15 per person. 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-4200, www.alliancetheatre.org.
WHAT’S AVAILABLE
Tickets to the shows at the Alliance are already sold out, but there are still plenty of activities for young kids and mom and dad (including drama tot workshops). Here are some highlights:
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Instrument Petting Zoo: Has your little one ever wanted to try an instrument on for size? In this hands-on station, children are encouraged to touch and play the instruments featured in the orchestra.
- Alliance Theatre's Baby Yoga: A 30-minute yoga class is mixed with live theater.
- Stroller Tours and Art Making at the High Museum: For the first time, the High will open 30 minutes early for stroller tours of the exhibits (9:30 a.m. May 31 and 11:30 a.m. June 1).
Stroller gallery tours at the High Museum. Puppetry storytelling workshops. An orchestra instrument petting zoo.
The Woodruff Arts Center will soon be crawling with toddlers as the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and High Museum join artistic forces to host the first “Toddler Takeover: An Arts Festival for the Very Young” next weekend (May 31-June 1). One-day passes cost $15 per person.
When your target audience is toddling, you take a different approach with the arts.
The Alliance’s Theatre for the Very Young doesn’t expect little ones to sit still during a performance, and instead anticipates them wandering on stage. You keep the numbers small. And of course, you build snack time — into the middle of the performance.
For example, during a performance of “The Tortuga & the Hare,” when the Hare stops during the race, not only will the rabbit nosh on carrots, but actors will pass out carrots to kids, too.
“Young people are very much part of the show, and the show allows for that spontaneous participation,” said Chris Moses, education director at the Alliance Theatre. “I think of it as theater in the purest form.”
Organizers of the festival hope to make “Toddler Takeover” an annual event. They also hope the festivities help generate buzz about ongoing programming targeting the very young throughout the year.
The Alliance Theatre’s programming for the very young started in 2011 with the theater one of only a few in the country with live theater performances aimed at children 5 and under. The Alliance produces three original productions throughout the year with the shows performed both in their black-box theater on the third floor at the Woodruff Arts Center and on the road.
At the High, “Toddler Thursday” has been a staple program for several years, with little ones learning the ABCs of art with everything from crafting peekaboo frames and square collages to painting with tree branches as brushes. At the upcoming festival, the museum will set up an art station with small toy cars — allowing kids to dip the cars into paint and then roll those wheels on paper (this art project is inspired by the new “Dream Cars” exhibit at the museum). Also next weekend, the High Museum will open 30 minutes early for stroller tours (9:30 a.m. May 31 and 11:30 a.m. June 1).
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Symphony will debut its new music for the very young program with a show titled “Opus Zoo,” featuring music based on animal themes. Youngsters will hear animal sounds — the flute can mimic a bird call; the horn can make an elephant sound and a quacking duck sound will be heard through the oboe.
With the show performed by five Atlanta Symphony musicians in a woodwind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon), toddlers also will learn about the basic elements of sound such as high and low sounds, fast and slow. While concerts for older children often include the entire orchestra, performances for the very young will involve smaller ensembles and will be shorter at 30 minutes. Before each performance, musicians will set up an instrument petting zoo to give young children an opportunity to get up close — and even play — instruments in the orchestra.
Many believe exposing young people to creative sounds and colors, textures and movement encourages playful artistic expression and stimulates still-developing brains.
Art and play came together during the Alliance’s Theatre for the Very Young’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” When a basket of leaves fell on stage during the performance, toddlers rushed the stage to play in the leaves.
“It’s mind-blowingly awesome,” gushed Jolynn Sockwell, Sandy Springs mom to 3 1/2-year-old Finley and 9-month-old Theora who has attended every one of the shows for the very young since her daughter Finley was just 8 months old.
“Even then, she was riveted. … Every show is dynamic from the costumes to the sets, to the songs, instruments, puppets, lighting.”
Watching the children respond to the live theater is also a treat, she said.
“Seeing the shy children unfold when they realize all the standard rules are forgotten, watching bold kids become part of the show as the actors weave them in comedically, watching the ones so entranced they wander right into the story and stand there mesmerized, each checking with the kids around them as if confirming this awesomeness is really happening,” Sockwell said. “Walking out from these shows, these are not the same children that went in.”
