Down the Rabbit Hole – The Second Week Of Our Tour Begins !

It has been an amazing week with visits to five Winsford schools. It has been such a joy to return to my home Town and share my project with the children there.

They have been so attentive and asked some really interesting questions. The children had prepared in advance of the show and it was such a treat to see them perform the BSL and Visual Vernacular poem “The Queen of Hearts”.

Last Wednesday, 15th March the local ITV Granada News came to our morning production and filmed us performing and carried out some interviews afterwards.

The presenter, Ann O’Connor said that she enjoyed the show and was thrilled to see how engaged the children were both during and after the show during question time.

ITV has given me permission to share the report with you all and I have added captions to make it more accessible.

We are back on the road again tomorrow with two performances at Wharton C of E Primary School and we can’t wait to meet the children and teachers at the school. A big thank you to Arts Council England and my other sponsors and friends for providing the funding to allow us to take this production on the road.

My featured image on the top of the blog post this week was taken by Nick Rutter. Music composed by ZOLLINO. Other photographs were taken by my Dad.

59 thoughts on “Down the Rabbit Hole – The Second Week Of Our Tour Begins !”

    1. Thank you Martin, thats lovely 😊. One of the children told us it was remarkable. Isn’t that sweet.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  2. Oh my gosh, Charlotte! Thank you for posting this video, I love it! You are an awesome woman my friend. ❤️☺️ Enjoy your next performances! 🇬🇧😊

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    1. Thank you John, the children have been amazing, they are very intuitive. The team are working so hard, and helping putting up and taking down the set to move on to each new venue.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. The reporter Ann and cameraman Paul were super. She didn’t have much time to get back and edit it all either.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  4. That was great news coverage you got. Your tour is so much fun for the kids and all involved.

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    1. Thanks Timothy, I was amazed when they agreed to come. Several of the schools were interested in getting some more of the teaching packs for BSL that I have found. Children are like sponges at that age, they picked up so much information and remembered it at the end of the show. One child asked Zoe how she learnt to read if she couldn’t hear her parents reading to her. Such interesting and thoughtful questions for all of us. One boy asked George how long he practised at the piano, and if it was every day and another whether he thinks in Romanian or English.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

      1. All good questions. What was George’s answer to the language he thinks in?

      2. He said when he first moved to England when he was seventeen that he thought and dreamt in Romanian, but he has been here twelve years now and when he is in the UK he thinks in English and when he is home with his family he thinks in Romanian.

    1. Annette, it is so lovely to see them engaging with BSL and that they learnt the poem and were so keen to join in. I was conducting to keep the pulse in the song and a couple of the children conducted instead so now they have learnt two new skills as they had done the BSL part in the first run through that Zoe shows them to remind them. It was lovely because ZOLLINO the composer was able to come and see the show with his music and the children’s reaction to it.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Thank you Don, I’m really glad that you appreciated it. Several teachers have fed back to me just how much the children were still talking about the show in the playground and in class and other year groups had started to ask to see it too. Next week I’ll try to share a photograph with a set of the children who had parents permission for a photo with their pompom hedgehogs they’d made.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

      2. I’d love to Don, if you have any old contacts please pass on my details, we are getting such good feedback from the schools about the deaf and opera music awareness. Two super shows today with very attentive children who did marvellously learning the poem and remembering everything.
        All my very best wishes
        Charlotte

    1. Thank you 🙏 I’ve got a super team. Zoe is so pleased with the children’s sign language use and questions, George is still practicing his piano right now, even after a full day on the show as he has a solo concert in Falkirk straight after the show ends and a competition with his trio the following week. Naomi is going straight on to understudy for another show in Bristol, Zoe is off for a well earned holiday, and me I’m hoping to take a couple of days off before I have some new concert repertoire to learn and prepare in German and I’ve got to give a full report back to Arts Council England.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

      1. It sounds as if everyone is very busy with full schedules, and that’s wonderful. I must say, I absolutely love the use of sign language and the fact that the children are learning some sign language as you all perform.

  9. Great little news report! I’m glad the first week went so well. Wishing you all the best of luck as you tour with this fantastic, in many definitions of the word, show!

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    1. Thank you Trent, I was confident with what we put together but you never quite know until the children start to watch, I have been absolutely thrilled with their reactions, they are been super well-behaved and attentive. We are half way through the tour now, the get in and get out is one of the hardest things and I wished now that I’d got more funds to get help with that as it is tiring packing up every day all the musical equipment as we have to be super careful, we’ve already worn one piano seat out and my Dad had to do an epoxy glue and metal based meld to the glockenspiels connection to the leg, thank goodness I was at home because we’d just put strong stage tape on it when it fell apart! 😂
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Merci beaucoup Brian. C’était une journée spectaculaire aujourd’hui. 👍🏻 avec deux representations.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Thank you Sheila, my parents are exhausted they are doing so much to help. Dads even driving the set in the van around, then catching up with their business work at nights and weekends, as the planned driver had other work to do. My Mum’s got a bad back and leg, she’s never had one before and I’m worried it is because she’s doing too much! George is also sharing the driving with me which is great because we don’t drive much in London.
      Best wishes and thanks for keeping an eye on me.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

      1. Oh, gosh. Good for your parents for helping you – that’s such love for you to feel every day!
        These are memories you will treasure even more one day.
        Onward.

    1. Some of the schools have said they hadn’t imagined it would be so much fun yet informative and educational at the same time. We were told it was 5 ⭐️’s today 10 out of 10 which is great from children aged from 8 to 10. I am hoping that the head teachers give me some good feedback in writing to pass on because our town is starved of good theatre since our Civic Hall was closed down. I used to go there to see the ballet for my birthday every year and the pantomime with all my family at Christmas and to their teenage discos. Now everyone has to travel or do without.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  13. So beautiful and heartwarming to see your project with the children goes so well! Thanks for posting the ITV Granada News report video. I’m happy for you, Charlotte.
    Wishing you succes and all the best!

    Reply

    1. The children in the tv news were completely unrehearsed, they spoke immediately after the show directly to Ann and the cameraman Paul, they have all been so well behaved and attentive. I’m proud of my town.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. I hope they don’t Don, we were asked when we were going to come back again. The questions they ask are fascinating me. The children watched a video we produced prior to going to the school to learn the BSL VV poem and they thought it was great that it was Zoe and I out of costume, they asked all about the green screen technology we used, the illustrated backdrop, they are so curious about how everything is put together. I’m loving it.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Merci beaucoup mon ami, je voudrais apporter ou amener? le spectacle en France.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Thank you Derrick, we were really pleased they were interested with the concept and wanted to come and watch for themselves.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Aww thank you Noelle, I really love working with children, they are like sponges from 8 to 10 years of age and they are so interested in the songs and how I wrote them I even explained homophones today, they wanted to know about the green screen technology we’d used to create the video they watched to learn the poem, how the sets are made, lots about Zoe and deafness and how Naomi learnt to do BSL and how long it took her. It is fascinating me getting their feedback and the question and answer session each show. A friend of mine, Hilary, who’d helped my Mum to create the set (she did the stitching) said it made her so emotional as the first time she met me I was ten in the High School play as I shared the role of Little Corsette in Les Mis and they’d chosen girls in the last year of primary to do the role.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

    1. Thank you Bruce, some of the schools are large enough to invite the parents too, we have had some lovely feedback from them and they are so pleased their children are interacting and learning the BSL. Several of them joined in with the Hedgehog meditation to calm the hedgehogs 🦔 down after the sound game of croquet. It is lovely that the town is so supportive and welcoming and the children so well behaved.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

  19. I am so very proud of you!
    I’m all sniffy and misty eyed after watching the news report.
    There are many roads open in your future: singer, producer, director, writer and philanthropist.

    If I remember correctly, you had said someone told you it was almost impossible to make it in the UK as a soprano. That naysayer is wrong, when it comes to you.
    Had I listened to all the negative energies, I would never have become a designer, and worked with all of the A-listers I did.

    Whatever path you take, you are successful!
    Cripes, you and George could take the recital world by their hearts. You are both special.

    Yay!!!! The bodice is finished!!!!
    Whew! Okay, I need to set the separating zipper in the back, but that is no big deal.
    I’ve got the bodice on Judy, and have the back basted up where the zip will be.
    I have a zipper, but I’m hoping to find one a bit less sturdy.
    In the meantime, I’m working on the tail!
    I got an idea watching a show on the Lynx.
    Anyway, once the tail is decided (probably a split tail), I’ll send you a catch up mail.

    Best! ❦❦❦

    Reply

    1. OOo Resa it is so exciting to me that my dress is moving along apace. It sounds wonderful. George was inspired by my Arts Council grant and applied for one with his trio (piano, violin and cello) and was successful, so he is putting on a mini-festival, he has saved a slot for us to perform together so we need to really think about a suitable program by June. He has been so busy and helpful to me throughout this project, I felt quite guilty today when he had to dash on a long journey up to Scotland for a solo piano concert and I had a much needed day off to catch up with all my e-mails and messages. I love that you are inspired by a lynx, very sleek movement.

      I do understand what people are saying about sopranos, we are the most represented group of classical singers, we train a lot of singers now in the UK, when I was offered an undergraduate place there were only about ten female singers from Contralto, Alto, Mezzo, Mezzo-soprano, Soprano, which is why I have been working on stretching my range to a comfortable Coloratura Soprano whilst trying to maintain my mid and bottom range, its been challenging but not impossible. The Brontë opera I’m in is a very high contemporary piece, very challenging I can get back to practicing that from tomorrow a little every day. I have several new German lied to learn too, no rest for the wicked they say.

      My best wishes always,
      Charlotte xxx

      Reply

      1. How exciting that George got a grant too!
        I’d LOVE to see the 2 of you performing together in real life.
        What a treat that would be!
        Hmm, if George got the grant, does that mean you will be able to share your performance with us?
        Coloratura – that is a new word for me. I have 100% faith that you will hit those notes, and not lose the lower ones.
        A Brontë opera … omg… I need to get back to your blog!
        Yes, keep on practicing… rest will come later!
        It is such a thrill to know you!
        Best to you!
        x❦❦❦x

  20. That is a wonderful, inspiring interview with ITV News, Charlotte! You are not one to let anything keep you back. You will go far with whatever you choose to do in life.

    Reply

    1. thank you Lavinia, weren’t the children just adorable, it was just one take with them each talking in turn. Fantastic school, their teachers had worked with them on the BSL poem and prepared their pom-pom hedgehogs and even allowed parents in to watch. Some of the parents bought much younger children and I was amazed to keep their attention throughout too.
      Best wishes
      Charlotte

      Reply

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