There is a report of the Playtime which I will post up here as soon as it makes sense to do so and we also plan to visit Barlanark in June to celebrate our time with them too and so pictures and words of these visits will follow too but in the meantime, here are some immediate reflections from film maker and theatre artist Geraldine Heaney:
“Working on the Playtime project has been informative, creatively stimulating and REALLY FUN!
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about this whole process has been the way that we have experimented and played. Sometimes it felt like the answer we were looking for only really came after we played and stopped thinking about how to answer the question.
Every time we met up whether at platform or in the nursery I liked the feeling of experimenting, know that we had something we were going to try and not wholly knowing where that was going to end up. I like the responsive way that we worked in the nursery and with each other in the development, It felt very collaborative throughout.
I felt there was a good balance between talking through ideas and then just stopping talking and trying things out.
The staff we met in both venues were very open and seemed interested in what we were going to do. It was interesting that often they wanted to know what was going to happen before we started. They also seemed eager to make help the children get the ‘right’ answer when sometimes there wasn’t an answer we were just interested in what the children might say.
I really enjoyed when we showed the nursery photos of themselves, I liked how the children were excited to see themselves but also to see their friends “Look it’s Daniel!”
When we played with the water fights at Platform, it was so much fun and I had slight apprehensions that it was really fun to play water fights but would it be frustrating to watch and not get to be involved, but as it turned out it was funny and satisfying enough to see us ‘doing what we weren’t supposed to’.
The treasure hunt that Matt created for Becki and I at Platform was really exciting.
When we hid the bits of Sky all over the nursery one of the best things about it was that there was so much to find. There were some Children that kept bringing more and more bits of sky. I really enjoyed how encouraging we were able to be throughout that day. Every piece of Black Paper that was found was useful and every star that was drawn on was needed and beautiful.
It’s interesting how much of a fiction or narrative we need and how much the children need? Would it have been as exciting to ask them to find the bits if ripped up black paper?
They flit from game to game, like drawing a picture, knowing when they have finished using a particular colour, I like that.
I’m finished drawing stars now I’m going to run a overpriced MacDonalds, I’m finished that now look at my shoes, never mind that look what I can do, it’s lunchtime, I like purple, My tai kwan do kit is in a bag in my house, look what I can do.”
“You want a milkshake?”
“Yes please!”
“There you go.”
“Thanks”
“Five pounds please.”
“What?”
Playtime 