Oral Histories

Lynette: My first full-time job was with a theatre that primarily produces work for children, Little Angel Theatre. I got to experience the joy that theatre brought to children, and it reminded me of my first experience of theatre, and how magic it was; and seeing that on a daily basis, with the children you’re working with, the audience you’re serving, is incredibly joyful. Peter: My interest in theatre didn’t really grow until I came to London, I came to university. Whilst I was at uni there was a tutor who was doing an MA in physical theatre and children’s theatre, and it just opened my eyes to a whole sector, a whole range of work that I’d never seen before. I thought, this is incredible, the response that you get from children, and from family audiences, is so different. That was something that really hooked me, very early on, that dynamic between audience and performers. L: Before I was at Polka I was with a company called Spare Tyre, which is a participatory theatre company. It taught me a huge amount about the society we live in, and how the arts can play a role within that society, the impact of the arts on people’s lives, in terms of their health and mental well-being. But after four years I was quite keen to get back to running a venue. I did miss that. P: Prior to Polka I was Artistic Director at Little Angel Theatre, better known as the home of British puppetry. Prior to that I’d set up a company called Kazzum, which was also a children’s theatre company, so I’d been involved in children’s theatre as an actor, a theatre maker, a director, for about twenty-five years. At that point I was really happy at the Little Angel Theatre; and then I saw that the job was advertised, I’d had an association with Polka for many years, and as soon as I started writing I couldn't stop. It revealed to me how excited I was by the possibilities. L: When the role came up I was interested to hear about it, and to hear about the redevelopment plans, and I thought, that’s an organisation that’s looking for its next step, in terms of its future, and I could see myself being part of that. I’m executive director and joint CEO with Peter. P: We’re both jointly responsible for developing the business plan for the whole organisation. I will have a sense of different projects that we might want to do, or different artists that we might work with, or different ways that we might go about developing the organisation. We’re both jointly responsible for thinking about how those choices reflect the overall aims of the organisation. What do we need this to do? L: There’s nothing straightforward about creating this type of work; and it's important that we can argue things out, and that we’re not the only ones in the conversation, either, there’s a lot of people involved in how we make decisions. Whether that’s the rest of the staff team, the trustees, the people we serve, most importantly, the children. The ideas for the redevelopment started over fifteen years ago. The main building is a converted church hall, it was never purpose-built. We also got to the point, to be frank, where the building was falling down. It was going to cost us over a million pounds to maintain the building in its current state, which was crazy. So we looked at it and thought we could make something a lot better here, if we were a bit more ambitious. P: It’s actually been a ten-year process to get to this point, and that has involved so many different voices, so many different stakeholders. Children and staff have been a key part of that, working with the architect at the very early stages, thinking ‘what kind of garden do you want, what do we want the foyer to be like, what should the new café be like? What do we feel we need to support creating new work, and supporting artists? What do we need to do to make this building a really modern, accessible building?’ And children have to be at the heart of those discussions, it’s for all the community, but it’s for them, it’s their wonderland. L: We’ve moved out of the building, into a temporary office just down the road, and during that time we’ve got a huge programme of outreach and schools engagement. P: A key thing for us is that we wanted to keep connecting with our local audience. We’ve got up to a hundred thousand people a year that come to Polka, and at the moment the doors are closed. So what do we do? We go out to them. We go to the schools, go to the libraries, go to the local parks, we work with the community, get an intergenerational choir together. And it’s been an amazing experience, actually, it’s been an opportunity for us to work in a very different way, really embed ourselves across the borough. And actually one of the other things that’s been quite exciting in a way is that having this break from being in the building has allowed us to think about how we work, and the type of work we do and the type of stories we tell. So part of the new artistic programme moving forward is to develop work with the community, to look at creating community plays that everyone can be involved in, giving people more opportunity to work with us, work alongside us, and giving people more opportunity to get up on the stage and do stuff, as well. L: And also we’re planning for when we go back into the building , we are leading the fit-out, so what we’re creating is not only a hugely increased capacity in terms of what we can offer, and our services, but also a beautiful space which is magical and inspiring and everything that people expect Polka to be. That in itself will reinvent how they will interact with the theatre. P: We want lots of people to come in, lots of families, lots of children to come in. It doesn’t matter if they don’t see a show. You can come in and be in that foyer, you can play with puppets, you can go into a quiet reading corner, you might want to draw, you might want to explore the history of Polka on the walls, you might want to stand on a mini stage and get some costumes and create your own play. And that’s what we’re trying to encourage, we’re trying to encourage it as a space that’s alive, a space that’s continually inspiring children’s’ imagination. I hope that every child will be really excited when they’re getting up in the morning and thinking that they’re going to go to Polka. L: We did In the Winter Wood in the Adventure Theatre and at one point all the children were asked to put on these wolf masks; the thrill they got out of becoming part of the show, the excitement, it was amazing. I love seeing moments like that, when they’re really just so involved in the stories that we're telling and the theatre we’re creating. That to me makes everything that we do here worthwhile. P: There’s one moment that I remember when we did a production called Shake, Rattle and Roll which we worked with neuroscientists on, from Birkbeck University. And at the end of the piece there was a little kind of disco, and it was for babies and toddlers and their parents; and I used to cry at that point every time it happened, because at the end the disco lights were on and beautiful music playing, a gentle kind of song at one point. And you just saw lots of mothers and fathers and carers hugging and loving their children and dancing together at the end of this piece, and it was such a beautiful, beautiful moment. A child’s imagination should be fed in so many different ways; and that can be creating something that’s going to have you screaming with laughter, that can be creating something that means something, reveals something to you about yourself, your relationships. It can bring history alive; there’s so many reasons why having access to theatre and the creative experiences is so important. It’s a real privilege to be in a space where you’re continually supporting children to have these creative experiences. L: Polka has an incredible recognition and reputation, not just locally but regionally, nationally and internationally. And I don’t think that will ever change. And I think that the incredible groundwork that’s been done over the last forty years is something we will build on. This new, improved building gives us the opportunity to have more of an impact in our community, to welcome more people in, to welcome different people in, and to try and make sure that theatre remains incredibly relevant to them. P: How are we really helping children to navigate their way in the world? You know, we're storytellers, and also co-creators with children, and the word ‘relevance’ is really key. It’s important for us moving forward that those conversations are continually happening, that children are at the heart of that as well. Children are part of the world, and society, and the challenges that are happening, the nature of the world they’re living in is changing all the time, so the stories have to reflect that. For children’s theatre the stories have to be relevant, otherwise theatre just becomes a kind of entertainment. I’m not against theatre being entertainment, but it’s about creating something that’s not a kind of throw-away fast meal, it’s something that’s far more nourishing. The importance of Polka is really huge in terms of making sure that all children can access theatre and access the arts. We are somewhere where people can come and you don't have to have any money, you can come in through those doors and we’ve got a space that’s going to inspire you to be creative. So those barriers that are there to prevent a lot of children being able to have really good artistic experiences, is something we’re very conscious of. We’re doing our best to make sure that we’re giving everyone an opportunity to come to Polka.