I AM BABA is one of the two projects selected for the prestigious International Early Childhood Commission awarded this year by the four Dublin Local Authorities funded by Arts Council Ireland. The first week of development of this show takes place in The Civic, Tallaght and will include intensive creative consultation with local babies and their adults.
We met with the creator Anna Newell and had a chat in advance of the development week here in the Civic.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background, where you are from?
I was born in England, moved to Scotland when I was 11, lived there for about 25 years and then moved to Belfast 13 years ago. Just one year ago, I moved to Bray! I have been making professional theatre for nearly 28 years and I have been collaborating with the show’s composer, David Goodall for 27 of those years and we’re still not sick of each other!
Could you tell us a little about your journey into the arts and how it all happened for you?
I wrote and directed my first show when i was about 7. It was called THE FROG IN THE WELL and i made all my friends be in it. I was the frog – not because it was the best part but because no-one else wanted to be painted green and be down the well. When I was a kid and a teenager, I tried to get into every youth theatre going and thought I wanted to be an actor, but when I was at university, I started directing and realised that that was what I really wanted to do. I’ve made lots of different shows in a whole range of places – in a deserted prison, in a secret apartment, on a barge and in many different theatres of different sizes. I’ve also run community women’s harmony singing groups for the last 23 years in both Dundee and Belfast. In the last 7 years, I’ve been mainly making shows for the very young and shows that David and I have made for babies have been seen off-Broadway and one of them was the very first baby show to play in South Africa, where I was part of helping to create the first homegrown South African show for babies by an amazing company called Magnet Theatre in Cape Town. Next week, I’m heading over to Cape Town for the world festival of children’s theatre and I’ll finally get to see SCOOP, the baby show they started creating when I was there!
Where do you find creative inspiration, have you any particular idols, role models?
All over the place! I’m also a big fan of neuroscientist Suzanne Zeedyk – www.suzannezeedyk.com who opened my eyes to how crucial good stuff happening to you in the first three years of your life is. And my audience is my strongest inspiration. When I was making my first show for children and young people with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties and working with that audience to develop the show, they revealed to me what I think theatre is – simply one human being communicating, connecting with another. And my job is to create the optimum conditions to make that happen.
If you hadn’t been in ‘showbusiness’, what would you have done?
I like making adventures for people so wedding planner is pretty high on the list. Or something else working with kids – if there were (many) more hours in the day, I’d love to do a degree in child development…….
What is your role in I am Baba?
I’m the director. When the International Early Childhood Arts Commission was announced, I applied for it to make this new baby show. When the show’s designer’s daughter, Emily, was about 9 months old, one of her first sentences was “I am Baba” – and when Jen told me, I said “one day I’ll make a show called that”. And that day is now! Thanks, Emily!
What do you find most interesting about early-years theatre?
What happens to you in the first three years of your life actually impacts upon how your brain is formed. And so I passionately believe that some of those experiences should be magical, lyrical, imaginative, musical…….
Do you remember your first visit to the theatre, can you describe it for us?
I remember going to see my dad in an amateur production of something that was performed in the grounds of a ruined abbey – it was very exciting and they even let off a flare. Unfortunately, they hadn’t thought to warn the inland coastguard.
What was your favourite TV programme as a child?
I loved Mr Benn. I remember thinking that if I looked hard enough, I’d find that shop where you went in, the mysterious shopkeeper appeared and then you chose a costume and walked out of the back door into the world of that costume. I couldn’t find the shop so I thought I needed to make it – so I started making theatre. It wasn’t till i was an adult that I noticed that as Mr Benn goes to the shop in his suit, carrying his briefcase, that he always passes children who are making believe the world that he eventually goes into that episode. Children innately know how to play and create new worlds. If we nurture that ability, they can dream new worlds, better worlds, for themselves and for all of us.
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I AM BABA is commissioned under Exploring and Thinking: A Collaborative Framework for Early Childhood Arts in the Dublin region. Exploring and Thinking is an initiative generated in partnership by Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. It is funded under the Arts Council’s Invitation to Collaboration.
