When the frogs sing
Imagine that we all have our own frogs in our bottoms and they tend to sing sometimes. And when we listen to their singing, we dance and our body moves naturally. In reality we call it fart.
Publisert 25.05.2014
Sist endret 24.05.2018
av Kyuja Bae Company
What did "When the frogs sing" talk about?
Imagine that we all have our own frogs in our bottoms and they tend to sing sometimes. And when we listen to their singing, we dance and our body moves naturally. In reality we call it fart.
The interesting sounds, smells, dynamics, rhythms and melodies of farts and body are the main materials of the production together with the different ways of expressing of frog's sound in different languages. For example, the frogs sing "kvekk kvekk" in Norwegian. In Korean, we express that they sing "gegul gegul", "oup oup" in Thai, "ribit ribit" in English and "kero kero" in Japanese.
Young audience take a journey into a space where they can expereince 3 stages of frog life;
Egg – tadpole – adults created by sounds/words, lights, smells and texture and movements. Of course here the frog is the metaphore of fart.
Who did make "When the frogs sing"?
Artistic director/creator/writer/leader of the project- Kyuja Bae(Korea/Norway)
Scenographer/costume maker/technical director/co-creator- Sarah FJ(Norway/Denmark)
Music composer/co-creator –Erik Daehlin(Norway)
Performer/co-creator- Fernanda Branco(Brazil),
Photographer/graphic designer- Ioannis Lelakis(Greece/Norway),
Producer/administrative manager- Patricia Canellis(France/Greece/Norway)
Costume maker/consultant- Camilla Wexels(Norway)
Light- Bjarte Blixt
Short version of the performance "when the frogs sing" (password: frogs)
Full version of the performance "when the frogs sing" (password: frogs)
When did "When the frogs sing" make and perform?
We worked for this production from May 2012 to May 2013.
We had total 4 shows in the end;
1. Rampelys Festivalen 4th May in Oslo
2. St. Croix 11th May In Fredrikstad,
3. Rom for Dans 26th May in Oslo ( 2 shows)
Which organizations supported "when the frogs sing"?
This production was supported by Norwegian arts council(2009), SEANSE(a week residency, 2012), Kunstloftet(2012) ,Fond for lyd og bilde(2012), Fredrikstad commune(2013), Oslo Teatercenter and St. Croix in Fredrikstad.
Artistic process and experience
The concept of the performance has been created by Kyuja Bae and it has developed together with Sarah F. Jahn, Fernanda and Erik Daehlin during the process.
The team work was good, although it was pity that some of them had busy schedule with other projects, so they couldn't follow the whole process.
The main artistic aim of this production was to find a different style for children's theatre where children can meet theatre as art with their own interests, questions, imaginations and not only as entertainment or forced educational toy. And as well wanted to challenge us to create the most poetic and beautiful and interesting and playful children's performance dealing with fart.
In general the production reached the aim to find its own style by using body with frog costume in a different way and also having installation art in the performance as scenography.
We started with some questions
1. How can children's theatre be different from the conventional/stereotypical/commercial ones?
2. Is it possible to make children's theatre without exaggerated comic acting style, storytelling, puppets, songs, colorful costumes and shining scenography and technology?
3. What are the possibilities of the children's theatre art to children and our society?
4. Who are we as children's theatre maker to our own children?, How will we invite them to the process of the production in an interesting way?
5. Since children need to come to theatre with their guardians, how can we make a bridge in a gap between young audience and adult audience?
6. How can childrens theatre transform into something else like game or journey/trip?
7. How can we invite kids to interact with our installation/scenography without forcing but with interesting way?
We ended up with very satisfied result on no.5
We ended up with satisfied result on no. 1 & 4
We ended up with deeper understanding on no. 2
We ended up with new challenges and goals on no. 3 & 6
The audience
Unfortunately we didn't have as many as audience we expected. It was very difficult to promote the performance by puting the posters around. For the next project or show, we must find other ways to promote and get audience. Although we did have very many audience on the shows, Frog has met nearly 250 children for the research and presenting the work during the process when we visited Sophies hagen barnehagen in Oslo for rehearsal. We also invited kids from a kindergarten in volda during our residency at SEANSE and a group from DOREMI kindergarten in Fredrikstad.
Since we had small amount of audience each time, we had good chance to talk with most of adult audience while children played with installation. Most of them mentioned very positive comments on the performance.
Future plan
We are invited to 13th INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL FOR PERFORMING ARTS 2013" hosted by the Ryan Foundation, Delhi, India, in association with National Bal Bhavan and Indian Council for Cultural Relations from 5th to 8th December 2013. We keep working on joining festivals and theaters in the world.