On the evening of Monday 6th February, Poppy took part in Bamboozle’s showcase of *Storm, a production for children with Autism at Curve. The show is designed for an intimate audience of 6 young people. We were booked onto the showcase weeks beforehand so Poppy was aware for quite a while that she was going. As the time drew nearer, she got more excited. ‘Are we going to Bamboozle?’ the question was being asked more regularly.
Fortunately, Bamboozle came into Poppy’s life very early on, and has been a tremendous help for Poppy and her siblings. She was 2 when she first started going -and was tiny! Bamboozle’s unique approach has had a big impact on Poppy’s life and she has benefited enormously from it. Bamboozle offer multi-sensory experiences for children with learning difficulties and Special Educational needs using a multi-sensory approach through theatre, music, design, puppetry, visual arts. We have attended Bamboozle performances at Attenborough Arts, Curve and at Bamboozle’s head office. Poppy is used to the format now – which has a structure, however, during the performance the story or activity can change within it, allowing the young people to experience everything that’s happening to it’s fullest. There is a storyline to follow, and within the show piece, there is singing, musical instruments, sensory activity (so participants can ‘feel’ the wind and the rain and go on a magical ride etc), and there are activities too so that the young children actually take part in the story. When siblings come along, very often, they go into a different area to develop script or props and these are used later on the in the production, keeping everyone fully involved.
Poppy absolutely loves the singing and instruments in these productions and very often joins in with the introductions and the songs throughout the performance, which is lovely to see. She also fully immerses herself in the sensory experience and its one of the few times when i see her fully relax.
The production of Storm was slightly different to the usual Bamboozle performances, in that it was a lot shorter, it was later than usual performances and had a different format (parents usually sit with the children and that wasn’t the case with this production) – not at the request of Bamboozle I hasten to add, as Poppy was keen that I sat with her so I sat on the floor next to her. Poppy loved the singing, as always, and loved the performance. However, she held herself back at this performance more than she has done in the past (this could have been because it was later than usual and she was tired) although she did enjoy it and joined in with the signing whenever she was given the opportunity!
At the end of the performance, the audience can down to the foyer area where we were sitting and many of them came over to say hi to Poppy which was lovely.
All in all, an enjoyable night and Poppy is looking forward to the next Bamboozle performance.
*Storm is a showcase performance with an additional audience of invited guests including sponsors and friends of Bamboozle who sat away from the performers and young people during the performance.
