During these autumnal and wintery months while it’s not possible to meet outdoors, we’ll be offering free interactive musical Zoom sessions for small groups.

Our sessions are predominantly designed for children who are often described as having Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities and also for children who are identified as being on the autistic spectrum. Our Zoom sessions are also suitable for young people with a wider range of disabilities.

We understand that experiences on a screen have their limitations, and we encourage our participants to bring along any instruments or props you might have at home to join in with our rhythms, (e.g. banging pots and pans, making shakers by filling empty bottles with lentils, beans or anything that rattles!).

Watch a short rhythmic video, made by Bamboozle artist Tayo, where he’s found things around the home to make his own rhythms.

Our Zooms last for about 30 minutes and involve two of our Bamboozle musicians providing live music. Each session will be for a group of up to four families, so that we can personalise the performance for our participants. The set up will be relaxed and informal; there’ll be an opportunity to chat, followed by our traditional welcome song, more Bamboozle tunes, and we’ll end the session with a goodbye song.

UPCOMING MUSICAL ZOOMS:

Saturday 16th Jan

Saturday 23rd Jan

Saturday 30th Jan

Saturday 6th Feb

Friday 19th Feb (half-term)

Saturday 6th March

 Register your interest in attending by clicking here.

We do our best to try and ensure that everyone who registers can attend at least one session, however, due to our limited spaces available, if sessions become oversubscribed, you’ll be added to a waiting list for any future sessions.

Musical Zooms for theatres, schools and residential care settings:

We can provide “off-the-shelf” interactive Zooms, or we can provide Zoom sessions tailored to your programming or curriculum. To find out more about booking your own Zoom session, please contact jennifer@bamboozletheatre.co.uk for more details.

For Families in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire

Our Front of House performances are designed to bring a burst of live music and colour to your front door!

Our performances provide a 30-minute set of acoustic and electric songs from a team of three musicians and a technician. The team arrive and set up a festival-themed performance area in either a front of back garden, or on street outside your house.

Front of House performances have been designed to ensure that our team can remain socially distanced from each other and from our audience. In order to for us to set up, we’ll need room to put up a 3m x 3m gazebo, with at least another 3m in front of the gazebo, and a meter either side for speakers.

If weather permits, families can sit outside to enjoy the performance, or remain inside the home to enjoy the music, e.g. this set up is recommended if you and your family are shielding, or if social distancing might present an issue for your children.

We encourage neighbours to listen in from a safe distance, too, whether in their own gardens or from their doorsteps. We will provide flyers that you can put through letterboxes to notify neighbours about our visit in advance.

NEXT AVAILABLE IN APRIL 2021. Dates will be released on our website and social media channels.

Our Front of House performances are available free for families on specified dates. We aim to visit as many families as we can during a day, so places for performances are extremely limited, and are dependent on our ability to travel to you on our available date.

For Schools and Residential Care settings:

Our Front of House experience is available for “one-off” bookings for schools and residential care settings.

Initially devised to be performed outside and taken directly to people’s homes, we have successfully piloted these performances for larger groups of young people in existing bubbles in a care setting and a residential school. Each performance lasts for about 30 minutes, and we are able to provide up to three performances in a day.

To enquire about booking a Front of House experience, please email: jennifer@bamboozletheatre.co.uk.

What families have said about our Front of House performances

“A special privilege of having a private concert on our front garden! My daughter laughed and danced and it felt so special to have those memories”. Andrea, parent

“I was humbled by the effort Bamboozle had gone to specifically to entertain my daughter. Our neighbours were thrilled to be invited and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was really lovely to see and be able to talk to people we hadn’t had any face to face contact with for some considerable time. It brightened up our weekend and lifted our spirits”. Iona, parent

“My daughter absolutely loved the performance, which was truly unique and something she hadn’t experienced before. She loved the fact that the performance was taking place in her garden and so she didn’t have the anxiety she would normally experience going out to a venue to see it. Tess, parent

“Amazing experience, so special just for our family. Unforgettable” Judith, parent

“It was something extremely special for my daughter as she has been shielding. It was a way of keeping her connected to the things she loves through this tricky time. Her visual difficulties mean she struggles to access things via a screen so this was perfect for her”. Joanne, parent

What you need to know

Recommended age range: flexible

Possible triggers: Loud music (volume can be altered as appropriate).

Download visual story

See an example of our flyer for neighbours

FAQs

How will you be ensuring social distancing?

• The performances have been designed to ensure that our team can remain socially distanced from each other and from our audience, this includes all of our team members travelling separately where they are from different households.
• We want you to be where you will be most comfortable and get most enjoyment from the performance, whilst being able to maintain social distancing. We will talk to you in advance so that we can understand more about the set up of your home and the outdoor space; where you would like your family to experience the performance from (e.g. from inside with the windows open, or outside in your front garden etc).
• To ensure social distancing and in compliance with the new law regards social gatherings of no more than 6 people, we ask that any neighbours who may wish to enjoy the performance do so from their own fronts doors or gardens and we ask all participating families to ensure that they do not invite participants from outside the street where this would be in breach of the new law.

Bamboozle experiences are often hands on, how will you make sure that items are not touched by lots of people?

• This performance will not involve props etc being shared with or touched by the audience. It will be designed so that our team do not have to share materials unless they can be sanitised between use. Our team will be travelling with hand sanitiser so that they can keep their hands clean throughout the day.

Is there anything you need us to do?

• We hope that the performances will draw attention and brighten people’s day, but neighbours might be surprised if they are not expecting it. We will provide you with information to share with your neighbours, explaining what is happening and explaining how they can join in if they would like, whilst maintaining social distancing and legal responsibilities around gathering.
• We ask that you do not invite participants from outside the street where this would be in breach of the new law or present any risks in respect of social distancing.
• We will need to talk to you in advance to find out more about the space we will be able to perform in and practical considerations such as where our team will be able to park their cars.

What happens if the weather is bad?

• We will be providing shelter for our team, so that they can continue to perform whilst maintaining social distancing. We will not be able to provide cover for the audience, so the experience will have to adapted so that you can experience it indoors.
• We may have to vary the performance time to fit with the weather in the case of short downpours etc. and if the weather is very bad, such that the shelter for our team is not appropriate, then we may not be able to go ahead.

I still have questions

Please contact us via info@bamboozletheatre.co.uk and we will respond either via email or with a phone call if that is more suitable.

“A magical relaxing experience” Andrea, parent

Down to Earth evokes the atmosphere of a WWII allotment site using multi-sensory mix of live music, puppetry, and movement. Family groups will be welcomed warmly by Land Girls Betty, Doris and Mavis, and allotment keeper Arthur will proudly show you his vegetable garden. As a family you can help the Land Girls on the allotment packing food boxes. (You can keep your box of veggies, fruit and herbs to take away!)

After the work is done, our audience will be invited to dance from their wheelchairs as Betty dreams of being a star on the silver screen.

A mischievous mole arrives, who causes mess and mayhem, and when the air raid siren sounds, we all move into a magical forest to shelter.

In the forest we will encounter bees buzzing around their hives, and we can taste the honey they have produced. For the adventurous, there’s also the opportunity to get stuck in and have hands or feet buried in compost!

Subject to the government guidelines in place at the time, we are planning to take Down to Earth on tour to outdoor venues in the summer term of 2021 and making performances available for schools to book places for class bubbles.

We will be visiting specific regions which so far include:

• Leicestershire
• North Nottinghamshire
• Hertfordshire
• …More regions coming soon.

We are also developing socially distanced experiences for schools outside these regions – please check back in late January/early February when more information about these will be available.

For more information on making a booking for the spring tour please email info@bamboozletheatre.co.uk.

About Bamboozle’s shows for disabled audiences with complex needs

Our socially distanced shows designed for disabled audiences with complex needs cater for maximum group sizes of three children and young people, along with their family groups, teachers and/or carers.

Maintaining small audiences enables our team to provide a high level of focussed attention and the opportunity for intensive interaction. Each moment will be tailored to each child’s needs by a team of Bamboozle performers who are hugely experienced in adapting to, and interacting with, children and young people who have a variety of complex and differing needs.

These shows are designed to be particularly suitable for those who use a wheelchair, and take place at venues where we are able to provide a Changing Place.

“A lovely experience to bring us together in such strange times. Safe, inclusive and such a pleasure” Sam, parent

“The best sensory experience and social time with our peers and lovely people”, Kellie, carer

“Ingenious, refreshing, uplifting” Kate, parent

What you need to know

There will be a selection of vegetables involved in the show which our audience will be encouraged to touch, smell, taste. This will be individually packaged in a safe way so that each family bubble has their own, which they can take with them (or which will be disposed of if left at the end of the performance). You will all be able to look at the vegetables before touching anything, so anything that isn’t suitable for anyone in your bubble does not need to be used (e.g. anything that you know to present any allergic or other hazard).

Recommended age range: 6-14 years.

Watch the trailer

Down to Earth Companion Pack for Teachers and Support Staff