When the Birds Sang is a digital project designed to capture the thoughts, drawings, conversations, joy and fears of children during lockdown and is a new adventure into co-creation for Theatre Hullabaloo.

Join Artistic Producer, Miranda Thain, and leading Early Years Theatre Director, Sarah Argent, in conversation about gathering stories from very young children to inform the development of new artistic work, and the challenges of doing so in a world where we can't play side by side.

Session facilitators

Theatre Hullabaloo is a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) of Arts Council England, a registered charity and the only specialist producer of theatre for young audiences in the North East of England. The award-winning organisation makes and commissions new work for audiences from birth to 16 years which tours regionally, nationally and internationally to a mixture of theatres, venues, schools, nurseries and community settings.

Miranda Thain is Artistic Producer and Chief Executive of Theatre Hullabaloo, one of England’s leading producers of theatre for young audiences. She joined the organisation (then CTC Theatre) in 2007 and led its reimagining and rebrand, launching as Theatre Hullabaloo in 2009. In her current role, Miranda leads the artistic programme and learning and research elements of Theatre Hullabaloo’s work, including the development and mentorship of artists. Miranda has a particular interest in the role of imaginative play in the lives of very young children. She has developed and delivered work for children and young people in museums, castles, children’s centres, nurseries, prisons and shopping centres.

Sarah is an award-winning freelance artist specialising in theatre for the very young. From 2001 to 2018, she developed all of Theatr Iolo’s work for the under fives, while maintaining, as she still does, a busy career devising, directing, and writing. Sarah has been commissioned to create productions for acclaimed theatre companies across the UK, Ireland and beyond, including Welsh National Opera, Sherman Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Cwmni’r Fran Wen, the National Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Polka Theatre, Derby Theatre, Theatre Hullabaloo, M6 Theatre, Haya Cultural Centre, (Amman, Jordan), Barnstorm Theatre (Kilkenny, Ireland), ThinkArts (Kolkata, India) and Companyia Frec a Frec (Barcelona).

Lockdown Case Study - When the Birds Sang