Another Bank Holiday, another swordfight…
This Sunday Fechtbuch and I put on a medieval swordfighting/history show, trying out the version of our show that we are going to be performing to youth/community groups in the future (one booking, another possible on the way).
We had some useful feedback on timings and what bits work/don't work. It's clear that mixed age ranges of children work less well than single age ranges - hence it's probably better to work with 7-10 year olds and older groups separately. I don't know if it's our mental level but we seem to get a better response from the smaller ones anyway.
The shield wall demo was good and I think the personal heraldry would be a useful change of pace. The scrolls that Fechtbuch put together were well received (and proved a good colouring-in opportunity for one small child).
On the whole I think it went really well and will get even better in the future, will probably help that we are performing again next week as repetition always helps..
The barbecue was fun although got a bit messy as time went on - I tried to avoid getting drawn too deeply on discussing the recent election (it still being very raw) but a late night off-licence visit proved to be the undoing of the remainder of the party, me most especially.
Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50501&l=a7f5d&id=706175940
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50506&l=a3092&id=706175940
We had some useful feedback on timings and what bits work/don't work. It's clear that mixed age ranges of children work less well than single age ranges - hence it's probably better to work with 7-10 year olds and older groups separately. I don't know if it's our mental level but we seem to get a better response from the smaller ones anyway.
The shield wall demo was good and I think the personal heraldry would be a useful change of pace. The scrolls that Fechtbuch put together were well received (and proved a good colouring-in opportunity for one small child).
On the whole I think it went really well and will get even better in the future, will probably help that we are performing again next week as repetition always helps..
The barbecue was fun although got a bit messy as time went on - I tried to avoid getting drawn too deeply on discussing the recent election (it still being very raw) but a late night off-licence visit proved to be the undoing of the remainder of the party, me most especially.
Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50501&l=a7f5d&id=706175940
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50506&l=a3092&id=706175940