The Wrap Up

It is now a week since our festival experience and we have had a chance to really think about what we saw and what we liked...

Pirates has remained the favourite of Fasa, Sina and Sefo. It has inspired many crazy pirate, dragon and gravelly singing game around here. Sina and Sefo have developed 3 balancing tricks that they like to show to our visitors (and us - ad nauseum!).

Faysie and I still liked Grug the best - simple and effective. Beautiful storytelling.

The Sticks workshop for me was a stand out in terms of set up and facilitation but the butterflies from Flutterby were literally loved and flown to death... The last one ended up in the recycling yesterday after an unfortunate incident with the bath.

Everything we saw at the Festival was great but for me the overall vibe was lacking a bit. Fasa and I really missed The Island, the free stage from previous festivals and thought that The World Stage didn't quite cut it. For us The Island and the way it presented work from the Pacific Rim was really Brisbane. We also obviously loved the Pacific Island content which was lacking in this festival. I also really missed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performances. We missed Sand Song which I am so disappointed about, even more so after reading The Bondies account of it however in previous years there has been so much more of this, particularly on the free stage, and I think that this was really lacking in the festival this year.

We usually go as a family to two days of the festival and I have also thought that I would like to do more.... however I think that maybe this is enough for us.

Finally we would like to thank QPAC - it takes a lot of courage to open up for constructive criticism, particularly as they have had no control over what we write. We are really grateful for the opportunity to see and do so much and had a wonderful time.

I will leave you with an overheard interaction between Sina and Sefo when discussing why she got to go to the opening of OOTB and he didn't.... " You see Sefo I am 8 this year and this is the last year that I am allowed to go... next time you will be the only kid in this family that is allowed to go so you will get to go to the opening." And so the OOTB baton is passed down through Team Pojo!

Thanks

Confessions and our last day

After our big day on Saturday we were all geared up to go to OOTB again on Sunday.... until I woke up. Fasa was at work and had been since 4am, Sina and Sefo were tired and cranky and I just couldn't do it... so we wagged a day.

But we turned up bright and early on Monday to take advantage of our last day. We went to see More Fun than a WII. This was a crowd favourite again as it consisted of a whole lot of fart jokes (very popular in our house), some fake vomit and a lot of very funny jokes. For me the interesting thing was watching the children go nuts. Given a little bit of lee way in the show to yell out and throw things they really got into it and just couldn't stop when each of these sections were over. It was interesting to see the performers handle it. They were ok in our session - one of them was slightly testy with the audience but another friend of mine saw their first show and thought that were pretty out of line in the way that they dealt with the kids. Fasa and I laughed a lot along with Sina. Sefo was slightly young for this one and got left behind a bit and he really wasn't convinced that the fart noises came from the computer and not the man who was pulled up from the audience. Unfortunately we were sitting next to that man and Sefo kept saying (in quite a loud voice), "there is the man that farted a lot! There he is, the man that farted...".

This was our last ticketed event but we decided as we had missed On Air the day before and as we had received all of our tickets for free we would buy tickets. It was quite expensive and it made me realise how lucky we were to experience as much as we did.

On Air was beautiful with a particularly gorgeous soundtrack and I am glad that we did get to see it.

Saturday was our biggest day at the festival and was I think our favourites. We got there pretty early (though not early enough to beat the line at Amococo!). We wandered through some of the free stuff and did a whole lot of painting... It appears that we do not get the paints out nearly enough at home as things got quite creative. There also appeared to be a lot of painting on the wall and not as much on the paper... This was another example of differing expectations as I thought this looked all a bit messy and couldn't really see the point however the kids and Fasa had a great time.

We then went to the Sticks workshop which was just beautiful. It was calm and quiet and considered and meaningful and facilitated wonderfully. I sat back to enjoy the show (and manage Sefo) and Fasa and Sina worked with Eba and Jane to create a bamboo tripod. It was challenging and rewarding for Sina and a lot of people commented on her creation as we wandered around the festival.

After this we hopped on over to the World Stage to get a bit of lunch and catch some of the performances before we saw Pirates. I went off to order a couple of the kids lunches and they were all sold out.... at 11.25am.... And there was no effort by anyone in the cafe to offer some alternatives or to perhaps make up some more sandwiches and combine that with a popper and overcharge us. I would have understood if this was at 1.25pm perhaps but to me 11.25am is prime kids lunch time. This was the only time that I thought that the staff at QPAC were less than helpful. Everyone else we encountered at the festival was more than happy to help and were really friendly.

Pirates was clearly the family favourite. Sina saw it twice and enjoyed it all the more the second time. Sefo was mildly terrified through the whole thing which I think only heightgened his enjoyment. Fasa loved this one as well. Since seeing the show there has been much Pirate make believe around here as well as a whole lot of attempted circus tricks (which is mildly concerning from a safety point of view!) Sefo and Sina were both impressed by the backflips and in an overheard conversation between Sina and her friend Flora, they both decided that a mini tramp in the floor of your house would make life a whole lot more interesting.

To finish the day we got into line for Amoccoco.... We only had to line up for twenty minutes and I am super relieved that we had tickets as there is no way I would have lined up for 2 hours and I am really glad that we got to go. It was amazing inside and we all loved it, particularly Sefo.

The wash up

What a long blog break we just had... Apparently OOTB kicked our collective buts and we just couldn't process all that we saw on the weekend into some form of information that could be blogged about. We're not quite there yet either - we have a couple of interviews in the loop and some other ideas but for now a quick check in to say that we saw a whole lot of stuff and had a great time...

We'll be back with something coherant soon!

We heart Greg

Friday was our first Team Pojo day at OOTB - we subbed in Faysie for Fasa and off we went. We started off at Flutterby at the Qld Musuem. The space looked absolutely gorgeous with large white butterflies lit up with coloured lights sailing over the top. The workshop was a lovely mix of watching and listening and doing. The kids made paper and cardboard butterflies that worked really well and then got to dance around for a bit. Sefo refused to dance and Sina was slightly self conscious as she was clearly the oldest and towered above the rest of the kids. The women facilitating the workshop were very keen and were quite directive at times... one could say bossy! All in all though a lovely workshop.

Here are Sefo's highlights from the Flutterby workshop. I loved to flap my butterfly and the cutting and the sticking. My butterfly was black and blue and I liked listening. I really wanted to look at the dinosaurs.

We then zipped over to see Grug, who Sefo has taken to calling Greg. This was a highlight for all of us and was an exquisite piece of theatre. I loved it's simplicity, inventivness and the care that was taken in all aspects of the storytelling. The actors were present and clever, the puppets were beautifully made and the set was just great.

We ran into Dean Edgar and the Grade 2 class who is blogging with us so Sina, who had made friends with them at the blogging briefing day, sat with them. The rest of us sat up the back and had a terrific view. Sefo was entranced the whole time and really connected with the piece. Here are his thoughts....

I liked it when the apple got big. It grewed and grewed and grewed. Grug ate up all the apple and then it was finished. The crab bit Grug - that was very funny and I liked the dancing. Grug's house was nice and I wished I could slide down the hill like that boy (one of the actors)... Do you wish you could do that mum? I loved his roof and the water and the fish... It's just a pretend water because it is really a light... It didn't make me frightened. It made me laugh and didn't give me a fright.

Sina's thoughts.... On Friday we went to OUt of the Box. We wnet to the musem and we saw mij. At the musem we made butterflys and the lady was a little bit bousy and she said you can do it and i tried to. I liked making butterflys. Grug was funny and magic. he was very hungry and he ate a big red apple and he felt full. and i liked it because it was good. it was fun.

Ready, Steady, Go

On Tuesday night Sina and I went to the opening of OOTB. It was held in the cultural forecourt at QPAC and was for me a little disappointing. I had been expecting to see a show in one of the theatres, although in retrospect of course, there was nothing in the program that indicated that this would be happening so this was completely an assumption of mine.

I had a nice time catching up with people, both friends and colleagues and had a tasty little chicken and avocado burger. Sina found a friend and ran off to watch the performances with the other kids who were there and I stood with the adults at the back and talked the whole way through the performances.... It seemed that it didn't privilege the kids or the adults and sat somewhere in the middle. For me it was a bit of an anti-climax and I felt that it didn't represent what the festival has always stood for, high quality artistic experiences for children. Sina however had a completely different opinion....

We walked to qpac and my mum sat down then my mum gave me a card to buy a slashy and we saw thea and I had to buy a salshy I had to buy my mum a boltte of water. we saw lots of shows. One of them was flipside circus. The danger bunis is a band for kids. I sat with Thea and Sisi and my favorite part was when they sang. And the island lady was danceing so fast.I had a good time.

Blogging as a family or Whose blog is this anyway?

When we started this project I envisioned a lovely family project that netted us some free tickets to OOTB. But it seems that it is slightly more complicated than that....

First was the realisation that we needed to put more thought into how we talked about and responded to the work so we move beyond loving everything and now I find myself wondering how do we actually do blogging as a family? Does it mean that we all have to think the same thing or present that we do? Does that mean that we go with one or both of the kids opinions? Are they the key audience or as parents do we have some stake in this as well? Do I respond to the work as someone who works in the arts industry?

For all families diversity and difference of opinion is a reality and we are no exception to this.

We look different to each other. Two of us were born here and two of us in Samoa. Two of us have English as their second language. Between the four of us we sport 3 different last names. We negotiate diversity and difference of opinion on a daily basis as we navigate our lives as a family who is living cross culturally. This is one of the things that makes our family who we are.

So it is in this spirit that we will blog, acknowledging both our differences and similarities of opinion and appreciating that it is these nuances that make our process and product both richer and deeper.

Sefo gets a little Dr Suess

This morning after reading through the 3 GRUG books that I bought hurriedly yesterday at the State Library store (and sending them in the bag so that Grandma can keep on reading them today in prep for seeing GRUG tomorrow) Sefo and I had another conversation about OOTB.

"We're going to OOTB tomorrow", I said, "Do you remember what that is?"

"A sock", he said. "A sock??", I said. "Out of the box is a sock, a big sock" said Sefo.

I am not sure whether he will be suprised or disappointed when he gets there tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are participating in Flutterby - the Queensland Museum workshop and seeing Grug. If we are still standing at the end of this we will see some of the free offerings around...

Stay tuned for Sina's first OOTB report that is coming soon and a whole pile of reports from the fabulous 3A class from Junction Park State School....

I love everything

This morning as I looked at Sina's reading homework I realised that we potentially have a little bit of a problem. Each book she reads she must rate out of ten.... I guess this is one way that the school starts to get kids to think about what they are reading and what makes a good story. However after giving the first 2 books a 5 out of 10 she has given the next 12 a nice round perfect ten..... Now I have to read these books as well and while they are not offensive in any way they are definitely not a ten! Not compared with some of the gems we have on our bookshelf.

Couple this with Sefo who either hates or loves everything with nothing in between, and we have an issue with how we are going to review any of the work at OOTB.

After chatting about this with Susan, who I am doing the presentation with on Wednesday night at the YPAA symposium, I had a good chat with Sina as we walked home from school about what we might think about when we are watching or participating in one of the OOTB shows.

We talked about some of the elements that may exist in the work - the acting, the sound design, the set, the music, the story and the list went on getting a little more ridiculous as the conversation developed. We started to talk about how we might like one aspect of this but think that another one wasn't so great or could have been done better.

It was a really interesting conversation and the ability to constructively review a work challenges one of the things that we teach our children very early on.... If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I think that the real key to this concept, obviously, is the word constructive, and whilst it is fun to totally bag something you really didn't like it isn't helpful for anyone. I think that this is a very sophisticated concept to grasp and when people get this is can be really empowering. The idea that your creative and cultural ideas are valuable and have relevance to the work that you are viewing is an amazing thing and I think will affect ever after the way that you view work.

As someone who has worked in the arts industry for a while I take it for granted that I have something to contribute to the cultural conversation and I hope that at the end of the process that the rest of my family feel this way as well.

I attempted to have some sort of conversation about this stuff with Sefo also... We started with, Do you remember OOTB? (He was about 16 months old the last time we went) Yes, he said. And what is it? I asked.... The answer - A great big present for me! Close enough I reckon...

Anyway Sina decided that she would write reports after each show (this may be a challenge as it is a pretty full on schedule!) and that we might interview Sefo, Fasa and Faysie to get their opinions.

We are very excited to be heading to the opening tomorrow night though I still have not tracked down the camera and I also forgot to buy the book, "Grug" so that we are ready for the show on Friday.... Best intentions and all of that.

3 More Sleeps...

My first Saturday to sleep in today was tinged with thoughts of our blank blog... As these things go in our house I am the one charged with the responsibility of setting up our OOTB blog. This has been seen as a no brainer as I am the one who obsessively reads blogs all the time!

But first the introductions - We are Team Pojo and we roll like this....

Jane - the mum, the obsessive blog reader, arts and cultural development worker
Fasa - the dad, the footy fanatic, packer at the Rocklea markets
Sina - the 8 year old, loves reading and circus, favourite colour blue
Sefo - the 3 year old, fan of the Twelve Princesses, favourite colour pink

Occassionally we will sub in Fay, the grandmother, for Fasa who does after all work nights and needs some time to rest and recover!

We have all lived in Australia and Samoa (some of us for longer than others) and we speak a strange mix of Samoan and English at home that we call Saminglish.

We are gearing up for a massive week this week in the Team Pojo house. I am attending the YPAA symposium that is being held as a part of the festival. It is called "Changing Habitats - Are children and young people democratising culture? It is an amazing program - go to http://www.ypaa.net/ and check it out. I have also ended up speaking about this blogging project along with Susan Richer from Arts Queensland. I feel slightly anxious about this but comforted by the fact that I am doing it with Susan. Chelsea from The Bondies blog is also speaking (in a slightly more important role than me!).

Fasa is going to be combining a night job with extra childcare and a whole heap of shows, Sina heads to the opening of OOTB with me on Tuesday night, heads back there again on Wednesday with her class 3A from Junction Park who will hopefully feature on this blog and then she is back for our 4 days of power over the weekend and Sefo will be combining his usual weekly schedule of Grandma and Grandpa and childcare along with the festival.... all this and a blog.... one wonders how we will all shape up at the end of the week!

So the next item on the agenda is to locate our camera, find the lead that connects it to the computer and charge that baby up....