introduction from the chairNumbers do not tell the whole story of success for tutti frutti this year, but they are a good place to start. In the 12 months between April 2012 and March 2013, tutti frutti performed 239 times in 67 venues and delighted over 27,000 children and their families.

It was also a year of firsts – the first time the company toured internationally taking The Boy Who Cried Wolf to Hong Kong and Singapore. The first time the company had two Christmas shows running simultaneously in addition to the First Words Writer’s Development project to support six diverse, emerging writers to write

young children’s theatre.

What these statistics indicate is the energy, creativity and passion of the company and its extraordinarily dedicated staff team. Spearheaded by Artistic Director Wendy Harris, tutti frutti has made an exciting step change to take its ambitions, reach and activity to another level. I suspect that this year will see further development and growth with even more audiences experiencing the wonder of live theatre and imaginative story-telling created by tutti frutti.

“Bravo and I look forward to another remarkable year.”Deborah Dickinson

Hue Boy

mission........to delight children with meaningful, imaginative, visual, story based theatre.

vision........we believe it is vitally important for children to have cultural experiences that will stimulate their imaginations and allow them to engage in the wonder of stories through theatre. We bring together specialist children’s theatre practitioners who have an instinctive capacity to be playful and can use this to create fantastic, distinctive and carefully crafted theatre for children.

We will promote a global understanding of the importance of children as theatre audiences and through our work, help children make sense of the world through the safe, shared experience our theatre provides.

Hue Boy was the national retour of a delightful production. It was a performed reading of the book of the same name by Rita Phillips Mitchell and Caroline Binch and had been originally created for a schools tour in 2008 for 3-7 year olds.

Set on a Caribbean island, the story about a boy who wanted to grow tall and sought the advice of people in his community, attracted new audiences to see our work. A workshop programme took place alongside the performances. The production was enhanced with original music composed by Ivan Stott and the use of skilled movement director, Joanne Moven. The show toured from 28 April to 16 June 2013 to a host of new venues to the company where it was very well received.

tour detailsTotal number of performances..........................69 Total number of workshops ................................52 Number of venues visited ...................................32Total audience .........................................................2,884

Alongside some of our core venues, we built relationship with the following new venues and schools – Cobden Primary School, Shakespeare Primary School, Live and Local – 4 schools, Oakham Primary School, Canada Water Cultural Space, St Benedict’s RC Primary School, The Spark Festival (2 schools and John Lewis store), St Oswald’s Primary School, Horsecross in Perth, Holmfirth Arts Festival.

“The children loved the show. They never took their eyes off the stage. Fantastic!”Whitwell Primary School, nr Worksop

“Really engaging and beautifully told. Loved how the audience was able to interact and became part of the story.” Tricycle Studio

Our Autumn 2013 production was a new adaptation of the Aesop fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf by Mike Kenny. The show was a co-production with York Theatre Royal and was created for children aged 3-7 years and their families. The show presented a talented cast of actor/musicians playing a variety of characters including some very humorous and stubborn sheep.

The production ran for 17 weeks in total from 26 September 2013 to 9 February 2014 and included 2½ weeks at York Theatre Royal where it opened, 7 weeks national touring and a 4 week run as the Christmas show at Sheffield Theatre’s Crucible Studio.

The tour ended with a very exciting three week run at Kidsfest in Hong Kong and Singapore. This was a new departure for us and was the first real foray into international touring. The show was very well received in both countries playing to 92% capacity.

We performed to 12 new venues: Wolds Words Festival in Louth; North East Consortium - Hartlepool Borough Council and Washington Arts Centre; Junction - Goole; The Forum - Northallerton; Big Ideas Consortium - Burnley Youth Theatre, Grindleton Pavillion, The Edge in Chorlton and The Atkinson in Southport; Northern Ballet Theatre; The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and DBS Arts Centre, Singapore.

tour detailsTotal number of performances..........................139 Number of venues visited ...................................34Total audience .........................................................17,460

We wish to remember Thomas Edward-Bennett who died suddenly in March 2014. We miss him hugely.

“As an introduction to theatre it can’t be bettered. It’s beautifully paced, performed with a sincerity that doesn’t patronise.” Yorkshire Post

“It was enchanting, uplifting and could melt the heart of any children’s theatre cynic. Definitely recommended.” Yorkshiretimes.co.uk

“Clickety-click go the knitting needles – and they’re not just knitting jumpers but also stories in tutti frutti’s low key but charming and wintry take on Aesop’s famous fable”. The Guardian

For the second time we ran our First Words Writer’s Development Project in partnership with Sheffield Theatres, Liverpool Playhouse / Everyman Theatre and Dukes Lancaster. New partners were also welcomed this time in Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and Freedom Studios. The emphasis of this second project was very much on cultural diversity and six writers of different cultural backgrounds were selected to participate in a lab week presented by a host of diverse professionals both culturally and artistically.

The week presented a series of workshops run by a range of specialist practitioners including an academic, writer, dramaturg, composer, puppeteer, movement director and theatre director. Each writer had a mentor with whom they worked over the six month duration of the project and their writing, as a work in progress, was presented at a two day show-back to support their development.

“It’s confirmed for me that I am in the right place. It’s informed me, supported me and allowed me to play.“Alison Down, First Words writer

“I am SO excited to be possibly beginning a career developing in this area. It has been an incredible week.”Emma Hill, First Words writer

Being invited to remount and extend our production of Rapunzel over Christmas was an exciting addition to our programme this year and meant we had two productions performing over Christmas at leading regional venues. We mounted a three week run of Rapunzel by Mike Kenny at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield extending the show from its original version, performed in Autumn 2012, to 80 minutes, developing it for a cast of four and performing it in the round. The show was for 3-7 year olds and their families and ran from 9 to 29 December 2014.

tour detailsTotal number of performances..........................31 Total audience .........................................................7,112

“I have never seen an audience of children so silent and captured by any display until now..... The enthusiasm, exuberance, athleticism and sheer joy of the actors was wonderful to witness and so very infectious.” whatsgoodtodo.com

written by Mike Kenny

PerformersHue Boy Stewart Thomas, Selina Zaza

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Mathew Hamper, Thomas Edward-Bennett, Sally Ann Staunton

Rapunzel Gayle Newbolt, Alicia McKenzie, Isaac Stanmore, Louise Goodwin

Income

ACE NPO funding £177,981

The tutti frutties....

ExpenditureEarned income £128,892

Partnership funding £12,000

In kind funding £15,330

Other income £259

53%38%

4%5%

Core costs £66,142

Artistic programme £228,763

Other project costs £5,000

76%

22%

2%

PerformersHue Boy Stewart Thomas, Selina Zaza

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Mathew Hamper, Thomas Edward-Bennett, Sally Ann Staunton

Rapunzel Gayle Newbolt, Alicia McKenzie, Isaac Stanmore, Louise Goodwin

Our warm thanks go to Damian Cruden, Liz Wilson and all the production, marketing and education teams at York Theatre Royal for making our partnership so successful, and to Stephanie Simm from Arts Council England for her continued support of our work. Thanks also to Lindsey Rodden (Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse),

Suzanne Bell (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Deborah Dickinson (Freedom Studios), Guy Christiansen (Dukes, Lancaster) and Emily Hutchinson (Sheffield Theatres) for their support in making the First Words

project such a success. Finally we would like to thank Matthew Gregory at Kidsfest and his fantastic teams in Hong Kong and Singapore who made our visit so enjoyable and run smoothly.

The tutti frutties....Writers: Rita Phillips Mitchell,

Mike Kenny

First Word Writers:

Javaad Kapoor, Ella Greenhill, Alison Down, Elayne Ogbeta, Emma Hill, James Leach

Stage Managers:

Elliot Clark, Luke Sockell

Production Manager:

Jude Cloke (York Theatre Royal)

Composers: Ivan Stott, Dominic Sales, Chris Mellor

Movement Directors:

Joanne Moven, TC Howard

Designers: Alison Heffernan, Kelly Jago, Catherine Chapman

Lighting Designers:

Nick Duncan (York Theatre Royal), Sara L Burns

First Words Contributors:

Tayo Akinbode, TC Howard, Catherine Chapman, Nina Hajiyianni, Oladipo Agboluaje, Prof. Elizabeth Wood, Amanda Dalton, Matthew Xia, John Barber, Paul Adams, Richard Hurford, Aisha Khan, Mike Kenny

Casting: Jo Adamson-Parker

Graphic Design: Swink Design, Jo Mohan

Photographer: Brian Slater, Peter Burns

Video Maker: Fresh Label

Illustration: Caroline Binch, Jacky Fleming

Press/PR Duncan Clarke

Artistic Director: Wendy Harris

Tour Manager: Alison Povey

General Manager:

Emma Killick

Online Content Manager:

Kate Kershaw

Board of Trustees:

Deborah Dickinson (Chair), Kathy Williams, Annie Latham, Kate McKinlay, Maeve Birdsall, Daniel Hadley (resigned October 2013)Thanks....

Back by popular demand we are retouring Rapunzel by Mike Kenny next year from April to June 2015.

We are also very excited to be working with the writer Emma Reeves (of Tracy Beaker and The Dumping Ground on CBBC fame and recent

adaption of Jaqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather for the stage), on a new adaptation of The Snow Child, touring from Autumn 2015

onwards and available for booking now.

Up & coming…

tutti frutti productions, Shine, Harehills Road, Leeds LS8 5HS +44 (0)113 388 0027 www.tutti-frutti.org.uk

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Registered in England and Wales Company Registration No. 4267423 Registered Charity No.1120663