Puppets, animation, tomfoolery and bingo feature in First Arts’  online festival

Creative organisation First Art, which is funded by Arts England, is streaming its Go The Distance Festival throughout late May and June.

The programme will open with Urban Projection’s Dawn Chorus which sees local artist Rebecca Smith collaborate with illustrator Fabric Lenny to create a playful video-short featuring animated birds and illustrations projected in a Mansfield woodland. The work is inspired by what nature means to people during these unparalleled times and how many are seeking comfort in nature. There will also be an accessible making activity, complementing the Dawn Chorus video-short that is created.

Family audiences will be invited to watch and take part in E-Books! by Tit for Tat and Breathe by Half a String.

Circus and buffoonery are order of the day in Tit for Tat’s new digital series E-books!. Mixing their penchant for fiasco and mayhem, the team share their love for stories in the most ridiculous ways possible, parodying social extremes, current affairs and, most notably, themselves.

Breathe is a three-part mini-series that follows the adventure of a young seedling tree puppet, lured to leave the forest by a strangely empty world. The presentation by award-winning puppet company Half a String will play out over an episode a day during Breathe Weekend and there will be a hands-on workshop for people to create their own table-top tree puppet together with a masterclass on how to use it.

For older audiences Fuel and Uninvited Guests present Love Letters at Home and Wild N Beets bring a bit their cheeky social club antics straight to your front room with their lockdown take on one of our favourite games with Isolation Bingo.

Love Letters at Home is a joyful, open-hearted show that will help people feel connected at a time when many are isolated and missing their loved ones. Somewhere between a wedding reception and a radio dedication show, before the performance, audience members are invited to send in music requests, dedications and declarations of love to those they care about past and present. These words are incorporated into each performance; dedications are spoken, toasts are made, speeches are given, songs are sung and dances danced. Every performance of Love Letters at Home is unique and collaboratively authored with its audience, who temporarily become a close community for the duration of the event.

Isolation Bingo is a chipper and cheeky online reinvention of bingo with ball machines made from toilet rolls, pasta shells and scrabble tiles. A chance to have a good old fashioned chin wag and a giggle, the game is hosted by characters Beryl and Cyril, who some may have seen at The Full Shebang in Mansfield last year, playing their outdoor Bingo Lingo. Inspired by their own isolation, Beryl and Cyril have created lockdown inspired bingo calls such as ‘Keep those Hands Clean, number 13’, made the prizes and have even tidied their lounges.

Isolation Bingo will include British Sign Language, captions and in character audio description.

First Arts, which is based at Creswell Crags, is focusing its festival programme on audiences in Bolsover, North-East Derbyshire, Mansfield and Ashfield.

All events will be free but some activities may have a Pay What You Decide option.

More information about dates and times for all shows, together with any required bookings will be published on the website, www.firstart.org.uk, in the coming days. Details will also be made available on social media.

READ THIS: Derbyshire theatre’s programme of onine entertainment for families.

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