“Fantastic show, imaginative, musical, whimsical. Growing plants is the way forward. Thank you!”
Audience Member – Merchant City Festival
Overview
Uprooted was a unique theatre production for children and families, fusing live performance, music and living plants with innovative stage design.
Join Plum, Lily & Basil amongst a curious world of plants for an enchanting tale of kinship and home, told through music, movement and multi-sensory storytelling. A waft of mint, a crunch of peas, a sprinkle of fresh herbs in a cup of tea…rediscover the joy of our natural world, and have a nibble on the home-grown set!
Uprooted featured Scotland’s first Living Stage – a recyclable, biodegradable and edible theatre set created from locally found, reclaimed materials. The plants on stage were grown from seed by children from 4 Glasgow primary schools involved in our Out to Play project. Part theatre show, part garden and part art installation, audiences had the opportunity to nibble on plants, smell herbs and sample drinks made from the set.
Gallery
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The production toured throughout August 2015 to various outdoor venues across Glasgow including the Merchant City Festival, Barrhead Water Works, Kilmardinny House and The Children’s Wood,finishing with visits to the 4 Glasgow Primary Schools with pupils excited to see how their plants had grown from tiny seeds into the amazing vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers on set.
The production connected audiences young & old with plants and nature through a unique multi-sensory theatre experience performed by a musician, dancer, storyteller and a supporting cast of plants! The show explored themes of transformation, abundance, the cycle of life and seeing our wider planet as home.
Laura MacKenzie-Stuart, Portfolio Manager – Theatre and International at Creative Scotland, said: “We are delighted to support Eco Drama Theatre Company’s ‘Uprooted’. The ‘Living Stage’ of this innovative outdoor production has been designed by acclaimed set designer and eco scenographer, Tanja Beer. Through this partnership the theatre hope to encourage children and young people to engage with their natural environment, green issues and sustainability, through the visual of performance.”
To create Uprooted we collaborated with Set Designer & Eco Scenographer Tanja Beer who has championed the concept of The Living Stage. Since making its debut at the 2013 Castlemaine State Festival (Australia), The Living Stage has successfully travelled to Cardiff (UK) as part of the Trans-Plantable Living Room and continues to generate interest all over the world. Uprooted was the first Living Stage production created in Scotland, the first devised with and for children, as well as the first Living Stage to tour.
Sustainable Set Design – The Living Stage a Zero-Waste Set
At the end of its tour, The Living Stage was returned to the main Glasgow Primary School where it was first grown, with set pieces becoming their planters, its plants their food and its waste their compost, transforming a grey metal fenced playground area into a unique enticing play space for children to use for storytelling, gardening and outdoor learning for many years to come.
Gallery
Swipe or scroll across for more images. Click to enlarge.
The Boy & The Sunflower blog
Read Tanja Beer’s blog post about her experience of creating The Living Stage for Uprooted
It made me feel wonderful, bright and bubbly.”
Primary 5 Pupil, Corpus Christi Primary
“Wonderful. I smiled almost the whole time, apart from the plant who died, but that bit was perfect and made all the smiles make sense. I’m sure there will be a long life beyond the 1 hour we came here. Thank you!”
Charlotte, Audience Member, Merchant City Festival
“Not to be missed! Fantastic, essential Creative Learning Experience. You will enjoy every minute and be entranced, amused and deeply moved by the experience. Thank you to all the stars!”
Teacher, Balornock Primary
“I felt like the show brightened up my day.”
Primary 5 Pupil, Corpus Christi Primary
“Well done, everyone! Keeping adults and kids enthralled is no mean feat. Drink was lovely xx”
Audience Member, Merchant City Festival
“Staging of the show outside made it a bit more special. Outdoor atmosphere was calming and the set was beautiful – quite magical!”
Teacher, St Vincent’s Primary
“The show made me feel calm and happy.”
P5 Pupil, Balornock Primary
“Thank you for braving the ever so unpredictable weather yesterday! We loved the show. Full of charm and green goodness! A really important piece of work to help children and families feel close to nature and the food we eat.”
Tanja Czajka, audience member – Merchant City Festival
“Watching this show has made me see plants in a whole new light. I’m a landscape gardener and until now I just saw them as plants. I didn’t realise their complexities, or that you could eat some flowers!”
Audience member, the Children’s Wood
“I felt inspired to grow my own food at home.”
P6/7 Pupil, Aultmore Park Primary
“It made me feel happy to see people care about our planet.”
P6/7 Pupil, Aultmore Park Primary
Director/Devisor/Producer: Emily Reid
Set Designer: Tanja Beer
Permaculturist: Katie Lambert
Assistant Set Designer: Mona Kastell
Performers/Devisors: Caroline Mathison, Greg Sinclair, Marta Masiero
Dramaturg: Katrina Caldwell
Schools Coordinator: Sara Marshall
Uprooted was designed for children aged 5+ and their families and visited schools, theatres, festivals & community venues during its tour.
View a selection of photo albums from the Uprooted tour.
Download the Mint & Rosemary Cordial recipe from Uprooted, made with fresh herbs picked from our set! Mint & Rosemary Cordial Recipe Uprooted
Read more about our Out to Play project.
This multi-sensory, playful and moving piece of theatre inspires its young audience about the beauty of plants, encouraging a visceral and sensory connection with our natural world. Movement, live cello music and an entire stage of plants stimulate the senses, and the visual, musical nature of the piece lends itself well to a diverse range of audiences.
The show explores themes of transformation, abundance, the cycle of life and seeing our wider planet as home and taps into children’s natural capacity to emphasise with all living things.
Children’s curiosity for growing their own food and the wonder of plants will be sparked and learning motivated in Science, Social Studies, Expressive Arts and Health & Well Being, both in the classroom and in outdoor learning. The theatre piece also relates well to the Eco Schools topics of Food & the Environment, Biodiversity and School Grounds and compliments Learning for Sustainability.
Number of performances to date: 31
Audience members reached to date: 1,364
Uprooted Venues and Festivals Tour 2015 – July and August 2015
Uprooted Schools Tour – August 2015
Uprooted was performed at the Merchant City Festival, The Children’s Wood, Barrhead Water Works and Kilmardinny House, before touring over a two week period to the playgrounds of the 4 primary schools who helped to grow the stage, finishing at Corpus Christi Primary where it was planted into their school grounds.
Creative Scotland Article: ‘Eco Drama – inspiring young people and communities through nature’ Read about the inspiration and process behind creating Uprooted and Scotland’s first Living Stage.
Green Tease/Fringe Seminar: Ecology & Theatre-Making: Sharing’s from the Team behind Uprooted & the Living Stage
The company explored ways of embedding sustainability into the heart of the artistic process throughout the creation of Uprooted and Scotland’s first Living Stage.
We shared best practice from the project as part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2015 in collaboration with Creative Carbon Scotland as a Green Tease event, drawing in artists, designers and theatre-makers interested in exploring sustainability in their work.
Here is their lovely summary of our work – August Green Tease Reflections
Supporters
Uprooted & Out to Play have been gratefully supported by the following:
