By Lily Falk
A Gale Force Theatre Production
- Run time: 35 minutes
- Grade levels: Primary to grade 3
- Maximum number of kids per show: 2 classes per performance
- Format: Live, gymnasium or outdoor performance
- Price: $550 for first performance, $100 for additional performances, up to five shows per day
- Workshops available for an additional cost
- Website: https://galeforcetheatre.ca/
Go, Sparrow, Go! is a playful and fully immersive performance created by Gale Force Theatre’s artistic co-director, Lily Falk. Over the course of this 35-minute play, students become bird researchers who travel to Sable Island to investigate the Ipswich Sparrow. This experience has students involved the whole performance as they transform into a flock of sparrows, learn about what the birds eat, embody the challenging weather of the island, learn about migration, and play games that simulate the birds’ everyday life. Created with idea that storytelling, immersion, and physical movement make for highly effective learning environments, Go, Sparrow, Go! is a fantastic first introduction to performing arts through a curriculum-inspired lens. This piece can take place in an outdoor schoolyard or gym.
Curriculum Connections
Learners will analyse interconnectiveness of living things and the environment – In this performance, students experience first hand through immersive physical storytelling how the weather, seasons, other plants and animals affect the life cycle of the Ipswich Sparrow.
Learners will analyse daily and seasonal change in the environment – This performance follows the year in the life of the Ipswich Sparrow. We explore how their behaviour changes throughout the year as well as depending on the time of day.
Inquiry-Based Learning – Students are encouraged to asked questions and make hypotheses as they take on the character of the researcher.
Learners will analyse the relationship between animal growth and the environment – As students embody the Ipswich Sparrow in this play, they learn how this bird changes throughout their life cycle and how the environment supports their development.
Learners will test motion of objects – Throughout the show, students will get to actively participate in the storytelling through manipulating objects like silks, balls, and parachutes.
Learners will investigate plants in the environment – Students will learn which plants are the favourite of the Ipswich Sparrow and how the plants have adapted to spread through birds.
Go, Sparrow, Go! is a physically-active learning experience through storytelling and the performing arts
About Gale Force Theatre
Gale Force Theatre was started by Mount Allison University graduates, Franziska Glen and Lily Falk. It was in blustery Sackville, NB in 2015 over hot bowls of ratatouille that Lily and Franziska began to dream up plans of creating theatre together that were as handmade as their ratatouille, as an strong and sturdy as the winds that whipped off the Tantramar Marshes and as filled with heart as their friendship.
Based both in Kjipuktuk/Halifax and Upper Lahave, Nova Scotia, their work spans productions for children and adults that includes new works, devised productions, and puppetry. Their production Crypthand, written by Lily Falk, won Outstanding Emerging Production at the Nova Scotia Merritt Awards (2022) and the Playwright Guild of Canada’s Emerging Playwright Award (2022). In 2020/21, they created A Tale on Two Wheels, an outdoor show for very young audiences that’s delivered to parks across Nova Scotia on tandem bicycle. Alongside creating and producing new work, Gale Force Theatre also runs outdoor theatre making courses for teens and pre-teens in partnership with local outdoor centres. They currently have three new devised shows for young audiences, While We Wait, a show about change and growth, Lupinder’s Tent, a tiny spectacle for a tiny audience, and Go, Sparrow, Go!