Call-Out! is a new production for young audiences aged 3-5 years old, created and performed by Arron Sparks. Developed with support from Starcatchers, the work draws on Arron’s experience as an early years practitioner and volunteer Mountain Rescuer, as well as research with young audiences.
Themes include community and compassion, nature, and environmental sustainability. The production inspires curiosity about the natural world, celebrates collective responsibility, and connects children to the outdoors, whether in rural communities familiar with wild spaces or urban areas with limited access to them.
The show blends elements of theatre and storytelling, with small world play/puppetry and audience participation. Call-Out straddles the line between interactive play and narrative theatre. The audience get to explore the costume, props and set.
The story is inspired by Arron’s first hand experiences volunteering for a Mountain Rescue team, famous mountain rescues and by Ella, a friend of Arron’s who grew up in a remote Scottish glen in the 1990s.
The style of the piece is absurd, playful, post-modern and committed. Call-out borrows from a long tradition of mountaineering story-telling, drawing from cultural references of climbing; think “Into Thin Air“, “Touching the Void“, “Vertical Limit” meets “Grim Tales by Rik Mayall“, “Roger and the Rottentrolls“, “Tin-Tin”, “Thunderbirds” and the documentary series “Rescue”.
Call-Out’s target audience is young children aged 3 -5 years. Directly informed by Arron’s research and sharings, and his experience working with this age grounp, Call-Out is designed to offer young children the opportunity to engage with the themes of compassion, community and the environment in an accessible and creative way. The production meets the developmental needs of the age and stage of the audience, one that responds to the children’s interests, sparks their imaginations and inspires movement and play. There is the option of a stay and play experience after the show which encourages exploration of the materials and objects in the show, enabling the young audience to extend and respond to the experience in their own way.
