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• Spring Chickens

Celebrating 25 Years, Big Telly is the longest established professional theatre company in Northern Ireland.
The company’s range and scale of work is unparalleled, with its reputation for innovation built upon distinctive professional theatre productions which tour nationally and internationally; creative collaborations; and pioneering community-based participation projects. We concentrate on the visual potential of theatre through fusion with other art forms such as dance, music, circus, magic and film to create a unique sense of spectacle.

LATEST NEWS...

We are looking for people who are living in the North Coast area and who have connections to or who are interested in exploring other cultures to be part of a multi-cultural festival in and around in THE BOX, our space on Portstewart Prom.

People can take part as individuals, as families or as part of an existing group, and can choose to contribute existing material or work with a facilitator during March to produce a piece of theatre, story-telling, creative writing, visual art or a film.

If you’re interested in taking part, email linda@big-telly.com or phone 02870 836473.

Wed 3rd - Sat 6th April (10am-5pm) Performers aged 11-18 yrs

This unique Rude Tube inspired project is about experimenting with different types of performance including street theatre, mask work, installations, invisible theatre and flash mobs.Young people can either sign up for one day, or several days. Each day will end in a performance for the general public.

Participants will then be invited to be part of a company called THE BOX SET which gets together throughout the year to create random acts of theatre and unusual events. They can choose to create performances/events around particular dates for example, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, National Jelly Bean Day or the date when the first supermarket trolley was launched, or alongside national and international events centred around issues such as Animal Cruelty, Mental Health, Drug Awareness etc.

Places must be reserved in advance. Please email collette@big-telly.com, or call on 02870831782. There is no charge to take part in The BOXset as the project is funded by Hope for Youth NI.

Wed 3rd - Sat 6th April (10am-1pm) Children currently in P5, P6, P7

Starting with warm up games these workshops will focus on creative play, story-telling, physical theatre and improvisation.

Booking must be made in advance and places are strictly limited to 15 children per session. £5 per child per session. Please contact Collette at Big Telly to book or for further information on 028 7083 1782.

Coleraine Wishing Trees was a unique collaboration between Big Telly Theatre Company, Causeway Rural & Urban Network and the PSNI which invited 5000 people aged 2 – 102 in the Borough of Coleraine to write a wish, thought, memory or dream about Coleraine on red ribbons to hang on two trees on either side of the Bann beside the old bridge in Coleraine.

Sixteen schools, twenty-eight community groups, ten older peoples groups, three libraries and seventy businesses took part in the project which had several levels of engagement, with some groups taking part in a series of several facilitated sessions, some taking part in one and many people writing ribbons spontaneously at a range of locations throughout the borough. Facilitated sessions focused on positive thinking, encouraging people to see themselves as active citizens in a community which is changing, and supporting people to identify small steps they can take towards achieving common goals.

The wishes were hung on the trees at a celebration event on Sunday 17th February, World Community Arts Day, in Christie Park, featuring street performance, music, a marquee with a balloon display and free refreshments, a drumming circle, the smallest theatre in the world and a heartbreakingly beautiful paddle procession. The wishes will be on the trees until the start of March.

The TOM Tour is part of Big Telly’s mission to bring live theatre to rural towns and villages across Northern Ireland and is part of Big Telly’s Spring Chickens programme.

This pilot project is generously supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Arts and Older People’s fund, and by a special grant from ADAPT NI to upgrade accessibility to the portable theatre, which was designed and fitted by TBC Ireland (Taxi & Bus conversion specialists), Dungannon.

For more information, please contact us on 028 7083 1782.

What the critics say:
"Zoe Seaton's direction is crisply focussed"
"Live chickens peck away contentedly, occasionally adding impromptu sound-effects of their own to the action"
Irish Theatre Magazine

Audience feedback:
"Brilliant production - so imaginative & creative!! Wonderful cast - excellent visual effects. Very thought provoking! When is the next one????

"Big Telly has not lost its integrity, energy, originality of the four musketeers imbued by Zoe, 25 years ago"

If you missed it on tour, watch the trailer here for

MELMOTH THE WANDERER

Watch the trailer for The Little Mermaid

(seen by an audience of 30,000 throughout Ireland and the UK as well as in Taiwan, Serbia and Denmark).