insideKENT Magazine Issue 73 - April 2018 | Page 70

VISITKENT
CALLING ALL BINGSTERS!
BING AND HIS FRIENDS ARE GOING ON TOUR IN THE FIRST EVER BING STAGE SHOW AND
THEY ARE COMING TO KENT IN 2018!
BING LIVE WILL PLAY AT THE HAZLITT THEATRE IN MAIDSTONE ON 9TH &
10TH OCTOBER. JOIN BING, SULA, COCO AND PANDO AS THEY LEARN HOW TO
TELL STORIES BY PRETENDING, DRESSING UP AND SINGING SONGS. FLOP AND AMMA
ARE THERE TO HELP, BUT IN THIS MAGICAL WORLD OF MAKE-BELIEVE THINGS DON’T
ALWAYS GO ACCORDING TO PLAN…
We asked Bing Live writer,
Helen Eastman, about bringing
the CBeebies favourites to life
on stage:
“Bing Live is the perfect first
theatre trip for preschoolers and
their families. Our production is
full of fun, laughter, music and
magical puppetry.
It is really important to remember
how well our audience know
these characters, and our
responsibility to bring them to life
in a way that feels instantly
familiar. However, theatre is a
very different medium to
television, so it is an opportunity
to take exciting new directions.
I started to write Bing by thinking
about the exciting experiences
our characters could have in a
70
theatre, which they could share
with an audience. And things
which our audience could
participate with, because this is a
live show. For many of our
audience this may be their first
trip to the theatre; we want them
to love it as much as we do!
“We are using puppetry for Bing,
designed by the hugely talented
Tahra Zafar, who has worked on
Star Wars, Harry Potter and a host
of children’s shows from In The
Night Garden to the Zingzillas. As
all Bing lovers know, Bing is
much bigger than Flop, his carer.
The size dynamics of the
characters are very important,
and puppets allow us to get that
scale right, otherwise all the
characters would have to be
human size. Puppets are magical
and allow us to create our
characters without having to turn
them into people. Children have
such huge imaginations they will
be swept up in Bing's world
straight away.”
Since its launch on CBeebies,
Bing has been a huge ratings hit
and it’s the number one top rated
preschool show on BBC iPlayer.
Celebrating the joyful, messy,
reality of preschool life, Bing finds
the big stories in the smallest
moments that little ones and the
grown-ups in their lives will
recognise…whether it’s dropping
your ice cream or losing your
favourite toy.
Helen says: “If you love Bing,
you'll love Bing Live! You can look
forward to seeing your favourite
characters come to life in front of
you and join them in their story.
There'll be plenty of joining in
and fun to be had, and lots of
music and songs. We are sure
that parents, grandparents and
siblings will love the show too; it
will be a great experience for the
whole family.”
Andrew Collier, producer of
Bing Live, says: “We’re thrilled to
be bringing Bing to the stage –
we know families throughout the
UK love Bing as much as we
do, and we can’t wait to see
children’s faces light up when
they meet him at the theatre for
the first time.
Find out more by contacting your
local venue or on
www.bingliveshow.com