When A.vontura set out to create a show for the Dutch National Reading Days, the question was: how do you do full justice to the Picture Book of the Year and turn the read-aloud experience into something completely new? Silent Disco Theater turned out to be perfect for it.
In the Netherlands, kamishibai (storytelling with picture cards) has become a familiar medium in libraries and schools: picture books often lend themselves perfectly to it. A.vontura combines this Japanese storytelling tradition with music, sound effects and interactive theatre in which all children move along.
Kamishibai (紙芝居) literally means “paper play”. Large picture cards slide one by one through a wooden stage, the butai, while the storyteller brings the tale to life. The tradition builds on centuries-old Japanese forms of storytelling with images.
In 1930s Japan, kamishibai storytellers cycled from neighbourhood to neighbourhood with their little wooden theatre. Their income? Selling candy. Whoever bought a sweet was allowed to stand at the front. And every story ended with a cliffhanger, so the children would come back the next day. It was television, initially called “electric kamishibai” in Japan, that ended the popularity of this form of street theatre.
Kamishibai was later rediscovered by educators around the world. In the Netherlands the storytelling stage is now a fixture in libraries, classrooms and childcare, and around the National Reading Days the medium reaches its yearly highlight.
A.vontura gives kamishibai theatre an extra layer of music, sound effects and interactive play. Wearing headphones, the children sit right inside the story: they don't just listen, they join in and move along. Read-aloud becomes a performance.
For the Dutch National Reading Days, A.vontura previously created the shows Help! Een verrassing, Rinus and Kleine Aap. The shows were originally created in Dutch and can also be performed in English and German.
Interested in booking a kamishibai show for your library, school or festival? Get in touch via the contact form.