Synopsis

Show
The Big ENORMOUS Present
Dates
17th November - 23rd February
Runtime
50 minutes approx
Writer / Director
Tina Williams
Movement Director
Angela Gasparetto
Suitable for ages 3+ and their families
The Big ENORMOUS Present
It's big, it's huge, it's......ENORMOUS!

A mysterious present has appeared in
the school playground.
Who can it possibly be for? Jack, Dot or Polly? What could be waiting inside?

The Big ENORMOUS Present explores the pressures of fitting in, where we find happiness and how giving can sometimes feel as good as receiving...
The Big ENORMOUS Present Tailer

A mysterious present has appeared, who can it possibly be for? What could be waiting inside? Catch a glimpse in our video trailer!

Dan Armstrong
Dan Armstrong
Jack

Dan trained at East 15 Acting School.

Theatre credits include: Div in Journey To The Impossible (The Bike Shed/Little Soldier Productions); Timmy in Flew The Coop (New Diorama/ Lost Watch); Lazy Davey in Wild Wilma (Moth Physical Theatre); Soldier in Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and William Wellington in Delight in The Woods (Zoo Co)

Dan loves pancakes, hiking up mountains and playing table tennis.

Sharla Smith
Sharla Smith
Dot

Sharla Smith is an ALRA graduate, and played her first major lead with Pied Piper Theatre Company as Ruby in My Big Little Sister which toured to theatres in the UK including The Lyric, Hammersmith.

Sharla’s other theatre credits include Take Away  (Theatre 503) and (Hackney Attic) and her self written one woman show Perception-ism  (Tarawa First) and the (Untied Solo festival) in New York city.

Most recently Sharla performed in Aladdin as multiple characters, Princess Jasmine and Hench fiend with (Sixteen Feet Productions) to her local community and schools in Lambeth. Sharla looks forward to once again working with Pied Piper Theatre Company.

When not on stage Sharla enjoys writing stage and screen plays as well as poetry. She has performed poetry at open mic and poetry nights, and is in the process of recording her poetry album.

Tessa Carmody
Tessa Carmody
Polly

Tessa trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Some of her theatre credits include Casca in Julius Caesar (Black Box Theatre), Puck in a Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lazarus Theatre Company), Itys/Echo/Nurse in The Love of the Nightingale (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), 15 in Latitudes (The Lost Boys – Australia), Zu in The Shimmerin (Indivisible – Australia), Katie in Dear Death (Well Managed Productions – Australia), The Journalist in The Trial of J.T. Gregman (The Blue Room – Australia), April in Fire (WAYTCo – Australia), Tammy in Tinkertown (The Comedians – Australia), Ariel in The Tempest (Hayman Theatre Co – Australia), Hedda in Hedda Gabler (Hayman Theatre Co – Australia).

Tina Williams
Tina Williams
Writer / Director

Tina Williams is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher. Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's "The Book of the Banshee", a community tour of "A Little Princess" involving eight actors and eight young people and her recent new plays include ‘My BIG Little Sister’, ‘Robin’s Winter Adventure’ and ‘The Big ENORMOUS Present’.

In 1994 Tina set up the Education Department at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, which ran until 2008. As well as directing several co-productions with the Yvonne Arnaud she wrote and directed ‘Flash! Bang! Rabbit! for the youth theatre as a creative and cultural exchange with the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff.

Tina has been engaged as Artistic Director for several co-productions throughout the UK and internationally in Singapore. She also directed several seasons at The Fortune Theatre in London’s West End.

In 2016 Tina directed ‘Snowflakes’ for Oxford Playhouse and in 2017 her production of ‘Burglar Bill’ played in Geneva. Recently Tina brought ‘Hare & Tortoise’ to the Lyric Hammersmith for a week.  ‘The Big ENORMOUS Present’ will be at the Lyric in February 2019.

Tina is currently adapting Sam Hay’s picture book ‘Star in the Jar’ for the stage and working on a new play for babies called ‘DIG’ alongside Pied Piper’s Associate Director Nicola Sangster.

Angela Gasparetto
Angela Gasparetto
Movement Director

Movement Direction Credits include: It Is So Ordered (The Pleasance); Bunny (White Bear); Wish List (Royal Exchange & Royal Court); Redefining Juliet (Barbican); See Bob Run (Bread & Roses); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Young Vic and UK Tour); Love is Easy (music video; McFly); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Custom/Practice); The Kitchen (Fourth Monkey); Faith, Hope & Charity (Southwark Playhouse); Emma Thompson Presents: Fair Trade (Shatterbox - Latitude, Rich Mix).

Direction Credits include: Jon Udry Punches Gravity in the Face (Jon Udry); Life on Wheels (Bella Kinetica); Rapunzel (Fourth Monkey).

Angela teaches at RADA. Most recently Angela has directed the movement in Frankenstein for The Royal Exchange, Manchester.

Julian Butler
Julian Butler
Composer

This is Julian's sixth show for Pied Piper Theatre Company. He has composed music for lots of theatre shows for children and young people, including Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play, Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play and Gorilla (Polka Theatre, directed by Roman Stefanski), Up and Down (GaGa Theatre Company), The Paper Washi Wish and Little Sunshine, Little Rainfall (A Thousand Cranes Theatre), and A Christmas Carol (Lakeside Arts, Nottingham). He has written several musicals for young people including Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood and Flat Stanley (with Mike Kenny, Engine House Theatre) and Run! A Sports Day Musical (with Lisa Evans, Polka Theatre).

Most recently Julian has adapted The Everywhere Bear for the Polka Theatre and on tour.

Catherine Chapman
Catherine Chapman
Set Designer

Princess and Pea (Tutti Frutti), The Fever Chart (Pilot Theatre), The Diver (Soho Theatre and Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo), Fly in the Ointment, Cover her Feet (Stephen Joseph Theatre), King Arthur, As You Like It, The Crucible (costume design), Wind In The Willows, Coram Boy, 1984, Keys to the Kingdom, Bouncers, September in the Rain, The Trial, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (York Theatre Royal).  For Pied Piper, Burglar Bill, Robin’s Winter Adventure and Hare and Tortoise.

Steve Andrews
Stage Manager

Steve Andrews is a trained and skilled stage and production manager with experience in lighting design and direction. Steve was Production Manager for Pentabus Touring Theatre Company, Wuffings Theatre Company and Pedlars’ Performance Company. He has an honours degree in Performing Arts from Leicester Polytechnic and a PGCE.

Stage Management credits include: Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales (CSM, Freckle Productions, National Tour); Little Red Riding Hood (TSM, Moon on a Stick Theatre Company, National Tour); Madame Butterfly (SM Heritage Opera, Broadway Theatre Peterborough); Carmen (ASM Heritage Opera, Broadway Theatre Peterborough); The Spirit of the Place (TSM, Slow Theatre Company, Jenny Lind Estate, Norwich). Selected Directing credits include: My Mother Said I Never Should (Wuffings Theatre, East Anglian Tour); Blood Wedding (Luna Teatro); Whale Nation (Birmingham Repertory Theatre Education Dept.) Selected Lighting Design Credits include: 42nd Street (The Voice Squad); Hot Mikado (Fruitcake Theatre); Carmen (On Song Productions). Steve is also a qualified educator and has taught stage management, lighting design, and acting and directing skills extensively in colleges and schools throughout East Anglia and the Midlands.

Hare & Tortoise "a show full of warmth and charm" - The Stage
★★★★

There are currently no reviews of The Big ENORMOUS Present, but here's a review from a previous production...

Following the success of Pied Piper Theatre’s Burglar Bill last year, this new two hander for very young children follows a similar format. There is little dialogue in Hare and Tortoise, lots of physicality and gentle joking, a neat narrative shape and some catchy songs. And it all sits very happily in the Yvonne Arnaud’s child-friendly studio space.

Catherine Chapman’s designs – flowers, snow, carrots, russet leaves, and more – underpin the seasonal progression, once Tortoise has emerged from hibernation and we await the famous race.

Ebony Feare is a deliciously charismatic tortoise, languorous with an impressive range of reptilian faces and stances and a resonant singing voice. Stefan Stuart’s ever impatient hare, more boyish than leporine, makes for an appropriately lively contrast despite his weaker singing voice.

Tuneful songs and accompanying music range from folk to Mozart, with lots of violin and piano in the backing; the show makes entertaining live use of Feare’s steel pan skills too.

Like most of Tina Williams’ work for the company she founded 30 years ago, Hare and Tortoise is a show full of warmth and charm, which at the opening performance had the school party of five and six year olds, which constituted most of the audience, engaged, gasping and laughing.

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Sheet Music for The Big ENORMOUS Present
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Audio Storybook
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Big ENORMOUS Maze
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Spot the Difference!
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Guessing Gifts!
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A Big ENORMOUS Picture to colour!
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Illustrated Story for Big ENORMOUS Present
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