Faculty of Fine Arts & Communications
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Browsing Faculty of Fine Arts & Communications by Author "Ayles, Robyn"
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Item Creative process and co-research with very young children through flight(2023) Ayles, Robyn; Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Leach, JamieWith their abundance of openness, curiosity, and imagination, children are natural researchers. They ask questions and seek answers. As theatre artists and practice-based researchers, we strive to welcome these young, sometimes preverbal inquisitors, into our research process in meaningful, democratic ways. Our practice-based research centres on questions regarding the relationships between very young children (aged eighteen months to five years), actors, and materials, with a view toward democratically creating theatre as a collective and immersive event. Through workshops, artist residencies, immersive theatre offerings, and a Cycle of Co-inquiry, we develop a loose scaffold of dramatic work that forms the skeleton of a theatrical piece, which in turn becomes an immersive theatre offering for the very young. Our process creates spaces that welcome active participation for children and actors to play, and where exploration is encouraged and planned with purpose and intention. This intention crystallizes into reciprocity and generosity of ideas between the participants. The final creative work includes very young children as co-creators in the experience. Although our current immersive theatre offering explores local urban wildlife, our process could be applied to any topic or theme.Item Flight paths and theatre for early years audiences(2021) Ayles, Robyn; Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Mykietyshyn, MargaretThis article proposes using the holistic play-based goals and model of co-inquiry discussed in Flight: Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Framework (2014) as a way to interpret very young children’s responses to theatrical experiences as theatre criticism. The process encourages wondering and reflecting on multiple possible meanings of children’s embodied, vocal, and play-based responses. Through an exploration of documentary evidence from The Urban Wildlife Project, our immersive theatre research outlines how the early childhood education processes can be adapted to a theatre context to listen to children’s responses on their own terms.Item Harnessing the power of flight: devising responsive theatre for the very young(2022) Ayles, Robyn; Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Mykietyshyn, MargaretSuccessful theatre hinges on relationships. In our research, we devised an immersive theatre piece about urban wildlife through key early childhood education concepts outlined in the Canadian document Flight: Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Framework. The project’s guiding question was: How could we better understand audience engagement in the early years demographic by using the reflective process, rights-based perspectives, and holistic play-based goals of the Flight framework to interpret children’s experiences? Our creative team aimed to develop democratic and playful relationships with children during theatrical exploration, and using the Flight framework to analyse what children were communicating grounded our theatre creation and dramaturgy in respectful and agentic relationships between actors, theatrical objects, and young children.Item Research recast(ed): Imagining chickadees, squirrels, rabbits, and magpies through children's interactive theatre(2023) Miskiman, Megan; Schabert, Reinette; Fitzsimmons Frey, Heather; Hatt, Travis; Ayles, RobynIn today's episode, Dr. Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, Travis Hatt, and Robyn Ayles take us through the creative process of theatre production of their company, The Elm Tree Theatre. Focusing on the importance of play-based learning through interactive theatre and their journey with The Urban Wildlife Project. Dr. Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, Travis Hatt, and Robyn Ayles would like to acknowledge: MacEwan's Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications; Albert Foundation for the Arts, City of St. Albert, the MacEwan Office of Research Services; Early Learning at MacEwan (ELM) children, families, educators, and Brittany Aamot and Jennifer Sibbald; Margaret Mykietyshyn; Jamie Leach, Lee Makovichuk; and our research assistants: Emma Abbott, Patrick Amyotte, Caitlan Argueta, Iris Baguinon, Camryn Bauer, Chykes Delson, Courtney Dewar, Meredith Fitzsimmons Frey, Ayla Gandall, Tania Gigliotti, Jessica Jalbert, Megan Kause, Chelo Ledsma, Grace Mann, Sydney Maziarz, Rain Matkin-Szilagyi, Carling Ryan, Inder Singh, Emily Smith, Aidan Spila, Savannah Tysiaczny, and Celina Vipond.Item Research recast(ed): S2E5 - Who they are, not who they will be, with Robyn Ayles and Heather Fitzsimmons Frey(2022) Ekelund, Brittany; Cave, Dylan; Ayles, Robyn; Fitzsimmons Frey, HeatherToday we sat down with research duo, Robyn Ayles and Dr. Heather Fitzsimmons Frey to talk about their collaboration with some very tiny researchers. We talk about their interactive theatre project, where children are invited to be co-researchers and guide, transform and participate with the experience. This project tugs at the heartstrings, as we explore the importance of meeting kids where they’re at and considering them for who they are, not just who they are going to be. All of this conversation is seen through the lens of the Urban Wildlife project.