Jack and the Beanstalk: A Touring School Pantomime for Christmas 2023!

by ReachOut Educate
published 1 September 2023

Pantomime is a traditional part of British Christmas and, for many children, it is their very first experience of live theatre. We're excited to be bringing this vibrant, lively and, yes, NOISY show to schools around the West Midlands. This school friendly version of Jack and the Beanstalk is on the road this December, and includes an 'Introduction to Panto' segment at the start of the production.

Tour dates that are still available for bookings are Monday 4th - Friday 8th and Monday 11th - Friday 15th December; making this a great Christmas treat before the children break up until the New Year!

WHO ARE WE?

ReachOut Arts are a Shropshire based, female led creative company who specialise in bringing live theatre and entertainment to tourist attractions, local events, schools and other educational settings. Past performances have been at Shrewsbury Flower Show, Shrewsbury Castle (A Very Royal Tea Party) and Severn Valley Railway (The Jingle & Jangle Pantomime and The Enchanted Express). We're very excited to be adding this newly scripted story of Jack and the Beanstalk to our entertainment plan for Christmas 2023, with a completely new show in the works for Christmas 2024!

Our educational branch, ReachOut Educate, proudly deliver a variety of workshops covering a whole range of different topics in schools and festivals across the country. Our educational workshops have reached such a level that we have recently been awarded the Quality Badge from the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom!
We are a proud member of the Anti-Bullying Alliance and, each November we host in-school assemblies to spread these important ethics. We aim to deliver the message in a fun and exciting way, so we sprinkle our assemblies with creative interactive elements and activities to move away from the assembly being conducted in a ''lecture'' type fashion.

As well as in-school theatrical performances, we cover a wide variety of curriculum topics, the most popular being History which includes Roman Britain, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Tudors, Victorians and World War 2. We also offer a brand-new workshop specifically designed for KS1 called Kings, Queens & Castles. We own a collection of historical artefacts, our own mini museum, that we can easily take into schools so that the children can get hands on with learning how people lived and worked in the past. To deliver these we use actors who host the sessions in character to really bring history to life and create an interactive and immersive experience for the children. Each workshop includes a small ''speed story'' performance and various activities for the class to take part in; for example, quill writing, mosaic making and coin making.

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU BOOK OUR TOURING PANTOMIME?

Our performance is self-contained, so you don't need to provide anything apart from somewhere for us to plug our speaker/lights in, a performance space (a school hall works best!) and of course, an audience!
The show will last approximately 45 minutes and this includes an ''Introduction to Panto'' segment at the start of the session. This will feature our actors explaining and demonstrating pantomime traditions, such as all the familiar audience participation like booing, hissing, cheering and the famous "Oh Yes It Is!".
The live performance itself is around 30-35 minutes long and the children will be able to use the responses that they've learnt at the beginning of the session to help Jack through his adventure, meeting many characters along the way!

Performances can be booked for a full school or we can repeat the show throughout the day for smaller groups of different ages. We are flexible to create a show timetable that works best for your school.
If you wanted to add a little something extra to your day, we can also provide follow up worksheets and activity ideas to continue the panto fun in the classroom after!

To enquire or for more information, see our page or fill in the form below!