Following the success of our inaugural ACE! Festival last year, I Theatre presented the second edition of ACE! this year with an exciting theme – JOURNEYS.
We invite everyone on journeys from place to place, journeys into new ideas, journeys to learning and journeys of enlightenment throughout the four week long festival.
We presented ACE! Festival 2010 in collaboration with our festival partner, National Museum of Singapore alongside their Children’s Season.
This year we brought you around the world starting with our Festival Highlight – The Gruffalo by Tall Stories (United Kingdom), followed by The Dandelion’s Story performed by South Korea’s Modl Theatre.
Next, Toto Tales will took us through a traditional African tale in The Legend of the Magnificent Moon – then we flew you to France with Antoine and The Paper Aeroplane.
We stopped over and listened to the heartwarming Japanese tale of Shiro & The Cherry Blossom and journeyed through the woods with The Girl in the Red Hood, and relaxed to the fusion of Javanese gamelan and contemporary rock and jazz at Play It Easy by Singapore’s Gamma:Rays.
A mouse took a stroll through the deep, dark wood...’
Following sell-out performances at the Criterion Theatre, the National Theatre, the Scottish International Children's Festival, Warsaw's English Theatre and Broadway's New Victory Theater, Tall Stories continues to tour the world with this big magical monster of a show.
Join Mouse on an adventurous journey through the deep, dark wood in this magical, musical adaptation of the Blue Peter award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (“a modern classic” - Observer).
Mouse can scare hungry animals away with tall stories of the terrifying Gruffalo, but what happens when he comes face to face with the very creature he imagined?
Songs, laughs and scary fun for children aged 3 and up, and their adults… Let your imagination run wild!
"Irresistibly charming" The Times ****
‘‘It is a rare treat to find a show that really is for all the family… Tall Stories cannot be commended enough for their spot-on achievements” The Scotsman
Set up in 1997, by Olivia Jacobs and Toby Mitchell, Tall Stories shows have performed all over the UK to great acclaim, and as far afield as Poland, America, Canada, China and Taiwan. Snow White and The Gruffalo have performed to sell-out audiences on Broadway.
Modl Theatre’s lively and colourful presentation of Jung-Saeng Kwon’s children’s fairy tale best-seller has the unlikely theme of a doggy-poo that everyone rejects as disgusting, but who is finally welcomed by a dandelion seed to enable it to bloom, is brought to life with boundless charm and great visual appeal by the talented, young cast.
Delightfully costumed, these endearing characters’ movement and dance, inter-woven with comic action catchy tunes, maintain the pace under Jung-Sook Kim’s tight direction. Brown furry-clad Yoo-Sin Seol delights as cute Doggy-poo, sadly rejected by Clod of Earth, a large Sparrow, and a Mother Hen and her chicks. But borne by the Spring Wind, Dandelion Seed proves Doggy-poo is useful after all, as she bursts out of rain-washed poo into glorious yellow blossom.
Modl Theatre triumphs with this very joyful piece with all-age appeal.
Established since 1989, Modl Theatre has been specializing in producing children’s play and Korean original musical comedies. Commencing its first professional theatrical performance at the National Theatre of Korea in 1989 with Korean classical music based musical, Half the Man, Modl Theatre had consistently been putting up shows.
Modl Theatre had been holding performing arts festivals for the children of culturally deprived areas including non-profit tours for the children living on islands and non-profit tours for special-purpose schools.
Long ago, when all was night, Moon shone with colours shimmering bright. But then his jealous brother Sun stole them all, yes every one!
Help Moon find his colours then create your own kaleidoscopic world.
Based on traditional African tales, The Legend of Magnificent Moon will give children a special chance to create something artistic to take home at the end of the show. Aside from giving her audiences a good time, Edinburgh-based Mara Menzies of Toto Tales is also dedicated to sharing the rich bounty of tales her heritage has to offer. ‘African stories are still often passed down using oral tradition, so accessing them can be quite difficult,’ she says. ‘These stories have worldwide appeal and I try to subtly introduce ideas through the scenery, language and characters. It’s a way of sharing my African culture in the most positive, interesting way I know.’
“Bringing African Stories to Life!” Toto Tales was founded by Mara Menzies in 2007 with a desire to bring African stories to life. Life began with a picture book entitled ‘Koko the Crocodile’ and storytelling sessions ensued as a way of promoting the book. Since then, Toto Tales has grown to become Scotland’s foremost African storytelling company and we work with artists, musicians and performers across Scotland. Toto Tales has been invited to Newcastle and visited Karnatak, South India on a story sharing initiative sponsored by Global Concerns Trust. To date, it has created three theatrical storytelling productions all of which have premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Koko the Crocodile, The Legend of Magnificent Moon and A Most Curious Quest.
A fantastic voyage from reality to illusion and wonderment. Blak Wulff's refreshing new look at a much-loved tale is told through puppetry, mime, music and movement, for children and adults of all ages.
Blak Wulff Productions’ mime and music evocation of Antoine de Saint Exupery’s three-day desert sojourn after his 1935 plane crash – which prompted his writing The Little Prince – is a truly magical theatre experience.
Near to death, Antoine hallucinates visions of being befriended by a machine-like child - his aero-engine come alive – which playfully sustains his spirit, while the appearances of a curious snake and frolicsome fox mark the nights until a Bedouin finally rescues him.
Very inventive use of props is central.
Puzzling modes of escape, Antoine discovers friendship and fun with his young companion as they piece together maps to create a globe for flight and future adventures - yet no word is spoken – theirs is a shared intimacy of silent movement and quiet gesture, beautifully created and sustained.
Blak Wulff Productions harmonise a range of disciplines: artistic directors Samal Blak and Myro Wulff have three years’ experience designing for stage and screen, and Blak is currently a finalist in the National Theatre’s Linbury Prize for Stage Design. He has just been commissioned to work on Birmingham Opera’s Othello, set in a factory. Composer Bui Dam has produced several internationally best-selling albums, puppeteer Rachel Warr recently recreated The Wizard of Oz with 32 puppets in Oxford, and performer Kristina Sorensen has danced, devised and toured internationally with choreographers including Jo Stromgren.
Where is the wood, who is the wolf, what is Grandma and why does the girl wear a red hood?
Three girls all in red make their way through a timeless forest. Destination - Grandmothers house. They confront wolves, relatives, one another and themselves. Who will live and who will die?
The Girl in the Red Hood - a reflection of what society sees in little girls. But is she the innocent helpless victim or the teasing temptress?
Travel with us to discover as we craftily interweave several versions of this time tested tale. Specially for the older children and teens.
Based in Singapore, I Theatre is the region’s premier professional producing company for family oriented theatre, creating an average of four brand new theatre productions a year. We challenge the notion that children’s theatre should be boring, or childish – and aim to produce theatre experiences that will be as accessible and challenging, funny and thought provoking to an adult as to a child. In this, I Theatre holds a unique position within the local theatre scene. Since our inception in 2001, we have produced over 50 memorable performances and festival which include The Rainbow Fish, The Little Red Hen, You Are Special, Under the Dragon Moon, The Little Green Frog and The Wizard of Oz.
An evening of original dance tunes filled with smooth grooves, rocking beats and magical musical moments.
Pulsating metallic tones of the Javanese gamelan will meld with the tempered sounds of Western and Asian instruments in an exhilarating sonic fusion experience.
Gamma:rays is the contemporary - fusion group that aims to give a new perspective to what the ancient gamelan can do. It was formed in 2007 and gave its inaugural performance at the Pesta Raya Festival 2007, Recital Studio, Esplanade. It has since developed an exciting repertoire, which combines the exotic sounds of the gamelan with jazz, pop and rock elements, guaranteed to get the audience moving to the pulsating, hypnotic rhythms. Gamma:rays have been invited to perform for school assembly programmes and public performances. In July 2008, the group was invited to showcase their original compositions at the 13th Yogjakarta Gamelan Festival. In April 2009, Gamma:rays showcased their new compositions at the F.Y.I 2009 series, Recital Studio, Esplanade, as well as at the ACE! Festival 2009, Alliance Francaise Theatre.
We do our best to suggest the ages of those who will most enjoy each production. However, you know your child best. If you have doubts or questions about the productions of ACE! Festival 20010 please do not hesitate to contact us.
We do not recommend attendance of children below 2 years old to any of our productions. Whilst we do not ban children or babies below this age, ALL children require a valid ticket to enter the theatre.
Alliance Française de Singapour 1 Sarkies Road Singapore 258130
Nearest MRT Station: Newton Station Bus Services: Bukit Timah Road & Dunearn Road
Buses: 48, 66, 67, 170, 171, 700, 700A, 960.
PARKING: Prudential @ Scotts and Balmoral Plaza
93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897
Nearest MRT Station: Dhoby Ghaut Station Bus Services: Orchard Road & Stamford Road Buses Orchard Road (YMCA):
SBS Transit 7, 14, 14E, 16, 36, 64, 65, 111, 124, 139, 162, 174, 174E, 502,521
SMRT 77, 106, 167, 171, 190, 700, 700A, NR6, NR7
Stamford Road: SBS Transit 7, 14, 14E, 16, 36, 111, 124, 131, 147, 162, 166, 174, 174E, 502
SMRT 77, 106, 167, 171, 190, 700, 700A, 857, NR7
PARKING: National Museum of Singapore, YMCA, Park Mall and Fort Canning Park