The Queen Frog's Wedding

Pre-5 Project - Annandale and Eskdale

The Queen Frog's Wedding, a pre 5 project focusing on storytelling, dance, music and professional development was the recent of many projects to come from the Creative Education Arts Team (CREATE) in Dumfries and Galloway.

The aim of the project was to facilitate the first major venture to involve professional artists across a range of artforms with pre 5 children, their teachers and nursery nurses that focuses on their own culture and environment.

The project provided an opportunity for Paul Rissmann -(composer and artistic director), Franzeska Ewart (writer of the story and song lyrics), Fiona Miller (drama artist), Alison Burns (vocalist) and Dawn Campbell (dance artist) to work collaboratively on a project that brings alive the culture of the Annandale and Eskdale area of Scotland for children, their teachers and nursery nurses.

Whilst other projects of this kind have been successfully undertaken in other local authorities, the uniqueness of this project is that it did not use already published texts as the basis for new music.  Instead it required artists to use the culture of the area to create entirely newly commissioned works.

Work began with the writer researching the area and creating new work for three and four year olds 'The Queen Frog's Wedding'.  The story was animated through a series of workshops with children and professional development for teachers and nursery nurses through storytelling, dance, drama, vocals and composing.

The composer created a 'sing along' CD for children and instrumental score for professional musicians - four songs, dance pieces and incidental pieces of new music to which both an ensemble and each artist worked with staff and children over a period of 12 weeks.  On 24 November 2005, two final performances were given in the Richard Greenhow Centre in Gretna.

The project also included the delivery of Continuing Professional Development, (CPD) to nursery and teaching staff involved in the project.

To read about Lochmaben Nursery's experience with the project, check out Air Time!