Polyglot’s April e-news

Melbourne to NYC, Győr to Cairns

Our beloved Paper Planet is back at Fed Square! It premiered here in 2011 and has gone on to delight children and families globally – from South Korea to Germany, Perth to Japan. Since 2018, it has also toured to specialist and special development schools across Victoria. Paper Planet is at Fed Square this week, with free drop-in sessions at 10.30am-12.30pm and 2pm-4pm across Wednesday-Friday.

A universally accessible experience, Paper Planet grows as more families visit, and every session is truly unique as imaginations go wild. Children and families choose how they interact with the performers and the space; some find themselves absorbed in quiet making, and others prefer to play and explore. The Edge at Fed Square is wheelchair-accessible, with facilities including both accessible toilets and a Changing Places bathroom. For detailed event and access information, including a visual story to help your family prepare, please visit our What’s On listing.

Pram People at Abbotsford Convent

“It really made me feel compassion deeply, thank you.”
Audience feedback, Pram People

Pram People is one of our newest works, and returns to Melbourne next month with a season at Polyglot’s home, Abbotsford Convent. Presented by Convent Kids, Pram People offers a playful and welcoming approach to community participation through joyful movement and connection, using the most universal of vehicles – the pram. Hilarious, serious and surprisingly moving, this immersive, colourful spectacle will activate the Sacred Heart courtyard, and reclaim the pram as an asset to public space and society as a whole.

Fri 5 – Sat 6 May, 10am and 1pm, $6 per pram + booking fees
Thurs 4 May FREE dress rehearsal, 1pm
Bookings essential

This season is supported by the City of Yarra.

Artistic catalyst

In late March, our Generator artists met for the first Catalyst day of the year, and their first with Cat Sewell as Artistic Director. Our Catalyst days are paid professional development opportunities for our artists to gather, share creative practice and play, and interrogate how and why we make our art. A highlight was a deep delve into collaboration, and what it means across the company. At Polyglot, we collaborate with artists, children, families, spaces, places…even the weather! Participatory, immersive work means we place collaboration at the heart of all that we do, and the exchange between the people and elements involved strengthens everything we do.

Greater reach, greater connection

Polyglot’s partnership with Inlet Dance Theatre in the USA is invaluable in helping us reach more children and families each year with our work. Ants is being presented by the American Museum of Natural History as part of their EarthFest program on 22 April, and Bees will be in Toronto in May, and Connecticut in June, with more seasons in the pipeline.

On 22-23 April, a Polyglot team will be in Hungary, delivering another season of Ants at Patchwork Festival. A Polyglot team will tour to Queensland in May to deliver Bees at Cairns Children’s Festival, while the same work is simultaneously taking place at JUNIOR Festival in Toronto. Our partnership with Inlet is seeing Polyglot double the opportunities for connection, with audiences and presenting partners, and it is these moments that nurture roots and seedlings for our future.