Giant Rudolph at Christmas Light Switch On...

Our Giant Rudolph and Elves had a great time at Leicester's Christmas Light Switch On. Town Hall Square was packed with families to see the event. Some photos are attached.

We'll also be in Leicester City Centre on Friday 26th November by the Big Screen with our Tin Soldier and Dancing Christmas Tree

Have a Happy Festive Season.

LOROS - Wigston Support Group's Spring Fayre

We have just received some photos from  The LOROS - Wigston Support Group's Spring Fayre held on Sunday 16th May 2010. We were there with our Pirate Stilt Walkers, Circus Skills and Circus Dance workshops including juggling, diabolo, devilstick and poi & staff dancing!

We'll be there next year too, possibly as Scarecrows!
Wigston Support Group's Spring Fayre, The Meadow Community Primary School
Meadow Way, Wigston, LE18 3QZ
Further details at: http://www.loros-wigston.co.uk/Events%20Diary.html

Mmm what have we been up to and doing next?

What have we been up to? Here is a mention of our some of our recent gigs and events and some coming up:

CASTLE PARK FESTIVAL - SUNDAY FAMILY DAY
We had a great day owning Castle Park delivering our Art Cafe, Circus Skills and 'Giggle Along' Show, with stilt walkers and jolly people from the Leicester Mercury joining in!

WE ARE ONE LEICESTER
We had so much fun at this event celebrating Leicester, we created Peg Dolly Puppets in our Art Cafe and held Circus Skills Workshops throughout the afternoon. If you have a picture of your Peg Dolly Puppet please email us a pic (of your peg dolly puppet) to include on our peg dolly site.

HUMBERSTONE BONFIRE NIGHT
Our fab fire five enjoyed this gig so much and are happy to have been there once again after performing at the event for three years. This year our stilt performers 'The Furry Fireworks' joined the team for a great night of fire, fun, fireworks and 'muddy entertainment'.

COMING UP...

LEICESTERS' CHRISTMAS LIGHT SWITCH ON
Meet our Giant Rudolph carrying Santa's Elves at Leicesters Christmas Light Switch On

CHRISTMAS EVENT IN LEICESTER
Come and say hello to our Tin Soldier and Christmas Tree (on stilts)

'Giggle Aong...' Shows Tour

Through the summer we are touring: 'Giggle Along... Sailor'  'Giggle Along... Cowboy'  'Giggle Along... Fairy'  'Giggle Along... Again Sailor'  and  'Giggle Along... Roaming Romans',
We have had a great time delivering 'Sailor' at Mablethorpe right on the seafront surrounded by delightful chalets, during the show one little old lady was giggling away because we found a sausage in a bottle (instead of a message! script typo's should be checked!)
On Thursday we had another brilliant time at the Guildhall in Leicester delivering the Wild West event with stilts, Circus Station and the Craft Barn, ending the day with our 'Giggle Along ... Cowboy' Show again, we ended up in a Salon, instead of Saloon! (Bless those typo's)

Coming up... 'Giggle Along...' Fairy and Again Sailor at closed events and then 'Roaming Romans' for the Castle Park Festival on 29th August in Castle Gardens, Leicester.
PLEASE NOTE: The mentioned 'Typo's' are fictional and intended, the scripts are intentionally fictional and intended, all characters are fictional and are intended to be fictional characters that portray a fictional portral of the way of life of the fictional characters in their fictional town. The characters and events in the shows bare no resembleance to any person living? or dead, yet! Or to any real events that have occured, so far! We may well travel the globe and live out these adventures!

LEICESTERSHIRE SCHOOLS PERFORMANCE @ CURVE

The Leicester - shire Arts in Education performance of the Snow Queen will be on this Saturday 10th July! You'll see our 10ft (possibly higher now with hair etc) Snow Queen puppet! We also worked with the pupils delivering a series of workshops during the devising process for elements they could incorporate into the performance, the workshops included visual techniques using fabric and everyday items, Circus Skills and Poi Spinning, we are looking forward to seeing the final performance to see how they have taken the skills onboard, developed and included them in the performance.

We love our work!

We had a really enjoyable day delivering Circus Skills sessions at Forest Way Special School, the pupils, the staff and the space were all delightful to work with. Our Stilt Walkers greeted the pupils as they arrived for a picnic lunch in the sunshine and then we had our Circus Skills sessions in the afternoon. Many pupils remembered how to do the circus skills from our visit last year and for this year they also had the option of dressing up with our dressing up box and puppet theatre. Above is a picture of their ampitheatre space and our simple set for Circus Skills workshops in schools.

Carry on banqueting... victorian circus style

Here are some pictures of our Circus Banquet Stilt Walkers, Show Girl, Creepy Clown and Bearded Lady

Busy, busy costuming bees

Our week began by creating some new costumes to add to our wardrobe. First on the list a bearded lady stilt costume for a victorian summer ball with a showgirl on stilts and a scary clown stilt costume.  We don't normally tour clowns as children and many adults have a fear of clowns, so we thought making a purposely scary, creepy clown would suit the victorian circus theme better. We'll upload some pictures here soon and also on our website http://www.geniiproductions.co.uk/

Carry on Banqueting...and our Swish Guard Stilt Walkers

Well, we have had a busy week of themed banquet entertainment including Living Statues, Circus and Stilt Walkers for Notts Uni Summer Ball and Stilt Walkers and a Fire Show for a military Casablanca themed Summer Ball.

Our 'Swish Guard' Stilt Walkers ranks have increased and we now have Roman Soldiers, The Genii Knights, St George, St Patrick, Kings and Queens as well as our Toy Soldiers and Poi Twirling Troops! The 'Swish Guard' can also parade on our 2 person stilt creations from our stable: choose from the Genii Dragon, Una the Unicorn, Hugo Horse or even Rudolph!

'Giggle Town' for festivals and events

We have added new activities for our 'Giggle Town' package for fun days, fetes and festivals. We now have our Carnival Games area which is designed to cater for families with younger participants that are unable to do the Circus Skills including lots of throwing, catching and collecting. These activities have proved extremely popular and younger participants even make up their own games although the exact rules and how to play their 'new' games can be confusing! The Carnival Games run alongside our Circus Skills or Art Cafe.

Peg Dolly Puppets

Our Peg Dolly Puppet Site is now up and features puppet creations made at Leicester Highfield Rangers' Fun Day, other Peg Dolly Puppets from our events will be added over the summer.

http://www.pegdolly.geniiweb.co.uk/

'The Snow Queen' - Arts in Education performance

Our team are busy working with Leicester-shire Arts in Education on their performance of 'The Snow Queen' which will be performed at Leicester's Curve Theatre in July. We are working on the design brief, building a 10ft puppet as well as introducing new performance skills to the junior and senior youth theatre groups. So far both groups have learnt and developed circus skills and poi spinning which will be included in the performance.

You can find out more about the project and what goes into making a performance including, exploratory workshops, designs, costuming and more by visiting our project site which will be up and running soon, on the site you can also find detailed instructions on how to make your own circus equipment!

'Giggle Town' Comic more at www.giggletown.co.uk

'Giggle Town' Circus Skills

'Giggle Town' Circus Skills, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Giggle Town Pirates delivering circus skills

'Giggle Town' Pirate on stilts

'Giggle Town' Pirate on stilts, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

'Giggle Town' Pirate on stilts

'Giggle Town' Art Cafe activities

'Giggle Town' Art Cafe activities, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Our pirates busy making peg dolly puppets

'Giggle Town' Comic - More comics at www.giggletown.co.uk - Our Children's Party Entertainment site

St Georges Day Festival

St Georges Day Festival, originally uploaded by Community Media Hub.

St George and the Genii Knight at Leicester's St George's Day Festival Fun Day

'Giggle Town' Party Entertaiment

'Giggle Town' Party Entertaiment, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Our 'Giggle Town' entertainment for children's parties and events

Leicester St Georges Day

We had a great time on Saturday at Leicester Curve Theatre and Orton Square celebrating our patron saint St George! We started the day making Peg Dolly Puppets and 3D optical illusion Dragons at our Art Cafe in the Curve Theatre. Our team helped children and families with their incredible creations and we had to extend our workshop because of the number of people wanting to join in although if you missed out you'll be able to download templates and instructions on how to make our 3D Dragon and Peg Dollies at our Art Cafe activity site http://www.artcafe.geniiweb.co.uk/  Later in the afternoon our stilt characters St George and the Genii Knight greeted the enthusiastic crowds in Orton Square, they were looking for the Giant Genii Dragon, who appeared carrying St George and the Genii Knight on his back for photos with brave members of the public.

Leicester New Parks Library Open Day

On Wednesday we were invited along to the New Parks Library Open Day with our Circus Skills Workshops and Pirate Stilt Walkers, the new library is a great space with a cafe, lots of activities and groups and of course plenty of books! We are currently discussing the possibility of starting a Circus Skills and Performance group at the library for young people in the area. The group would learn traditional circus skills as well as performance techniques and would have the option to join us at local events in Leicester. If you are interested or would like further information please contact us at office@geniiproductions.co.uk

'Giggle Town' Parties - Children's Party Entertainment...

While performing at public events in Leicester we have received so many enquiries asking do we do children's parties? Can we book you for for our party? Will you come to our house? When are you coming back? So we have finally put together our 'Giggle Town' Party Packages for the Leicester Area.

We aim to supply as much fun entertainment as possible while keeping it affordable, with a Stilt Walker, Circus Skills, Art Activities and more to choose from.

The entertainment is as delivered by our experienced professional performers/artists that currently work at schools, venues and public events around the UK. Over the past year we have delivered entertainment and activities at Belgrave Hall's Easter Event and 300 year celebrations, De Montfort Hall's Summer Sundae & Big Session Festivals, The Spark Festivals New Walk Circus Trail Day and many more our performers have even performed at Chessington World of Adventures delivering the Toon Heroes Academy and delivered mass juggling workshops to thousands of Scouts at the 21st Scout Jamboree in Chelmsford.

Please get in touch for more details by visiting our website: http://www.giggletown.co.uk/ or by emailing us on giggle@giggletown.co.uk

'Giggle Town' Entertainment

'Giggle Town' Entertainment, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Our 'Giggle Town' entertainment including Circus Skills, Stilt Walkers, Main Show, Art Activities and more for Fun Days, Festivals, Fetes and events - We'll also be offering our new entertainment for private children's parties - more details to follow...

A Giant Dragon's Tale

This week is Dragon Week, putting the finishing touches to our Giant Genii Dragon. Making dragons is something we have a bit of experience in, having created at least four or more in the past, some are still touring others died a death of either of overuse or exposure to the elements (damp).

Our new Giant Dragon is a two man stilt costume carrying 2 knights on his back, he is 'very friendly and almost completely tame'. He doesnt have a name yet, that will probably come once he is finished and we'll have a name giving ceremony I guess.

He will join our stables with Rudolph and Uni the Unicorn and will make his first outing at Leicester St George's Day at Orton Square on Saturday 24th April 2010.

More Arty Crafts to try at home...

We'll be uploading some more art & craft activities to our Art Cafe site http://www.artcafe.geniiweb.co.uk/ over the next few weeks. On the site you'll already find such things as making a mini puppet booth and paper puppets, simple party hats and masks. On the site there are also circus kit items you can make - Sock Poi great for practising new moves and Juggling Sacks which can be made out of scrap or your favorite material.

Giggle Town - Art Cafe

Giggle Town - Art Cafe, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Giggle Town

Giggle Town, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Our Giggle Town entertainment including our Art Cafe, Circus Skills...

An Egg-cellent Day!

Here are a few photos from our Easter Giggle Town Egg-stradinaire event. The weather was kind to us for most of the day while participants decorated eggs, tried their hand at Circus Skills, had their photos taken in our Dressing Up Shop and joined in with the Egg Parade and Egg Rolling. The skies finally opened at the end of the day so we relocated indoors to present our Easter 'Giggle Along...' Show, The Marvellous Chocolate Egg Factory.

We always enjoy presenting our Art Cafe at events which usually entails making simple traditional style crafts. Parents always join in to help their children create either their decorated egg creature, spooking halloween witch or wizard, a peg dolly puppet or whatever the theme requires.

No chocolate eggs for us... yet!

We have been hard boiling hundreds of eggs for Easter that will be decorated by participants at our Easter Giggle Town Egg-straordinaire as part of our Art Cafe, we'll also have our stilt walkers, circus skills workshops and to finish off the day our 'Giggle Along...' Show - The Marvellous Chocolate Egg Factory.

You may wonder why we use real eggs and not plastic eggs, surely that would less messy? Well its all part of the fun, after decorating the egg and allowing it to 'rest' (i.e. allowing the glue, glitter and all manner of items stuck on the eggs to dry - cue circus skills) the participants then proudly parade their egg creations and then line up for the egg rolling eggstravaganza! The Egg King or Queen (depending on their commitments) preside over the ceremony as each round of competitors roll their egg, (under arm rolling only) the egg that is rolled the furthest (and is most intact) wins!

Art Cafe: Art & Crafts

Art Cafe: Art & Crafts, originally uploaded by Genii Productions on Flickr.

Art Cafe - making some simple peg dolls

Building a peg community

Here at Genii Productions we are adding some finishing touches to our soon to be toured projects, some projects need more finishing than others, over the next couple of weeks we'll be showing our progress and the final outcome when presented at events. First on our list are our Peg Dolly Puppets - just like traditional Peg Dolls although the puppet angle lends itself to both boys and girls. So far we have built quite a big family of Peg Dolly Puppets, almost a community! Infact we have soldiers, knights, maidens, the cast of Oz
We'll get some pictures of our little people on here in due time.

Why make Peg Dollies you may ask? Well its for our Art Cafe that visits childrens events and fun days, our next one if for St Georges Day in Leicester, which should be a fun event as we'll also be introducing our Giant Genii Dragon - a two man stilt costume. More about him later.

With the Peg Dolly Puppets we are trying to find a way to make them quickly with a good effect, as childrens concentration can be short especially at events with so many other things on offer. We think we have found the best way to create an attractive and subtantial dolly in about 10 minutes or less, we just need to time ourselves. I'll post some pictures of our peg community shortly.

Photos added to Flickr

Giggle Along, originally uploaded by Genii Productions.

We've added some photos to flicker, enjoy!