‘A multi-functional, flat-pack, interactive set - that can fit in a school hall or a 400 seat theatre’ is the usual (very broad) brief we give our set-designer, Simon Hall, at the start of each project. Thankfully he doesn’t ever flinch and is a joy to work with. Simon has created the sets for children’s theatre shows for many years with his own company, Quirk. Therefore he is fantastic at giving us suggestions at how to create a set which will spark children’s imaginations a

I have been taking trips to Topsham for as long as i’ve lived in Devon and to my shame never been to the Topsham museum before. Later this year the museum will host us for a performance of Clare Hollingworth and the Scoop of the Century, either in the cafe space or if the weather holds in their beautiful garden overlooking the estuary. The museum is a testament to Topsham's maritime history - an old merchants house furnished with period rooms and crammed full of exhibits, ran

Every school we have worked with has provided an insight into childrens' reaction to Clare Hollingworth and her role in WWII. The children have given their ideas, thrown themselves into devising scenes and questioned what they know about Clare, journalism and WWII. Now it is our turn to explore Hollingworth’s life in our rehearsal room. Before we start any practical rehearsals we often discuss the rough make-up of our show, for example; What ages it might be for? How will the

Answer to the morse code from our last blog: CLARE HOLLINGWORTH ONCE SAID, IF YOU PUT ME IN A RICKETY LIFT, I WOULD BE TERRIFIED. IT IS JUST THAT I DO NOT FEEL FRIGHTENED UNDER MACHINE-GUN FIRE. Today the Royal Air Force celebrates its 100th Birthday. There is a remarkable picture of Clare Hollingworth, during her time as the Daily Telegraph defence correspondent 1976-1981, in what is probably an British RAF Plane. Clare Hollingworth Collection We love this picture because it

Thanks to Heritage Lottery Funding and Arts Council England, PaddleBoat will be working with different schools in Devon over the period of two years to educate students about Clare Hollingworth and explore their local WWII history. We will be creating a family production to celebrate the life and work of Clare Hollingworth which will tour in 2019 in conjunction with the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII. Clare Hollingworth died in January 2017, she was the first journalis