Teaching materials
Created by HETPALEIS Antwerp.
The Great Journey
A PROJECT BY Judith Nab/ NAB productions –AU BAIN MARIE
For everybody from the third nursery class (4, 5, 6 years old)
1. Contents
Credits
 CONCEPT AND ANIMATIONS:
Judith Nab
DRAWINGS:
Step into a full size city bus and embark on a great journey around the
world. Feel the vibrations of the bus, and experience the excitement and
adventure of the journey. Join along to strange countries, to the other
side of the ocean where the sun shines brighter and the wind might
carry you away.
Dirck Nab , Judith Nab
For some children visiting a theater is just a bridge to far. Judith Nab will
bring to you a converted city bus for little explorers.
CREW AUBAIN MARIE:
The Great Journey bus will come to you, to your school or even to your
doorstep at home. In this way Judith NAB aspires to bring the theater to
as many children as possible. The Great Journey starts at the school
gates. There the children board the bus of where they will be immersed
in an experience that will motivate all senses. The journey will carry
them past mountains and valleys through tunnels and dark forests at
night; they will even travel to the bottom of the ocean. Along the way
they see animations in which people make soup, drink, eat, smoke, play
cards, sleep, dream and count sheeps. The Great Journey promises to
be an exiting adventure in toddler scale.
REMAKE DÉCOR
AND EXTERIOR BUS:
Fiction Factory
INTERIOR DESIGN BUS:
Judith Nab.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE:
Leonie Baars
TECHNICAL DIRECTION:
Erwin van der Broek
TECHNICAL ADVICE:
Han de Jonge
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Gerben Nab
CREW HETPALEIS
VIDEO EDITING:
Raf Peeters
SOUND EDITING:
Ben Bonner
INTERIOR DESIGN BUS:
Judith Nab ,Luk Willekens
The Dutch artist Judith Nab combines long landscape drawings on rolls
with photographs and animation that she created together with
painter,drawer Dirck Nab. Along the way the playful line drawings get
more colorful and pronounced. The children will remain in the familiar
setting of a city bus, but through films, mechanized objects and sounds
they will be carried away in an adventure. The whole concept triggers
their imagination, is associative, recognizable and reassuring. After the
journey it is almost natural to explore visual arts in the classroom or to
philosophize with the children. On the other hand one can simply start
making soup or organize a party at school.
Judith Nab studied and worked in Paris for six years. In 1991 she
started her own foundation Théatre Espace Imaginaire. Together with
other artists, composers and independent technicians Judith Nab is
mainly working on textless installations and visual theatre mostly
without actors. She uses a mix of different types of new and old media,
objects, film, video, light (and darkness), samples, projections. Often the
installations are suited on location. In a huge hall she created the
installation ‘All The people I Didn’t Meet’.(2008-2009 ) In an abandoned
house she created ‘Violetstraat 35’ (Summer of Antwerp). Momently she
works with scientists and children on ‘The rest of the world(and beyond)
a project consisting of workshops, a book and a installation. The
Camera Nighsthot (2010), a installtion in a huge camera is stil running.
1
2.
FRAGMENTS FROM AN INTERVIEW
WITH JUDITH NAB.
3.
IDEAS FOR A VISUAL REINACTMENT
OF THE JOURNEY
An De Donder converted the same bus (used for
the previous city bus project) into a small
theatre. Did it become clear to you from the
start that the children in the bus would make a
great journey?
3.1.
Books
Yes, that was the first thing that entered my mind.
As the children get on board the bus the logical
conclusion was that they would depart on a trip. Of
course it is an imaginary trip and the bus is not
going anywhere during the show. A bus conjures up
images of traveling regardless of the distances
involved. It immediately made me think of a trip
around the world, probably because I made a six
month trip around the world when I was 10 years
old. Together with two other families we traveled
around in a bus. In those days you could just camp
anywhere. We would simply stop at a place of our
liking, build a fire and wash ourselves in the river.
My family still refers to this trip as “The Great
Journey”.
The Great Journey turned out as a wordless
play without actors, where images are very
important.
I would not describe it as a play. A play, even
without actors still invokes images of going to a
theatre, despite the fact that the stage remains
empty. When using the word installation it
immediately gives you a sense that the setting is
also important. Theatrical installation is possibly the
best description as at the same time it indicates that
it has nothing to do with a museum. This bus
project is a location on itself; the difference is that
during the realization of this project I have not been
working much in the bus itself. The largest part of
the installation is made up of animation film, drawn
and painted on paper. Hence most of the material
has been made at my home in Amsterdam and
here in the theatre HETPALEIS. Despite the fact
that work on the animations took most of the time ,
these are still only a part of the project. The setting
in which everything takes place is just as important
for the whole experience. The senses will be
stimulated in a variety of ways and this invokes the
sensation of a real journey. This is the main reason
I find it important that the set really moves on a rail
and that the sounds totally surround you. Once
inside your become a participant instead of an
observer. In this bus project you are a real
passenger. It is all about a complete experience
2
As an appendix a list of children’s books about
travel and going on adventures is presented. Books
that can offer a lot of enjoyment by means of
illustrations and text, a book can be the starting
point for a discussion about The Great Journey.
3.2.
Guided imagination
Before you start handcrafting or make drawings
with the toddlers it makes sense to start by shortly
guiding them into an adventurous state of mind.
Through a story the children can be taken to places
you like. Stimulate all their senses. What do they
see, hear, taste, smell or feel along the way? The
journey itself is full of interesting ideas that can be
used. The children will immediately reenact what is
being told and can also participate by expanding on
the story.
Example of a short bus trip
We will put our things in our backpacks (a pair of
sun glasses, rain coat, something to drink and to
eat, a book, toys,….). We will wait at the bus stop
(depict boredom). We climb into the bus.
The bus leaves (children drive around making
engine noises). The bus makes a sharp turn, has to
brake for a pedestrian, bounces wildly over the
cobbled stones etc. (the children will reenact the
associated movements).
Then the children will depict everything they see
along the way. An old man arduously walking
around, a proud mother on high heels, a boy who
can cycle very fast, somebody straining with a
heave grocery bag, somebody in a hurry,
somebody looking at his reflection in a shopping
window, a very high tower, a skew little house, dogs
playing, ants in between the stones, birds flying
around,….
The bus leaves the city and goes into the country
side: the Amazon forest, the Kalahari desert, the
South pole. Let your imagination go. The more
adventurous the better.
The children eat and drink (sticky cake, a juicy
pear, a sour lemon, a disgusting sandwich,
delicious sweet candy,…) They will read until they
experience motion sickness, get bored, fall asleep.
When they wake up they are at home again.
3.3.
A scrolling landscape
3.5.
Reading a map
The long scrolling landscape drawing Judith Nab
created for The Great Journey is the starting point
for the following assignments.
Free city maps can be picked up at the TIC in any
city or town. The maps often use icons; these
symbols can be recognized by young children.
Together with the children discover what can be
found on a city map.
Requirements: An overhead projector, OHP pen,
transparent OHP roll and magic tape. Also
document wallets have the right size for an
overhead projector. Alternatively 30cm wide strips
can be cut from a large sheet of clear plastic, all the
children can then draw on it at the same time.
The children draw their memories of The Great
Journey or the story that was just depicted in class.
All drawings can be taped together into a long
story; the correct sequence can be debated with the
children. Using the overhead projector the drawings
will be projected on a screen or the wall while the
children can comment on their section of the
drawing.
3.4.
What do I see?
In the same manner also real objects can be
displayed. To prepare a collection can be agreed
upon with the children.
For example:
- A collection of images that can not be missed
along the way.
- Together with the children a suitcase full of items
that might be required for a journey can be
prepared, a pair of sun glasses, a bottle of water,
something to eat, a passport, a bus ticket, sun
cream, flip-flops, a warm hat, a fork, a knife, a
comb, a pair of scissors, a favorite toy, pens and
markers, etc.
- A collection of souvenirs.
During an outing allow the children to collect
objects, a little rock, a feather, a screw, leaves, a
bit of rope, a tin can, a bottle, a twig, etc.
Some objects will create fascinating shadows,
especially translucent objects made of glass or
plastic. The objects could be placed on the
overhead projector one at the time or might be
attached to a long strip of plastic of maximal 30cm
wide in such a way that it can be moved across the
projector. The children can guess what kinds of
objects lurk behind the shadows on the wall.
-
Is there water? Look for a fishpond or a river.
Where are the parks?
Look for the P for parking.
Is there a railroad? Where is the station?
Any landmark buildings?
Compare narrow city streets with motor ways.
3.6.
Design your own city plan
Requirements: large sheets of drawing paper,
pens and pencils, a pair of scissors, glue.
Inspiration: A suitable book from the appendix.
It is great fun for the children to work together
creating a large city plan. If space in the classroom
is limited the large drawing can be split up in
sections. After outlining the basic layout of the chart
the drawing can be split up again so groups of
children can work on their own sections of the
overall plan.
Alternatively the individual drawings could be glued
together in the form of a patchwork.
Split up the tasks. Who is drawing what? Think off:
streets, houses, churches, parking lots, a railway
station and train tracks, shops, ponds and rivers,
playgrounds, a zoo, a fair, the mail office, a bank,
The drawings can be complemented with pictures
from magazines In her exhibitions Judith Nab also
uses a kind of patchwork technique. The images in
these patchworks are not always in perspective.
Perhaps the dog crossing the street is larger than
the bus; this will only make the scene funnier.
Is a city not adventures enough for the children?
Then the world atlas can be used and together you
can create a map of the world.
3