Getting your Venue Ready
To help the children to enter the experience of each level, you could create a
different atmosphere and environment each day. It may sound a daunting idea
to re-decorate your hall every day but don't feel daunted! There are things you
can do. Check these possibilities to see if one of them matches the limitations
and possibilities presented by your building and by the time and talents
available to you. Don't forget there may be people who can't make the club time
but who may be willing to give time before or after their other commitments.
The basic techniques for each of the following suggestions are the same. They
have not all been repeated for each suggestion.
Option One - One Room for the Upload Zone
Set aside one room/space as the Upload Zone. Provided it is large enough for
the number of children and team you expect, (but manageably small), you can
create a different look for each day. Use old sheets, curtains, paper and card. A
camouflage net is useful (about £25 from government surplus shops), or a
parachute (also available from surplus shops or, in England and Wales, subject
to availability, from SU Missions). Slide and/or overhead projectors can be used
to give a different scene each day. (The MegaQuest website includes graphics
files which can be downloaded and printed onto acetates with a colour printer.
See pages 16 and 21 of the book for more suggestions.) The entrance to the
room can be made to look like a computer screen. Then children can be called
'on-line' with a sound effect and a voice through a sound system which raises
curiosity about each day's level.
Advantages
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Quite manageable if you have a suitable separate space.
The children will only see inside the Zone when they first go in each day.
(Other activities would be in another space). The impact can be
maximised by the surprise.
You should be able to black out one room in order to control lighting to fit
the mood.
Disadvantages
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Any projection you use will have to be from within the space itself.
The size of the Zone will limit the number you can take, even if in other
respects you have the space and team for a bigger number. (You could
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get round this by accommodating age-groups separately for different
parts of the programme. This requires careful management of time, team
and spaces.)
You may need to duplicate equipment, such as amplification, which is
needed in the Upload Zone and the main hall.
Option Two - Transit corridor
Use the same sort of techniques as above to create a space through which the
children are taken when it is time to move from the welcome activity and go 'online'. This could be a corridor, or a room which would be too small for all the
children at once. Groups could go through one at a time. As they emerge they
can be encouraged to describe the level and what they think it is.
Advantages
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Easier to set up than Option One.
Does not limit the size of the club.
It could be part of a large hall screened off.
If age-groups go through separately, the levels of effects can be tailored
to suit nervous five year olds and hardened older children.
Disadvantages
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The effects cannot be used during the teaching time to reinforce the
story.
It's a very brief experience.
Option Three - Big Stage
Use the ideas below to create a stage area which looks different each day.
(These ideas will be added shortly)
Advantages
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No limiting of size of group.
Rear-projection and lighting effects can be used, provided you can
control the level of light in the hall.
The same area is used for all the together times, so there is no need to
duplicate equipment such as sound systems.
It should be easier to ensure that the drama props are in place and to
plan the staging of the drama with just entrances left and right.
Disadvantages
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Unless you have a real stage with curtains the changes from day to day
will be immediately seen by children when they arrive. So there is little
suspense.
It may be difficult to create the same level of sensory experience with the
seating area open on three sides.
Option Four - A space within a space
Build a space within your larger space, which is large enough for the number
you expect, yet small enough to be manageable. If you are working in a church
with pillars, they could provide the corners of the structure. Fix ropes between
them and suspend screens from which camouflage nets, old sheets or
tarpaulins can be hung.
Or you could borrow a scaffold tower. One domestic type scaffold tower will
make two 10' high towers, which could be two corners in a structure like the
one on the website. They must be fixed firmly to a wall or similar for safety,
unless you can provide stabilising struts.
The atmosphere is more controllable if a roof can be contrived.You could use a
parachute, or lengths of strong paper (sometimes available from printers on
large ends-of-roll). This is the hardest part to do.
The impression of a lower ceiling can be obtained by stringing suitable material
from wall to wall. For example, green crêpe paper for the Garden Level, or the
strips of silver foil from which milk-bottle tops have been punched for Heaven.
(This can often be borrowed from a dairy which bottles milk.)
Advantages
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You can project onto parts of the screen from outside, so a white sheet
can become a different scene each day, without the projector being
visible.
If numbers are higher than you expect, the back can be lifted, but
because it can be left down until it's time to go 'on-line' the suspense can
be maintained.
One sound system will reach the whole space.
TVs could be 'built in' so that only the screens show at points around the
space and linked to one VCR, with all the cables safely outside.
Pillars or towers can be used to mount lights if you have or can get hold
of them.
Entrances for the drama can be created where they are needed, allowing
the action to happen behind and among the children as well as in front.
It can sometimes be hard to create the close atmosphere best for
storytelling in a large hall or church. Building a space like this can help
create an intimate atmosphere with a lot of children. Children are less
easily distracted.
Never underestimate what putting a real effort into making a club special
says to the children and their parents. You are saying how much you
value them and how important is the club and all you are sharing with
them.
Disadvantages
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This sort of thing is a major job to construct. When piloting this, a team of
people took around five hours to build a space large enough for a club of
eighty children plus team, using scaffolding towers and roofing it with
parachutes.
Time is needed to modify the set each day. The piloting team took
around an hour (mostly just one person, never more than three) to
modify the set, although Day 5, (heaven) took two people two hours to
totally cover the walls and floor with very wide rolls of plastic goldcoloured foil from a scrapstore!