Interview: Autumn Ness of BABBLE LAB at Children's Theatre Company

Strap on your safety goggles and clean out your ears! When an experiment unexpectedly goes awry, a concoction of sneaky, sprightly L E T T E R S takes over a weird and wondrous science lab. Watch them jump into jars, spring from drawers, bounce around the room, and even play hide-and-seek as our scientist makes her surprising findings: Bluku terullala blaulala loooo! Rakete bee bee? Rekate bee zee! Enjoy the blubbering and blibbering exploration of spoken blurbbles as they spring forth in this one-of-a-kind, gee-gaw-filled laboratory. Created with early learners in mind.

By CTC Company Member Autumn Ness 
Directed by Sarah Agnew 

A Children’s Theatre Company and Alliance Theatre World Premiere Co-production

We chat with Autumn Ness about this production. 

What inspired you to create this story?

This story came out of my journey as a parent to two neuro-divergent children. Both my children struggled in their development of spoken speech, and then later with their reading and writing. You start to see that children have a such a narrow “right and wrong” put upon them when it comes to their developing language and communication. The first bit in the play is me as the character of The Scientist blowing up a balloon, and taking notes on the sounds and reactions it makes. That comes directly from an appointment my son had as he was receiving his diagnosis. The practitioners would blow up a balloon and notate how he reacted to it. That’s also where the idea of using the absurdist art of “Dada” came into play.  We were all sitting in these tiny preschool chairs, with furrowed brows watching a balloon deflate.

How Dada!.

What is your favorite moment of this story?

There is such fabulous interactive animation happening, designed and animated by Jorge Cousineau, that I couldn’t pick just one. All the interactive animation blows my mind. But I also love the practical elements of trickery and puppetry designed by Michael Sommers. They both have made such magic for our youngest audience.

What do you hope the audiences take away from the production?

The power of your words and the ability to express yourself should be magical, musical, playful, and fearless! That’s what I want for the preschoolers who leave our play. And I know the adults will appreciate the quirky comic hand of our director Sarah Agnew. I’ve been a fan of hers for years, I’m so excited for our audience to see her work as a director. 

What are your favorite local spots?

My local is north of Minneapolis in a river town called Stillwater, MN. It’s an old lumber baron town, with gorgeous Victorian mansions, and a historic downtown district. They have antiques to die for at “Midtown Antique Mall”, and then you can go for a milkshake at “Leos” on Main Street to ponder why you just bought an antique moose head. 

Thank you Autumn for your time!

For more ticket and show information, please click the ticket link button below.

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