Saltbush: An Interactive Children's Theatre Performance

Running head: MUSIC
Music
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MUSIC 2
Introduction of the children’s theatre performance, saltbush
Saltbush is a forty-minute interactive play that shows the journey through the cultural activities
of the Aboriginal people in Australia. The performance comprises of songs, dances, and music
throughout the play. The primary audience from the play are the children. The actors
continuously engage the children in the play through the songs and dances.
Consequently, two main actors in the play are trying to cross Australia on foot. The journey of
the two actors passes various landscapes of the country beginning from the Australian rivers, the
desert areas urban centers and the seas of the nation. The two actors face multiple challenges on
their way; for instance, there are wet places, wild animals along the way among other difficulties.
However, these two people can find various ways on how to continue with their journey
according to Lehtonen, Kaasinen, Karjalainen-Väkevä & Toivanen, (2016).
On the other hand, at various points, the actors invite the children to join the play through dances
and songs. During the performance, the landscape unfolds around the actors leaving the audience
in surprise. However, during the unfolding process, the audience gets the best opportunity to join
the two actors in celebrating the journey. At the end of the performers, the actors invite the
audience to join them in celebrating their journey.
Elements of the theatre and production
In the performance of saltbush, various aspects are evident in the play. These elements range
from literary, technical and performance aspects according to Fleming, (2018). The following are
the specific elements in each case:
a. Technical elements

MUSIC 3
The technical elements include the following:
i. Lights- the play makes use of light to communicate particular elements to the audience. For
instance, during the start of the performance, the light intensity on the stage is very low. The
scene is full of darkness. The darkness, in this case, represents the journey the two actors are
preparing to start according to Roy, Baker & Hamilton, (2015). They barely any anything
concerning the landscape of Australia. For instance, the landscape is full of rivers and desert
areas. Consequently, as the movie moves on, the intensity of light becomes bright to show
different situations.
ii. Sound- sound used in the play shows a specific environment. For example, when the actors
reached near a river, the audience could hear the bubbling of water. Apart from that, when the
actors were swimming the audience could listen to the same sound.
iii. Costumes- the clothing the actors are using in the play is white. White is a symbol of peace.
The actors are peacefully exploiting Australian culture according to Burke & Sharp, (2018).
However, the paintings of the environments differ. For example, rivers are blue while the roads
are white.
b. Performance elements
The following are some of the performance elements evident in the play:
i. Acting- during the performance, the two primary actors are dancing and crawling in different
environments. For example, when they reached a river, they started swimming and assisting each
other to cross the water. However, in places where the road was meandering, they had to bend on
various sides to pass the places.