We’re now developing this piece into 2 longer shows, one for 0’s-3’s, the other for 4-8 year olds. These will be ready to tour (in an electric van) during 2023.

Early research for the show uncovered an Office for National Statistics study showing that women made up just 24% of the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workforce, with an even smaller number of that cohort being women of colour. Clearly a small theatre company can’t overturn big issues like inequality all by ourselves. But we do make stories, and we do reach a lot of children with those stories, so what we can do is plant ideas and questions in their heads. Questions like: What does a scientist look like? What kind of things do scientists do? Is it fun being a scientist?

Everyone is a scientist. We are all curious about something – and we test things out, we experiment, we draw conclusions from our experiments. And for very young children pretty much everything in life is an experiment.

For us, and hopefully for them, BLinK BLonk is just another attempt to explain the world.

We’re really pleased to be working with these brilliant makers/performers:

Andrea Davy, Jodie Hay, Linn Johanson, Maya Manuel, Nadia Morgan, Maria Machado, Amy Tweed, Minnie Wilkinson, Laura Wohlwend.

And some rather extraordinary scientists are also helping us develop the show:

Professor Alice Roberts. Alice is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at Birmingham University, and

a broadcaster.

 

Dr Sunita Chawdhary is a British-Indian illustrator and doctor based in London and Oxford.

 

Alom Shaha is a writer, film-maker, science communicator, and physics teacher.

 

Dr Emma Cohen is a Fellow in Human Sciences at Wadham College, Oxford, and Associate Professor at the

Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology.

 

Dr Maxine Mackintosh is co-founder of One HealthTech, Programme Lead on Diverse Data at Genomics England, and is a

Research Associate and Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute.