Children's entertainers release 'Fairy Tale Box' online storytelling series

Paul Matthews drives a bus for the "Three Little Pigs" as part of Jam Box Theatre's "Fairy Tale Box" storytelling video series. / Courtesy of Jam Box Theatre

By Jon Dunbar

For children in need of entertainment, Jam Box Theatre is releasing a series of short, online storytelling performances.

The first video of the "Fairy Tale Box" series was a bilingual rendition of the classic story, "The Three Little Pigs," released by Jam Box Theatre on Sept. 4.

In the video, lasting 15 minutes and 28 seconds, British storyteller Paul Matthews sits in a comfortable chair and introduces the concept of the Fairy Tale Box. "Inside is every story you could ever imagine," he explains, opening it to reveal a tiny pig figurine.

In his telling of the fairy tale, the three pigs live in a farmhouse made of straw, sticks and bricks in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province. They move to Seoul where they each live in separate homes, and are terrorized by "Mr. W."

"Children can be a very tough audience ― much tougher than adults ― so it's important to be properly prepared and to make sure you can take them into a different world," Matthews said. "Colorful costumes, props and puppets help a lot, but it's also about being able to communicate to them on the same level. That way you can enter this new world together and whatever story you're telling can become real in their eyes."

Matthews tells the story by giving voices to each character, including, memorably, the pigs' mother and a surprisingly convincing news announcer. His narration is mainly in English while the dialogue is mostly in Korean. He uses minimal props to differentiate each character, and simple graphics are added in to show the various houses, as well as to give life to other devices, such as a TV, a bus and a police siren.

Paul Matthews narrates the "Three Little Pigs" as part of Jam Box Theatre's "Fairy Tale Box" video series. / Courtesy of Jam Box Theatre

Matthews is one of the people behind Jam Box Theatre, makers of the "Fairy Tale Box" series. The team of British and Korean creatives has nine actors, directors and writers, as well as a technical director and a producer.

He explains that the name, "Jam Box," "tries to capture all the different meanings of jam ― the Korean word for interesting, also the meaning of artists improvising or jamming together, plus the sweetness of jam ― all packed into a box. (It's) a silly, sweet name that hopefully expresses our wish to play and have fun with our audiences."

Jam Box started off in 2014, opening with the original version, "Fairy Tale Box," as a madcap tour of 15 fairy tales told in 60 minutes.

"As the writer for the show, I mixed European and Korean fairy tales together and gave them new twists," said Matthews, a trained actor who moved to Korea in 2000. "For example the Korean tale of The Rabbit's Liver ended up with a race between the two main characters, as it changed into The Tortoise and the Hare. The Ugly Duckling became a Rocky-style montage of the Swan growing up into a superstar, and in Cinderella, the heroine swept the prince off his feet."

For about five years, they offered a variety of live theater shows, appearing at Latt Children's Theatre in Gangnam and Aidul Theatre in Daehangno.

After "Fairy Tale Box," Matthews and Park Young-hee later created "The Mystery of Lab B-123," a mystery thriller for children that won the audience award at the 2019 International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ) Korea Winter Festival.

"Korea was still reeling from the Sewol Ferry Disaster, and the thing I kept thinking back to, was that the children were told to just stay in their seats and wait for help," Matthews said. "I wanted to create a show that helped children question what they are told by grown-ups, and show that sometimes you need to judge situations for yourself. So I came up with a mystery thriller about two kids who visit a science lab by the sea to get a tour, when suddenly there's an emergency and they are left by themselves. It's then that they hear a tap tap tapping from a nearby tank and they have to choose whether they should sit and read their books or take a chance and work out what is really going on."

A scene from "The Mystery of Lab B-123" / Courtesy of Jam Box Theatre

They've also come up with smaller-scale performances for performances at schools, academies, libraries and other spaces. "These are more straightforward storytelling shows with minimal sets and just a few props," Matthews said. "The idea is to create more of a workshop atmosphere and get the audience to participate with the show, be it through singing or dancing together or directly engaging with the characters."

One of their two touring shows is "The Nightingale," based on Hans Christian Andersen's story of a songbird, but which sings jazz, opera, hip-hop and pansori. The other show is "Lazy Jack," based on an English tale about a boy who does everything his mother says without thinking it through, leading to all sorts of disasters. "The focus for this show is on audience participation, getting kids up and dancing and being silly," Matthews said.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a stop to most of their live performances, but they've made the most of the situation by experimenting with their storytelling techniques and moving their activities mostly online.

"At first, we had no clue [how to keep going], but then, as we spoke to others around us, we heard about grants being made available to artists, and last year we were able to get a couple of grants to make online performances," Matthews said. "We are always looking to experiment and find new ways to tell stories, and we're very lucky that we've had opportunities in the pandemic to do just that."

Last year they put together three storytelling shows for livestreaming on YouTube, and that likely led the way to this year's "Fairy Tale Box" videos. As well as his own bilingual storytelling, he said that the next three videos will incorporate live music and illustration, tabletop theater and a finger puppet adventure.

They are also hoping to resume their road shows as soon as conditions permit. They even held a socially distanced performance for the Chuncheon Arts Festival last month, their first live performance in over 18 months.

Jam Box Theatre's socially distanced performance of "The Nightingale" at the Chuncheon Arts Festival in August / Courtesy of Choi Don-yeong

"It's definitely exciting to have an audience again, but at the same time, we want to make sure that everyone is kept safe," Matthews said.

"Normally for our small-scale shows, there's a lot of audience participation, and previously, we would go into the audience or have kids come up and perform with us, but now we're making sure that everyone can participate in their own spot. That said, little kids are very unpredictable, so we'll also be on the watch to make sure everything goes okay. The great thing about these small-scale shows is that if something happens you can just stop everything, sort things out in a kind and gentle manner and then carry on!"

Jam Box Theatre's socially distanced performance of "The Nightingale" at the Chuncheon Arts Festival in August / Courtesy of Lee Do-hee

Matthews, who has been an active children's theater performer since 2003, also mentioned that he has worked on his own during the pandemic to write and direct two puppet shows based on Korean books for the Suncheon Picture Book Library. He also keeps busy by appearing on the radio, including EBS's "Morning Special," Arirang's "#dailyK" and TBS eFM's "Diverse Voices."

As well as the "Fairy Tale Box" series, Matthews also mentioned they're working on a few other projects, including a stage performance of 'Kkamangnun," a picture book written by Choi Nam-ju and illustrated by Choi Seung-ju, based on the true story of the author being taught to read and write by her blind grandmother. They are planning to put together a video, but hope to bring it to stages next year.

"We're all eager to get back to the theatre and in front of an audience, but because we make shows for children, we are well aware of how careful we all must be, and that it may take a while for that to be able to happen again on a regular basis," Matthews said.

Visit fb.com/jamboxtheatre for more information, or find the "Jambox Theatre" YouTube channel.