As a national touring company producing theatre for young people, Pop-Up visits a lot of theatres and notices a huge range of attitudes to young people. We wanted to enhance the theatre environment to improve a child's or adult's visit, meet the safety and organisational restrictions and develop the theatre's reputation as a safe and friendly place to visit.

With financial support from the Ashden Trust, Pop-Up developed First Impressions, a project which set out to look at how a young person and any adult carer could feel safe and at ease throughout the theatre visit. This involved looking at the building environment, ticketing, signing and provision for particular needs.

The design and installation was carried out by Michael Dalton and Aurelian Koch at Plymouth Theatre Royal in 2002/03. The project was a success for both the theatre and for Pop-Up and clearly showed that many aspects of the design could become permanent within the theatre.

The installation was filmed at child's eye view and is now available on a computer playable CD-ROM. If you would like a copy of this free CD, which also contains information on other areas of Pop-Up's work, please ring us on 020 7609 3339 or email admin@pop-up.net.

Click here to download a version of the full First Impressions report
(Word document - 3092kb)