Shadows & Strings
Participatory Arts in Health - 2021- Present
Shadows & Strings is a collaboration between harpist Mark Levin and puppeteer Joni-Rae Carrack that began in 2021.
We perform mixed medium mini sensory shows with shadow puppets and live harp music for families across paediatric wards at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Each session we aim to bring a little joy, creativity, and healing into the lives of young patients who find themselves in the wards or in waiting rooms around the hospital.
We aim to be accessible, welcoming and fun - we believe that every child, regardless of their condition, is entitled to access the rich world of imagination and storytelling.
We endeavour to create a safe and welcoming environment so that we can invite children to watch or participate a beautiful, soothing and exciting puppetry and live harp music experience.
We want to address the difficulties of being a child or young person in hospitals - these include loneliness, missing out on social events and boredom. With empathy as our guiding principle, we aim to create immersive experiences that transport children beyond hospital walls, gives them a special, personalised experience they can share with their friends and family, stimulates their minds and instills hope.
We are also there was the grown-ups, while they navigate an often challenging hospital journey. We want to give them some respite, a positive experience to share with their child and something to help reduce their own anxiety.
As we develop as a collaboration, our ultimate aim is to empower paediatric patients to explore their emotions, express their fears, and discover their inner strength. We want to create performances that promotes healing, celebrates resilience, and sparks the imagination of every child in need.
Shadows and Strings’ collaboration has been developed and supported as part of CW+’s Arts For All Programme.
CW+, the official charity for Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and West Middlesex University Hospital. They focus on developing the arts in health, health innovation and grant programmes.
Arts For All is a participatory arts programme run by CW+ which “aims to provide meaningful cultural opportunities, which offer distraction, engagement and social interaction.” This includes welcoming artists from a range of mediums, including visual art, music, singing, dancing and… puppetry & harp!
Feedback
“Mark and Joni have been a very valuable and supportive addition to our therapies team.
The music and shadow puppet show shines a special aura on to the ward areas.
Our patients have complex medical issues needing constant medical attention. Joni and Mark engage the children allowing them to experience a world away from illness and the constant sounds of machines bleeping .
They adapt their sessions to the needs of all patients regardless if the patient is hearing impaired /visually impaired or SEN.
Through the vibration/sound of the harp strings, to the children taking part in the shadow show there are smiles all around .
Parents are requesting 1-1 sessions waiting for the music and shadow show day .
We really can’t do our jobs without such an important artists such as Mark and Joni.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything you do for the children and their families.
— Shazzie, Senior Play Specialist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
“It means so much to us having this happen in hospital.”
— Parent in Mercury Ward
“Nothing else has cheered me up but that has!”
— Patient in Neptune Ward
“This is why I work Tuesdays!.”
— Nurse on Apollo Ward
Our Story…
Shadows & Strings began on Joni's first day as a Resident Artist on the Arts For All Programme. During her first session she (literally!) shadowed Mark in the paediatric wards of Chelsea and Westminster hospital. Joni brought along her newly made shadow suitcase - an innovative, purpose built mini theatre made specially for hospital settings. Within minutes of the session Joni and Mark were improvising together for a young baby in the hospital playroom.
Mark played various solo harp renditions of classic nursery rhymes as Joni's shadow suitcase performed a tour through outer space and the planets, and almost instantly it became clear how well both mediums worked together to create calming sensory performances for paediatrics in the hospital.
A Little About Us….
Joni-Rae Carrack is a puppeteer with wide ranging experience in performing and facilitating workshops. She began to focus her work in arts and health in 2020 when she toured the UK with Little Angel Theatre production If Not Here… Where?; a suitcase puppet show that is designed to be be performed to children and young people in hospitals at their bedside. It was produced by Little Angel Theatre in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital, with funding from BBC Children in Need and NESTA. In it’s 2020 tour, If Not Here…Where? visited 12 children’s hospitals / wards and 3 hospices across the UK including Great Ormond Street, London; Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh; and Noah’s Ark Hospice, Barnet. In 2021 she became a CW+ Resident Artist where, as well as performing with her shadow puppets, she also developed and delivers paper craft workshops for patients. She has also been commissioned to create puppets and participatory workshops for St George’s Hospital Charity and has developed a workshop exploring what play feels like for adolescents for Cambridge University Hospital Arts.
Mark Levin is a harpist with 15 years experience working in healthcare. As well as working with various hospitals and health facilities around London and The South East, he is a resident harpist for CW +, GOSH Arts (Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital) and Breathe Arts Health Research (Guys Hospital and St Thomas Hospital) where he provides weekly and fortnightly hospital music sessions for paediatric and adult patients.
Whilst also both performing independent solo sessions for CW+, Mark and Joni have carried on performing as a mixed medium collaboration in weekly sessions ever since, improvising various visual themes with relaxing harp versions of well known, age appropriate songs and film themes. Beginning with five shadow puppets in 2021, Shadow and Strings now has over 50 puppets in the shadow suitcase, along with an ever growing musical repertoire.
The sessions regularly receive extremely high praise from children and parents on the wards, as well as by the hospital playteam and doctors and nurses on the wards.
Videos From the Chelsea and Westminster Play Team
Alt Text: A shadow puppet teddy bear peaks through the green branches of a forrest
Alt Text:A puppet rocket flies past a shadow star and moon scene
Alt Text:A shadow puppet fish with blue fins swims through green seaweed
Alt Text:A shadow puppet fish with red stripes swims through green seaweed
Alt Text:A shadow puppet mermaid with red hair and a green fish tail looks up
Alt Text:A shadow puppet princess with blonde plaited hair and a blue dress reaches out
Alt Text:A shadow puppet golden lion cub running
Alt Text:A lion shadow puppet with a gold and red main roaring
Currently, Mark and Joni work mostly in paediatrics, including in cubicles, bays, HDU wards and outpatient waiting rooms. They are always looking for opportunities to develop their performances and deepen their collaboration together.
They have also explored how to reach more patients through digital means and have contributed to the CW+ Arts For All: Virtual Connections channel which can be accessed by patients and visitors.
What Next?
Shadows & Strings recognise that we have only scratched the surface of our collaboration and the benefits that we can bring to children who find themselves in an uncomfortable hospital environment. We are determined to push our work creatively and to understand how we can best meet the needs of the patients we visit. We are building on these ideas with a project called “Pluck”.
“Pluck” will allow both artists the necessary time and space to build on our collaboration, moving on from simply improvising ideas, to properly devising new hospital centered theatrical works using puppetry and live harp music.
In doing so, this will help us to realise the true potential of the collaboration of our mediums, and will lay the foundations to create some new works that will deliver truly positive outcomes for patients, families and staff across the paediatric wards.