ABSTRACT
This simple environment gives a different feel to sitting in a circle for story, discussion or to watch an activity and is best suited to being set up before the students enter. This chapter describes different sensory channels, equipment needed, and ways to make use of the circle of straw bales. Bales are a very effective way of quickly defining a space, something that we made use of when the National Theatre commissioned Bamboozle to work with London special schools on the NT production of War Horse. This project involved week-long residencies in schools, after which the students went to see the production at the National Theatre. The students and staff were able to sit in a circle on the bales with gaps to accommodate wheelchair users and to allow the horse puppets to enter the space and meet the students.
