The magical land of light and shadow: How the winter-themed shadow theater stimulates children’s creativity and delights visitors of Telliskivi Creative City.

Shadow theater is a fun and engaging way to experiment and tell stories while playing. All you need is cardboard, a couple of motors and a little experimentation, and the story starts to tell itself through light and shadow.

Shadow theater started as a game. We never get tired of repeating that free and experimental play is an important part of Vivita, shadow theater, and life in general, through which you can communicate communally, have fun, test your creativity and learn more about the world. Through play, children learn important skills such as problem solving, teamwork and critical thinking.

One day in November, Telliskivi Creative City approached our Vivita testing laboratory with the idea of making something eye-catching for two windows, the rooms of which had become empty when winter came. Inspired by the iconic party scene from the movie “Home Alone”, Michael Jordan riding around on a toy train, we decided to make a shadow theater and light installation to the windows.

Think-thought-done, soon several enthusiasts aged 9–14 found themselves in the studio facing an exciting challenge of creating a winter-themed story in a two-day workshop-marathon. First, they sat down and thought about what they remember about winter, and then they were organically divided into two groups based on mutual interests.

The first team told the story of a winter wonderland, where Santa Claus skates and skis with the villagers among snowy mountains and forests. There are gifts hidden in the forest and snowmen peeking through the trees. The new moon and the light chain illuminate the skating rink and create a mild winter mood.

The other group, however, decided to go the more sci-fi route and create a fantasy war scene where the evil Santa fights knights in front of a giant fortress and an infinite amount of snowballs fly from a catapult towards the enemies.

The children had everything available in the studio to use: cardboard, laser cutter, cotton wool, wooden blocks, hot glue guns, etc. Since the shadow theater had to move throughout the evening, from five to two in the morning, and thus the entire month of December, they tried to motorize the movements with the help of simple prototyping tools developed by Vivita — Viviware modules.

The children’s final result was made reliable by Vivita’s creative team, and the powerful theater lights were lent by Tallinn City Theatre. On the evening of December 8, the winter fairy tale opened in the windows with gingerbread cookies and glögg and continued to surprise the visitors of the Creative City every evening until the middle of January.

Text and photos: Vivita Estonia
November 2022 — January 2023