Theatre in English!

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Posted by ΠΙΣΤΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΑ | Posted in Creative Activities | Posted on 14-10-2014

As actors usually say, films do not compare to theatre. That is the reason why I encouraged my pupils to take part in two short theatrical performances. Due to the generally low level of competency in English, I chose two very well known works, “A Christmas Carol”, by Charles Dickens and “Little Red Riding Hood”, so that they would find the plot familiar. The scripts were extensively modified, which resulted in quite short versions. Our “Christmas Carol” was actually the scene with the three spirits that visit Scrooge and “Red Hoodie” was based on “Girl in da Hoodie” by Sid River, an English teacher. As I am always concerned with teenagers’ interests, I added a reference to Facebook and Twitter, so that “Red Hoodie” conveys a message about internet safety.

The leading roles were given to more competent users of the language and weaker pupils also took part by saying only a couple of lines. As there was the concern that the audience will not comprehend what is being said, I taught to every single class the script a few weeks before the performance. In such cases of live performances, music and sound quality (microphones) are really important. Even though there were sound problems in “A Christmas Carol”, the outcome was that both my pupils and the audience enjoyed the performances. Both videos can also be found on the youtube channel of the 2nd EPA.L. of Amaliada.

Scrooge (2)red_hoodie (2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those performances took place during the school year 2013-2014. After staging the short version of “A Christmas Carol”, I was in charge of the Christmas celebration in 2014 as well. I didn’t want to stage the same play, though. As I was unable to find a similar, popular Christmas play, I thought of writing one myself! The outcome was “It’s Christmas Time”, a play that combines English with Greek, as it’s about two English tourists that ask for information from two Greeks and they find out about each other’s Christmas customs. A Prezi presentation and Christmas carols accompanied the performance. In order to make it easier for the audience to understand what is being said, one of the Greeks was supposed to hardly speak any English and the other Greek explained to him what the tourists said. It turned out to be a wonderful Christmas celebration!

It's Christmas Time (2)

“It’s Christmas Time!” (2014)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a year’s break, I was responsible for organising the Christmas school celebration in 2016. Inspiration came again from “A Christmas Carol”. One of my colleagues, Ms Elena Panopoulou had this amazing idea and shared it on Facebook. How about presenting a Scrooge who is addicted to gadgets and the internet, but changes his mind after the Christmas Spirit’s visit and donates his devices to an organisation? I thought that was a brilliant idea and wrote the script for a 10 minute play. The outcome was “Mr Scroogle” (Scrooge+Google). You will find it as the second part of our celebration here .

 

2nd EPAL of Amaliada, "Mr Scroogle".

2nd EPAL of Amaliada, “Mr Scroogle”.

 

 

 

 

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