Wednesday 13 August 2014

Summer English Course (short duration) for 9 - 11 year olds from Santa Maria island, Azores - The final day's presentation - The 8th of August 2014


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The final day brought with it all the excitement and anxiety, which were to be expected under such circumstances - the children were to "perform" in a foreign language for an audience, which happened to include their parents and although nervousness couldn't be felt as the children and I were preparing the room for the Artistic exhibition it certainly came to the forefront when it was time for them to carry out the last rehearsal in the Auditorium of the Oceanic Control Centre.


















The rehearsal went accordingly to what we had expected but soon after it was finished I noticed the boys of the group had gone back into the auditorium and were rehearsing their parts once more, as if wanting to reassure themselves that nothing would go wrong if they read the texts over and over again.

Amazingly enough I didn't see that same preoccupation on the part of the girls (... overconfidence, maybe? ... or could it be that they had better studied their parts ... I'll never know, as during the final rehearsal I felt there was some sort of balance among the various "actors", with eventually the king excelling in his part).  











Parents and guests whom one of the girls had handed quite a few invitations to started arriving fairly early and so did the Oceanic Control Centre director who had vowed to be present, once the project had been expanded to the Azores because of him. We were all very proud to see him in the audience, though additional pressure was felt across the room. 









For all it may sound bias I must confess the children's performances were next to none, with the King having been in the limelight  all the way through because of his outstanding interpretation of the sovereign role. It was not only his performance that caught people's immediate attention, I believe, but also the way he mastered the English text he had been assigned to interpret.

I felt particularly proud, but more so because many of the children had actually written down that the  theatrical piece was what they had disliked most and there they had surprisingly (bearing in mind their opinion) performed at their best level and seemingly enjoyed their roles.








































After having had some of the best images of the course projected on a large screen in the auditorium, the children were solemnly handed their participation certificates. They then walked their parents into the exhibition room, where their "Art" was in display ... and that was, I personally feel, the moment they had been waiting for - showing their parents what they had "artistically" achieved.
























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