What a delightfully dazzling two hours
spent at Tea in the Trees yesterday evening, when the Drama Club of Chintsa
East Primary School treated us to a highly entertaining show, telling the story of what
happened after The Gingerbread Man...
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| The production poster, and program (below right) |
The story unfolds with the Gingerbread Man
Creator/village baker coming up with the bright idea of creating a new,
benevolent and loving answer to the scourge of the original gingerbread person:
a Gingerbread Girl! There is an amazing
moment of genius in this play as the local law enforcement characters, who get
wind of this new plot, come in to arrest the baker, and she stands up to them citing
her citizen’s rights!
The play then got
a huge round of laughs from the audience as the original Gingerbread Man,
played by Grade R teacher Phumla Pakamile – who had stepped into this role only
a day before due to stage fright in the original player! – starts to harass and
tease the new Gingerbread Girl in an attempt to foil the baker’s plan to rid
the village of him, the baker’s bad baking mistake.
The production was presented in true
old-fashioned theatre style, with each player individually introducing
her/himself, saying what grade they were in and what character they would be
playing. It was all carefully guided by
Volunteer Co-ordinater and University of Kent Drama graduate Charlotte Whitehead, who started
the Drama Club in an effort to introduce theatre to the school and also to
encourage some of the more especially quiet and introverted learners at Chintsa
East Primary School, where much of her work takes place (and with whom Friends
of Chintsa has a long and colourful partnership), to come out and try a different
form of expression.
For the players who
took part in the final production this definitely seemed to have done the
trick: to me there was a marked difference in confidence among many of the
children I have met and worked with since starting my work with FoC. They all projected their voices well,
speaking clearly and fluently, and recited all their lines without a hitch –
Charlotte hardly had to voice prompt from her first row seat at all!
For the players who
took part in the final production this definitely seemed to have done the
trick: to me there was a marked difference in confidence among many of the
children I have met and worked with since starting my work with FoC. They all projected their voices well,
speaking clearly and fluently, and recited all their lines without a hitch –
Charlotte hardly had to voice prompt from her first row seat at all!
This is Chintsa East Primary School’s
second play, the first being a public performance some years ago of Where
The Wild Things Are. As a
transformative program, the Drama Club provides a much needed alternative to
the challenging circumstances these little people are growing up in, and speaks
directly to their natural ability to pretend and play – perfect! Every school should have a Drama Club!
We would like to congratulate Charlotte and
the Drama Club players on a truly outstanding performance. You all worked very hard on this project, and
it showed! If this spirited group of
actors keeps up the current trend, they will become a great set of new leaders
to watch out for.
Imagine
what more of this kind of work could do for the youth in our village!
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| From top: Babalwa Haji, who played the baker's 'Igor', receives her performance certificate from her director, Charlotte, and then takes a bow. Bottom: one of the gingerbread men that Charlotte made for each of the players |
