International School Theatre Day of Drama devoted to the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birthday

A very special event happened in our gymnasia on Friday February 17. That was the Day of Drama devoted to the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birthday. It appeared to be a truly festive occasion for our pupils. The students of the 8th-11th forms acted some scenes form different novels by Charles Dickens such as "David Copperfield", "Oliver Twist", "Dombey and Son", "Christmas Carol".

The atmosphere at the Assembly Hall was really special. The actors tried to do their best interpreting the characters of their favourite Charles Dickens' heroes. During the brakes between the scenes the classical musical compositions performed by the pupil of the 5th form... created the background which gave special emotional expressiveness to the performance. The most distinctive thing about the Day was that the participants were evidently enjoying playing themselves. Children like acting and they should be given a chance to express themselves.

As for the audience, it consisted of the pupils of the 5th-10th forms and the teachers. What I particularly liked is that everybody watched the scenes with growing interest. And in general I must admit that the audience was really very responsive and the actors were warmly applauded after every scene. The juniors among the audience may not have understood every word as everything was spoken in English, but the actors were playing so well that the intrigue was quite clear. Watching attentive and excited childrens' faces I've come to the definite conclusion that they lack theatre, theatrical play and intrigue.

It is justly said that theatre increases our joy of life and colors our daily routine with the golden light of romance. Some of the actors did impress us by the brilliance of their performance. For instance, the pupil of the 10th form B. Prudius captivated everyone with complete sincerity playing the part of Scrooge in "Christmas Carol". And what Mr. Dombey was created by Dima Ostroumov, a pupil of the 10B form! A man with a heart of stone deprived of any neutral human feelings! And the youngest participant, a 10 year old Sasha Lavrenko, in the role of little Paul "Dombey and Son" was so moving while asking why money (which was so powerful and could do everything) didn't save him his mummy.

The Day of Drama was conducted by G. V. Ivanova, the teacher of English Literature, who asked pupils the questions about the main characters of Charles Dickens' novels. At the end the actors were presented with honorary certificates verifying their active participation in the Day of Drama and rewarded by overwhelming applause of grateful audience.

J. B. Priestley in the book "The Wonderful World of the Theatre" was absolutely right to say "Theatre is the ancient but ever-youthful parent of all entertainment dramatic form. It is a magical place where man meets his image! It is the enduring home of "dramatic experience", which is surely one of the most searching, rewarding, enchanting of our many different kinds of experience".

Natalia Rebenko,
teacher-methodist,
Cherkasy First City Gymnasia

Updated at 04.03.2012