The first Festival of English School Theatre 2018 (F.E.S.T.) is being organised by the Association Luxembourgeoise des Enseignants d'Anglais a.s.b.l. (ALEA), in conjunction with the BGT English Theatre Company, is being held from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 February 2018 under the patronage of the British Embassy in Luxembourg.
During the festival, a selection of short English-language plays will be performed by groups from 10 schools in Luxembourg at the Kulturhaus in Mersch (53 Rue Grand Duchess Charlotte) and will be open to the public.
The Festival of one-act plays will highlight some of the excellent English-speaking and artistic talent which exists among pupils in Luxembourgish schools, but which often passes unnoticed by the wider public.
With English becoming more and more important as the language of communication and business, the need for children to use it actively has become a crucial life skill. Several secondary schools around the Grand-Duchy have in recent years augmented their normal English classes with English theatre options or extracurricular activities. These school programs give the students a chance not only to improve their language abilities by using it practically on the stage, but also to develop their presentational skills and their self-confidence while learning about theatre arts.
This unique Festival will give you the chance to enjoy a wide variety of stimulating and entertaining plays and to support the vibrant young talent active in Luxembourg.
PROGRAMME
Friday 23 Feb @ 19:20: 30-MINUTE HAMLET, St George’s International School. Directed by: Clare Williams
Shakespeare’s classic tale of betrayal, revenge and soul-searching is re-told in 30 minutes. Hamlet’s father has died and his mother has married his uncle. When the ghost of his dead father tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his uncle, Hamlet swears to take revenge. But can bring himself to do it? Or will his inner conflict drive him mad.
Friday 23 Feb @ 20:30: THE BRIGHT BLUE MAILBOX SUICIDE NOTE, Lycée Classique de Diekirch. Directed by: Nathalie Bintener
Jake is a normal teenage guy. But his world is turned upside down when he finds a suicide note in his mailbox which is not addressed to him. Who sent it? Is it a cry for help? And what should he do about it? As these questions begin to obsess him, driving a wedge between him and his closest friends, we are given a sometimes funny, sometimes moving look at the effect suicide has on the people touched by it.
Saturday 24 Feb @ 14:00: PETER PAN AND THE LOST CHILDREN, Lycée Arts et Métiers. Directed by Mike Goergen, Lynn Peters and Jenny Schank; Set Design: Danielle Harsch
A slightly new take on a story that everybody knows: Peter Pan is the boy who is eternally young and lives in Neverland with his companions the Lost Children and the fairy Tinkerbell. They live the ideal childhood life of fantasy, adventure and battling with their adversary Captain Hook. But when Peter brings Wendy Darling and her brothers to stay with them, the Lost Children begin to question their desire to never grow up...
Saturday 24 Feb @ 15:15: THE NIBELUNGEN-RELOADED. PART 1, Devised by Sarah Lippert and Yann Ketter; Lënster Lycée Junglinster. Directed by Sarah Lippert and Yann Ketter
Reluctantly Toby and Patty prepare a presentation of the ‚Nibelungen‘-story for their German Class. In general Toby would prefer any video-game to a book, but somehow the story about Siegfried, the dragon slayer, captures his attention. The story of Siegfried, Kriemhild, Gunter, Hagen and the valkyrie Brunhild soon becomes so engrossing that Toby can no longer distinguish his reality from the fictional world of the book. Everything becomes narration; the dividing lines between reader, narrator and narrative dangerously melt and Toby wonders if he has become part of a greater story himself...
Saturday 24 Feb @ 16:30: UN-BOXED, Devised by ISL students & Susi Müller; International School of Luxembourg. Directed by Susi Müller
Remove yourself from the box. Be yourself. Optimize. Be the best version of yourself. Don’t be like everyone else. Be uniquely you. Be an individual. But don’t be too individual. Adapt. Readjust yourself until you fit in: into society, into that box. A project about individuality in a society that pushes uniformity.
Saturday 24 Feb @ 19:00: SPLIT, European School Mamer. Directed by Tony Kingston;
Bradley Hayward’s tragi-comic play tracks the lives of nine teenagers dealing with the separation of their parents and the break-up of their homes. Through a rapid sequence of short and often comic monologues and dialogues, we see how they react with aggression or sorrow, with defiance or cynicism or simply by burying themselves in themselves. But underneath it all they all want the same thing … a home.
Saturday 24 Feb @ 20:15: DNA, Lycée Aline Mayrisch. Directed by Heather Drewett
A group of teenagers does something bad, really bad, then panics and covers the whole thing up. But when they find that their cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their once fractious lives, where is the incentive to put things right?
Saturday 24 Feb @ 21:30: WAR AT HOME, Lycée Michele Rodange; By Nicole Quinn & Nina Shengold. Directed by Elisabeth Heiter
On September 11th 2001 two planes were hijacked and flown directly into the World Trade Towers in New York City. In the months following this world-shattering event, two writers ran workshops with students from Roundout High School in New York State, charting their conflicting emotions as the events unfolded. Using the students own words, they created a piece of theatre tracing the feelings of ordinary people when their world is turned upside down … and reminding us that the repercussions are still with us today all around the world.
Sunday 25 Feb @ 14:30: A HUMAN WRITE, EUROPEAN SCHOOL KIRCHBERG. Directed by Tony Kingston
The Writer works in a café, doing a tedious job while he tried to find the one great idea which will make his name. And he lives alone … except, of course, for all the voices and ideas that share his flat with him, desperately looking for a story to make them complete. At first just begging him to write, these voices slowly become more aggressive in their attempts to force him to write. Who is really in control: the writer or his ideas?
Sunday 25 Feb @ 15:30: THE LAST SONG, ÉCOLE PRIVÉE DE NOTRE DAME SAINTE- SOPHIE. Directed by Nicholas Staentz and Bettina Richarme
To fit in when you are a newcomer in a boarding school is not to be taken for granted. Singing is a passion for Grace but her classmates are not really ready for some new energy and new ideas in their comfortable group life. People say that music soothes the soul, so let's check if this is true and let's follow this bunch of girls who have taken up the challenge to create an original story for the occasion from writing to staging and singing.
Tickets
- 1 performance: €10 (students €5)
- 2 performances: €15 (students €9)
- 3 performances: €24 (students €13)
- Festival Pass: €60 (students €30)
For further details, including reservations, see www.kulturhaus.lu or tel: 470895-1.
