English Theater Competition 2014

OK, maybe they don't look that riveted...

A nervous murmur filled the air as one hundred expectant secondary school students sat, waiting. After months of preparation, finally the big day was here!

I took a breath, stepped onto the stage, and took a deep breath.

"Welcome, everyone, to English Theater 2014!" I said, smiling broadly.

I, too, had been preparing for the big day for months. This year, in addition to helping Laura coach our kids with their ten-minute skit, I was in charge of coordinating the whole competition.

"Scene One: At School"

Though I was paranoid that something terribly awful would go wrong, the day actually went really smoothly. The groups presented their skits -- some of them funny, some serious, some...well... a bit boring, but they all worked hard and showed off their skills with pride. One skit was about a group of siblings trying to convince their parents to let them finish school.  Another dealt with a girl whose family forces her into prostitution, and she eventually gets HIV. Heavy stuff.

This guy very reluctantly ended
up playing the leading lady.

My own group's skit was about a young couple who, after a disagreement on whether or not to use condoms, go to the hospital and find out one of them is HIV positive. This was particularly challenging for our kiddos since all two girls in our club dropped out two weeks before the competition, so we ended up having some cross-dressing. Still, they dealt with it like champs, and this year we had no line-forgetting disasters like last year. I hope those kids that don't graduate this year continue to do English Theater again next year.

After all the skits had been presented, we had lunch while the judges deliberated, and then everyone came back for prizes and certificates. While my group didn't win, or even place, I was very proud of them anyway. They competed against pre-university schools with 11th- and 12th- grade students who practice English on a regular basis, and they held their own. Pretty impressive for a super-mato school. Laura and I gave them a pep talk afterwards, telling them that if they study hard and work well, they could someday attend one of these big-city schools that won.

Everyone, winners and non-winners alike, received miniature English-Portuguese dictionaries, which were a big hit, and everyone went home smiling. Personally, I went home and fell asleep for 14 hours, but that was just me.

English Theater 2014: Success!

Mavudzi-Ponte's 2014 English Theater Team:

Me, Laura, Redi, and our nine boys. Love Izaquel's face (brown shirt)