ALEA in conjunction with the BGT English Theatre Company and under the patronage of the British Embassy Luxembourg warmly invites you to a Festival of English Plays, presented exclusively by school groups and English school classes from around Luxembourg.

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 Luxmbourg.

 

 

Under the Patronage of Her Majesty’s Britannic Ambassador John Marshall and the British Embassy Luxembourg

 

BOCK OP KULTUR 13+

All public performances are also open for schools. Reservation: T. (+352) 26 32 43 1 M. scolaires@kulturhaus.lu

 

 

 

PROGRAMME:

 

FRIDAY 23^rd February 

 

19.20-20.00:  30-MINUTE HAMLET William Shakespeare

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.

 

 

20.30-21.15: THE BRIGHT BLUE MAILBOX SUICIDE NOTE Lindsay Price

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^th FEBRUARY

 

 

 

14.00-14.45: PETER PAN AND THE LOST CHILDREN Adapted by Mike Goergen and Jenny Schank from the play by J.M. Barrie

Lycée Arts et Métier

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...

 

 

15.15- 16.00: THE NIBELUNGEN-RELOADED. PART1 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 dragonslayer, 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...

 

 

 

16.30-17.15: 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.

 

 

 

19.00-19.45: SPLIT By Bradley Hayward

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.

 

 

 

20.15- 21.00: DNA By Dennis Kelly

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?

 

 

 

21.30 – 22.15: WAR AT HOME Lycée Michele Rodange

By Nicole Quinn & Nina Shengold

Directed by Elisabeth Heiter

On September 11^th 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^th FEBRUARY

 

 

 

14.30-15.00: A HUMAN WRITE By Amy Sutton

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?

 

 

 

15.30 – 16.15: THE LAST SONG Devised by the girls of the Notre Dame Sainte-Sophie English Drama Group

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.