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Thursday, 9 September 2010    School – Theatre – Life
 


Association Help for Children in Need, Pazardjik

The aim of the project was to create a model for creative activities for children from underprivileged communities and children with special educational needs that will better their integration in the society.

Three performances were planned and realized in the framework of a project - Macbeth and Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Regularly drama lessons and meetings between the children from the Shakespeare theatre school and children with special educational needs were organised. Teachers from the special home “Faith, Hope, Love” and the helping school in Pazardjik also took part in the trainings.

The performance Pericles, Prince of Tyre was played in the summer of 2009. It was directed by the English producer Rex Doyle who was spent almost a month in Bulgaria and worked with the children in Patalenitsa village voluntarily. Professional actors, students from Plovdiv University and children from the drama school took part in the performance.
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The Little Prince was played by children with special educational needs and children from the Shakespeare drama school Petrovden. The premiere took place in the medieval St. Dimitar church in Patalenitsa village in September 2009. The unusual environment in the ancient church created unique atmosphere of the performance. It was played several times in Patalenitsa village and in Pazardjik. The performance was also shown in town of Septemvry, Plovdiv, Varna and Sofia with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture. The performance won the big award of the Youth Theatre Festival in Pazardjik in May 2010.
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The meeting of young actors and their parents, directors of the schools in Pazardjik and the public in Pazardjik was especially moving. The children played their performance in the Youth Centre in Pazardjik with the support of Pazardjik Municipality. An open discussion about the difficulties of children with disabilities and the role of theater as an instrument for overcoming these difficulties took place afterwards.

The producer Rex Doyle came again to Patalenitsa in the end of June 2010, this time with two colleagues from Surrey University. They worked with the young artists on a performance of the Shakespeare play As you like it. Numerous audience applauded the children and young people from Shakespeare children’s school in the yard of the local mainstream school in hot evening of 23 July 2010.


Association Help for Children in Need
Nikola Kolev
2, Ivoilo Str.
Pazardjik 4400
Tel. 034 / 44 40 53
nikolev_bg@abv.bg



 

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