For four years now, as part of the Nice Book Festival, a show where literature and theater blend together has been organized.
This year, the Rothschild primary school is in the spotlight with Mr. Chantoiseau, the fifth grade teacher. The show was prepared by Ms. Mari Laurila Lili from the company: Le fruit du hasard. From Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story, a full program, the schoolchildren will present a show on May 24th at the Francis Gag Theater. Music, dance, and physical expression, a lively performance brought to life by children. Since March, these pupils have been diligently preparing for this major rendezvous with the stage.
This Monday, they invited us to attend a rehearsal of their show. Their spontaneity and seriousness were notable. Some already have a sense of the stage, movement, and space. Between the teacher and the actress, there is a perfect harmony, a mutual understanding from which the main beneficiaries are the children.
Putting together a theatrical production requires a lot of work: refinement, lights, sound, music, dialogues, managing very young actors, all of this must be perfectly polished for the performance at the Francis Gag Theater. The rule of the three unities disciplines these boys and girls, while simultaneously allowing them to discover literature, theater, and music.
A big thank you to Mr. Chantoiseau and Ms. Mari Laurila Lili for this magnificent gift they have given to these children, the adults of tomorrow. “Open a school, you will close a prison,” said Victor Hugo. Here, giving a child the taste for diving into a book opens vast horizons for them, those of knowledge and humanism.
Thierry Jan
