Το Ανατόλια συνεργάζεται με το Τέξας για την Θεατρική οργάνωση Μανχάταν Κλαμπ

For the seventh straight year an Anatolia high school English class has participated in the New York-based Manhattan Theatre Club’s TheatreLink Program, which brings together far-flung secondary schools in the experience of reading, writing, and performing plays. This year Anatolia partnered with Clements High School in Sugarland, Texas, ranked among the 100 best high schools in the U.S.. The project climaxed on May 9 with video-conferenced performances of two plays in Anatolia’s Raphael Hall – one play presented by Anatolia actors to the authors watching from Texas, and another written by the Anatolians themselves and watched by them on screen live from a high school stage in Sugarland. Both performances were followed by video discussions moderated from New York.

Over the past five months, students at both schools had read David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2011 Broadway hit Good People and communicated via the Internet and through videoconferencing with each other and with MTC’s teaching artist, professional actor/director Joe White, in New York. Both schools wrote short plays based on the theme (getting out vs. staying behind) of Good People. Students not only wrote but directed and acted in the plays, stage managed, designed the costumes, built the sets, ran the lights, and (in Anatolia’s case) composed and performed the music, all as part of their regular class work, albeit sometimes during weekends and during the Easter break.

The heart of TheatreLink is cultural exchange through the universal language of theater. “It’s theater without borders,” says supervising Anatolia English teacher Phil Holland. “The project required our students to work collaboratively and creatively, under time pressure. They not only managed that, but they did it all in their second language, winning compliments from the Texans on their English skills.”