Theatre is an enjoyable tool to teach basic life skills such as listening, following directions, respect, and communication. Most importantly, classroom theatre is instrumental in imparting visual, auditory, and hands-on learning to school students.
The students can make more connections between fiction and reality. They may retain more information because they are having more fun. The students are also honing their memorization skills by remembering a few lines.
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education attaches great importance on school theatre. “Starting from next academic year, a special curriculum for theatre arts will be added to the secondary level government schools,” Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi told The Peninsula.
He said that theatre is considered as one of the most prominent educational institutions due to its pioneering role in building nations and promoting moral and national values among youngsters.
Ministry of Education and Higher Education is running the second School Theatre Festival at Abdul Aziz Nasser Theatre at Souq Waqif giving opportunities to teams from government schools to compete in drama shows. Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi said that private schools will be invited from next years to participate in the festival.
The festival is hosting drama shows by schools students on different issues such as nationalism, awareness, heritage and morality. The festival will continue until January 23 at Abdul Aziz Nasser Theatre, after that it will move to Theatre of the Qatar Scouts and Guides Association in Umm Sennim from January 26 to 28.
Speaking about the festival, Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi said: “The School Theatre Festival enhances the activation of the theatre role in schools, due to the fact that it enhances the oral and written expression.”
He said that the festival explores the energies of students and develops their aesthetic and literary taste and gives them life skills such as public speaking, team spirit and communication skills.
“I noticed through theatrical performances of schools during the first day of the festival, the great interest of school administrations in forming and supporting theatrical teams,” said Al Nuaimi.
He said that theatre gives fun and excitement. “The School Theate has many benefits; providing entertainment, enhancing linguistic skills and increasing vocabularies of the artists,” said Al Nuaimi. He said that theatre also helps in developing ability of the students to express and create educational and moral values among them.
Educational Psychologist, Amina Ibrahim Al Hail said that the theatre provides remedies to the people with psychological problems. It educate children positive values and makes shy children bold. She said that theatre also teaches students shouldering responsibilities and love for team work.
“The students also trained through theatre works and play for speaking properly,” said Al Hail. She said that they also learn about body language by playing different characters during the play. “School theatre is a very useful tool to create awareness about behaviours influencing students to shun the bad habits,” she added.
Maryam Numan Al Emadi, Director of Al Ruqaiya Preparatory School for Girls said that the school is running an initiative of drama theatre for four years. She said that the girl students benefited from the program in developing their personalities.
“We noted the students who participated in the program are enjoying great speaking power, interaction and cooperation. I think the students need drama classes since childhood. We as school should develop the art skills of students,” said Al Emadi.
She said that the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to resume the activities of school theatre is praiseworthy because school can benefit a lot from this.
“The artists of drama club in our school are able to face the society and help achieve the goal of Qatar National Vision 2030 as they can represent the country in intentional forums,” said Al Emadi.
“Al Ruqaiya Preparatory School for Girls participated in the second School Theatre Festival with a play ‘Sanat Al Majd’, a Qatari initiative in which 10 girl students performed,” said Al Emad adding that the school has a drama club enrolling 40 girl students.
A total of 18 primary and preparatory schools are participating in the ongoing second School Theatre Festival. Over 484 students will perform during the festival with 18 plays with the support of 21 authors, 24 directors, nine poets and 11 composers. The first theatre of the second School Theatre festival began on first day with the show of students of the Saud bin Abdul Rahman Model School.
The play was entitled ‘Together... We Build the Nation’. The students of Nusseibah Bint Ka’ab Elementary School for Girls performed in a play entitled ‘Needle and Thread’.
The show was a unique kind of creativity that includes all aspects of creativity, including girl students ’performance, sound and music effects, decor, directing, and theatrical text.
The play ends with demonstrating a paragraph on the Qatari folklore. The School Theatre competition continued its shows for the second day in a row at the Abdel Aziz Nasser Theatre in Souq Waqif, where the activities of the second day included a play, ‘Your family is waiting for you - your country needs you’. A group of promising talented artists at Hamzah bin Abdul Muttalib Preparatory School performed in a play (Do not Rush) under the supervision of school director Muhammad Abdullah Al Balushi.
The show deals with a real-time issue to catch the attention of people on reckless driving in Sealine area. The play tells the story of a group of friends challenging each other for car race in Sealine area.
A friend of them kept advising them to stop adventure of reckless driving but in vain. After a heated argument, the race of reckless divining began with an exciting video that ends with the tragedy of the collision of the two cars leaving one person in intensive care unit and other to operation theatre.
They were discharged from hospitals in wheelchairs regretting on their acts, but it was too late. Then they decide to launch an initiative entitled (Do not rush, not to be reckless) with the participation of the General Directorate of Traffic to educate young people about the seriousness of the demonstration which could claim the life.
