Why?
Why theatre and workshop?
Theatre, in it’s essence is an activity that shows a group of young people the importance of team-work, wherever that may be. It show us that nothing is possible without the other person, without their reactions (clearly seen through the immediate reactions of the audience to the actors in the shows or in a workshop) . By creating this relationships between actor and audience, Theatre creates a social link, a bond, immediately.
Acting is a fun way to practice a language. There are a lot of benefits:
- It’s motivating, pupils love it
- It adds variety to lessons
- It promotes fluency. Pupils understand and retain language easily
- It allows you to explore different cultures, writers…
- It’s multi-sensory and inclusive
- It offers opportunities for cross-curricular work
- It helps embed good language learning practices.
Enjoyment
Pupils enjoy themselves just like they would in their own language. Performing a staged play helps justify the use of a different language.
Improve confidence
Pupils learn to value their own contribution and understand their role within a group. Shy children often enjoy performing when performing as someone else.
Linguistic objectives
Drama allows children to develop a range of skills useful for successful language learning:
- Listening skills
- Reading skills
- Expressive reading/speaking
- Memorizing through listening and repetition
Pupils practise natural intonation (exclamation, interrogation, etc) and pronunciation
Theatre will stimulate pupil’s own natural creativity.
Attending and participating in the plays and workshops is an exciting adventure! Your enthusiasm will inspire pupils.
What?
We create theatre and workshops in English for students learning it as a foreign language
We tour in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, the Netherland and Germany.
All the vocabulary, conjugation, grammar and various expressions used in our plays are appropriate to the curriculum. The actors speak slowly and clearly, and use repetition so that students can fully follow the storyline and are kept enthralled by the show. In addition, a summary, a glossary, song lyrics, etc, are available online, so that teachers can prepare the students for the day of the show and thereby maximize their theatre experience.
Student participation: Some students have small roles and get to come on stage and perform with the actors. Also, throughout the play we maintain the audience’s interest using different media: we use devices such as puppetry, mime, song, and dance to convey ideas so that even students with the weakest level of English can still understand and follow the storyline. This ensures that all students, regardless of their level, can enjoy the show. It enhances their confidence in listening – a skill which we believe to be fundamental in learning a foreign language.
Who?
Our first venture into Theatre-in-Education began with the Irish-based company French Theatre For Schools for whom we have been working from 1995 to 2009. Within that company, Xavier Hock was performing plays in French with 3 other native French-speaking actors, and Christine Beziat was organising their tour in the different secondary schools throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The idea of a TIE tour in France and Belgium was conceived then, as a result of the phenomenal success of French plays in the Irish schools.
So, in 2007, Xavier and Christine create the Emerald Isle Theatre Company, and made their first tour on the continent – performing in Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium and in the Aquitaine, the Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon in France.
Since 2010, the EITC performs everywhere in France, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Through the FTFS, then the EITC and now Pickles by EITC, we want to share with students our passion for theatre and at the same time our passion for the language. Our principle is: Learning through Fun.
