Knowing they would be playing in front of an audience the children were over excited and nervous I had therefore to "calm" them down by having them watch the last chapter of Peter and the Wolf, by Prokofiev prior to two rehearsals, which had me finally "nervous", as nothing seemed synchronised as I would have expected.
Despite being very young and not having had too much time to memorise the text in English I still believed then that they were capable of doing better and I was right because the actual performance was second to none, with just an unexpected event at the beginning when a four year old, who was supposed to be in charge of the sounds started crying the moment he saw his mother in the audience, which led us to let her move over to him and "play" her part.
There were a few times in which I had to "conduct" the "stage entrance" of the little actors, whilst Ana knelt in the back prepared for any eventuality involving the falling of the scenario setting, but taking into account the young age of the participants we were both very happy with the final outcome and so were all who came to see the play, the administrator included.
Both the administrator and the head of the training centre made a speech before the handing out of the participation certificates. We then all went into the classroom to see the children's artistic works on display.
Praise can be shown in quite a wide variety of forms (flowers, books, drawings made by the children) but having had many of the children asking their parents if they could come again next year was the most heartfelt praise of all ...
Note: Photos of the last day's ceremony gently taken by João de Barros
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