Note: I am sorry for not updating this as much as I should be. Life in Neft has been crazy daisy so my plan is to bombard you all with everything that has happened in the last two months or so. This is Part 1.
Three months ago (has it already been three months ago?): Elnur, my best student who I am tutoring for a program to study in the US, says to me, “May I question?” This is the sentence he says most often to me. I always respond with an “of course.” He continues by saying, “I can sing and I can act. What can you do for me?”
I had no intention of doing anything big this year. My plan was just to sit tight with my conversation clubs and observe what the kids needed and, more importantly, wanted. But here was a kid, four months into my service, demanding that I do something with his talents. Without hesitation, I say, “We are going to have a talent show.”
At this point I had about a month and a half until the end of school. I had to act fast. I wanted it to be a really low key production. It would be short, simple, and be seen by a small gathering of family and friends exclusively invited by the students in the performance. I also decided that I would help with a small play in all of my conversation clubs and the rest of the talent would come from what they already knew. With my 5th from club, I had them memorize Five Little Monkeys. They would all shout out the poem while the kids who played monkeys jumped across the stage. In my 6th and 7th form, we performed The Shoemaker and the Elves. Every kid would read two sentences in English and then the translated version in Azerbaijani. They were each given small roles to act out as the story was narrated. It was the easiest format I could think of. There was no dialogue and no pressure to get the timing of motion and lines correct. They simply narrated the story themselves and provided a visual at the same time.
In my 8th form club, we performed The Nutcracker. Let me just say here that I did not have any sway in this decision. It is actually pretty humorous how we came to that decision. With this class I told them to write a story and we would perform it. I told them that it could be any story that they wanted so long as they wrote it themselves. As usual, the boys and girls naturally split up into their own groups. The boys didn’t make the deadline so theirs didn’t make it into the show. But the girls went something like this, “One woman live in castle. She has daughter. Another woman came and give daughter doll. Doll woke up. Fought King of Mouths. King of Mouths die. They go to far place. The end.” I read it over and over again and still could not understand it. But finally I broke it down with them and realized first, that the doll became alive when the pricess was sleeping. Second clue was that Mouths was actually Mouse meaning Mice: The king of Mice. Then it clicked! They wrote The Nutcracker! That’s when I saw that the title was Edward and Barbie. They had seen the Barbie version on TV just a few days before. I laughed hysterically that, even though I was thousands of miles away, I still couldn’t get away from The Nutcracker even for one year.
My 9th form club was the most active in this. They all had ideas to sing songs, do magic, and had asked me to help them prepare a Michael Jackson montage. They all wanted to do something. I only helped them with the dance so I didn’t know what was going on with the other acts. One of the boys, Parviz, couldn’t decide what he wanted to do. First he was going to help with the magic show, then he was going to beat box and finally he said “I don’t know what I can do.” I asked him, “What are you good at?” He thought about it for a while and finally he smiled sheepishly and said, “I talk a lot.” “You’re the MC.” He grinned even wider.
Week of the Show: I had asked my director if I could be in the Act Zali (auditorium) for dress rehearsals. IT was the first time that all the clubs would see each other’s performances. I don’t’ think the younger students really understood what a talent show was. So when they saw that they could do other things besides what we had prepared in class, I suddenly had them lining up telling me what other spectacular things they could do. We started the week with eight acts. By the night before the show, we doubled that. All of sudden students were pulling out piano pieces, dances, and sweet singing voices.
The greatest part about this whole production though was seeing my older kids step up to the plate. I had told Parviz to write jokes if he wanted. He showed up the next day with little skits that would be inserted between the acts. They were little corny jokes, plays on words. He directed the other students himself and they all decided where each one would go. They didn’t need my help in any of this at all. The lot of us stayed in the Act Zali for four hours every day that week. They only complained when I said that I wanted to go home because I was hungry and approaching 8 o’clock. They even helped me translate and quiet down the younger kids. When I needed a person to take the tickets, they found me one. They were incredible and I felt so proud to see them take these steps towards the future adults that they will eventually become.
The Day of the Show: About 100 people came. I had first imagined 60. I told all the students they could invite up to 5 people, no more. I emphasized that they ask their families since parent support is so few and far in between. Also this way, the audience would be more attentive as opposed to having just a free for all open house. It went perfectly. We started a little bit late but other than that, everything went as smooth as possible. All the small plays went well. No one forgot their lines or where to go. There weren’t long waiting periods between the acts for setting up. I can’t describe the amount of accomplishment I felt for these kids. They were so excited afterward. Even now, writing about it a month later, I feel a small lump of emotion in my throat. I know exactly what it feels like to be finished with a show and wish that it could go on forever. I have had that feeling every year for the past 15 years of my life. I know how incredible it could be. However this time was even better because this thing that they did, this thing that they had never done before, it wasn’t mine. It was theirs; through and through. I simply gave them the guidelines and they ran with it and made it into something much better than I could have given them. It was truly a magnificent thing to see and be a part of. The greatest thing is, if they wanted to, they would do this by themselves again and again and again so it really could go on forever. I was never even on stage, but it was the greatest performance I’ve been in.
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