“The Play Group” about our school
A DAY IN BARNIM SCHOOL
On Wednesday October 5 2016 we, The Play Group, had the pleasure of performing our theatre play Elementary Watson-Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Mysterious Curler. It’s a murder mystery presented in English with lots of classic British humour.
The wonderful thing about Barnim School is that it is one of the few schools in Berlin which has a purpose built theatre with a wonderful light system. We are expert at performing in any space- school halls, gymnasiums, theatres and even corridors! But a theatre, with lights, allows us to create a great atmosphere. I also noticed a number of south east Asian students ( I assume from Vietnam, considering the political ties the former DDR enjoyed with that country) who attend the school. I was impressed at how completely integrated they were.
In order to cut costs we tour Europe with just three actors- we only have a light technician with us when we’re working in Naples and Campania (the region of which Naples is the capital). But each time we come to Barnim we are introduced to two or three very passionate and professional students who understand the theatre lights and who enthusiastically operate them for us.
We always have a very warm welcome from Mrs Jana Pechstein who is a member of the English staff who invite us to perform for their students. Once Jana knew that two of us were vegetarians and the third a vegan she reassured me that we would have something tasty to eat before the show. In fact we were offered lovely home-made tomato soup and very tasty rolls, plus coffee or tea and endless bottles of water! As we set up our stage three students were rehearsing some lines they wanted to read as a presentation of our show. They were very enthusiastic and did a great job! I remember some years ago two Asian German students did our presentation in the form of an excellent rap!
It’s wonderful how Jana is able to involve the students whenever we come to Barnim. The audience ALWAYS responds positively to our performances. They really encourage us to give our best with their very focused and attentive attitude. They are a lot of fun, and understand even the more subtler word plays or one liners! In the show we take three members of the audience and integrate them into the story. In the many years we’ve been coming to Barnim we’ve always been impressed by how spontaneous and talented our volunteer actors and actresses are !
At the end of the show we invite students to ask us questions. Again we get a great response, with students wanting to know such things as how long we rehearse our shows, our tours, where we live, if we have a family and how we travel from place to place.
And when we take our final bows there is always a very sweet moment when we are presented with a small present from student representatives who tell us how much they enjoyed the show and what a pleasure it was to have us in their school.
So you can see why we enjoy coming to Barnim. We are really made to feel very welcome, both by staff and students. When we feel appreciated it makes our work much lighter. And so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Headmaster Mr. Schmidt - Ihnen , Jana Pechstein and her colleagues and all the lovely students for making our Barnim Day a very, very special one. LONG LIVE BARNIM!!!
Eddie Roberts (head actor of “The Play Group” )
