On Thursday, May 23rd the 4e Spanish learners attended with their teachers Ms Fernández and Ms Cameo a performance of the Palabras de Caramelo play at the Damansara Performing Arts Center (DPAC) and organised by the Embassy of Spain in Malaysia who had invited the Spanish learners from Lycée Français de Kuala Lumpur, Garden International School and Mont Kiara International School.
Inspired by Gonzalo Moure’s tale Palabras de Caramelo, the play tells the story of the friendship between Kori, a deaf child living in a refugee camp in Western Sahara and Caramelo, a little camel belonging to the child’s uncle. Universal values such as friendship, generosity and respecting people who are different are at the heart of this beautiful story.
The Títeres de María Parrato company -who specialises in puppet shows and has won several awards in Spain- made the trip especially to present this beautiful show to pupils from international schools.
Alone onstage with her puppets in Palabras de Caramelo, actress María José Frías deployed her talent to bring the various characters of Moure’s tale to life. The company created a magical universe with mere wooden pieces and some fabrics.
Designed for young children, this show uses traditional artistic resources such as shadow and light play on canvas and sand drawing as well as pieces of Arab music to recreate the atmosphere of the Sahara desert.
After the performance, the pupils and teachers had the chance to talk with the actress about her work.
This educational day trip had been prepared in class with the pupils, giving them the opportunity to discover this beautiful tale by Gonzalo Moure (which was adapted onscreen) but also the existence of refugee camps in Western Sahara and the living conditions, in the desert, of their occupants. During the next class, the pupils will be asked to imagine a sequel to this beautiful story.
It is now the second consecutive year that the Embassy of Spain in Malaysia has been kind enough to invite our pupils to a performance in Spanish (last year, it was a flamenco show). We hope to have again next year the opportunity to attend a show in Spanish so that our pupils may hear the language they are learning at school in a different context!
We thank the Embassy of Spain for organising this show and LFKL for giving us the means to successfully do this educational day trip. Thank you Mr Bichel! Thank you Ms Eymard! Thank you Ms Wagner!
Ana Fernández and Teresa Cameo, Spanish teachers