SPECIALevents Middle School Greek Play: Ornithes Tonia Firigou, Modern Language Dept. Chair FEBRURY 25 2007 – ACS Athens 6th Graders perform Aristophane’s Ornithes As Greek teacher of Language Arts class 6th grade last year, I’m very proud to announce that on Sunday February 25 we went with all my 6th grade L.A. students to participate in the Multi-Cultural Educational Fair (Diapolitismikotita) with our successful play Ornithes. I really feel very excited because our participation was very successful. We were all there at 10:00 in the morning, the students were excited for the play and the parents were very supportive and positive for this participation. We had worked very hard and everything was very well organized; there was an excellent cooperation among students parents and myself. Our school ’s presentation that I had prepared and presented based on our school’s profile, as well as the research I had done about DIAPOLITISMIKOTITA and the cultural diversity, was very interesting, providing information about the quality of learning offered to our students. At the end of this event we had a small reception. I feel proud of all my students, they were great, dynamic, motivated and excited…. they didn’t only perform but they had also prepared two power point presentations and we also had classical music by two students. Finally, Ms.Kouri and Mr.Karamberopoulos congratulated ACS Athens, our students and me for this excellent participation. Most important was that our students had the opportunity to better appreciate the meaning of cultural diversity, which will serve them in the future to be responsible and global citizens. The students who participated were: Marta Aharonian Dimitris Antoninis Daphni Apostolides Michael Dragoumanos Nikos Efstratudakis
Kassandra Karydas Athanassios Kosteas Anastasia Symeonides Jason Thomopoulos Vassilios Trafalis
Pantelis Vagionas Nikolas Kalantzakis Ioanna Kapatou Anna Petrakos
Anastasia Symeonides, a 6th grade performer, wrote on the behalf of the Greek LA 6 class. We are proud to announce that the Greek LA 6 class has accomplished something that we are very content about.This class made up of sixth grade girls and boys performed an ancient Greek comedy, Ornithes. It was organized and supported by our very own Mrs.Firigou the Greek LA teacher. The play was written by the famous ancient comedian Aristophanes, who produced over forty-four ancient Greek comedies. The students worked through even their free time to pull off this small play. After it had been performed in the Conference Room, it was so successful at ACS that a very exciting proposal came into the picture. The object offered was the chance to present the small play in the Athens College Theater! That week, the teacher announced that there was a large surprise at hand, and the students couldn’t sit still.The prospect of great things that would make them famous loomed in their minds. What could it possibly be? When the cat had been let out of the bag, the class erupted in cheers. The event took place on Sunday, the 25th of February. The class was very excited and the anticipation boiled over like too much water poured in a jug. What an opportunity! It turned out to be a very victorious skit, and everyone came back satisfied. During the show, for once, the students backstage kept quiet. Everything worked beautifully. The narrators in the beginning of the play enunciated their words correctly, and the articles flowed smoothly. The stunt men had done their job well in tumbling on the stage floor. The birds fluttered in with a happy attitude and a petite feel. Stepping primly over the fallen guard, the birds gave their ending speech.The comedy was enjoyed to the extreme, and it ended up being a very memorable experience. And even though the play took place on a Sunday, no one was absent and even if some of the actors were late, the show went on! The curtains finally went up! The birds fluffed their feathers, humans primped their hair, and the goddess quickly looked in the mirror to see if she was presentable. They stepped onto stage, and in modern Greek, gave the audience a chance to glimpse a world of ancient Greek comedy. We would like to thank our teacher, Mrs. Firigou, and all the parents that volunteered their free time to help out with our play. Chaperoning and helping with make-up, they lent a hand to make our performance possible.
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