The past couple of weeks have been an absolute whirlwind, so I apologise for my lack of blogging. However, absolutely every minute of hard work has been worth it! On Wednesday the 29th July, 14 kids from Phuong Dien Village performed for over 700 people from their community and absolutely ROCKED! The audience laughed and cried and clapped, and the kids were so proud of themselves. We performed alongside the Hue Water Puppet troupe - who provided singers, puppetteers, and entertainment for the crowds. It was a wonderful balance and the water puppets really warmed up the audience ready for our kids - the main performance!
The kids were supposed to meet us at 4pm in the afternoon for their technical run and dress rehearsal on the stage. However at 2pm, all the kids were in their costumes and waiting excitedly at the meeting point. The kids looked so beautiful in their costumes and they were so switched on and ready to listen to instructions from our Water Puppet Director to get them through the technical stuff and also to adapt to such a huge audience. Oh it was so wonderful. Linh, Nam and I are just so very proud of them, I can't fully express in words.
Throughout the day, the local Red Cross made 5 announcements over the loud speakers in the commune, advertising the performances. When some of the kids went to the market in the morning, the sellers asked them if they were the ones performing tonight?" The kids asked them how they knew, and their reply was "Everyone Knows, we are all coming!" How wonderful. And yes, they ALL CAME! there was so much joy and excitement in the audience, a night just for them with children from their own village as the stars!
I can't give enough thanks to the different groups who all pulled together to make this night possible. When Linh, nadine and I arrived at 2:30pm we stood there and looked at the naked stage, which was looking like building scaffolding, I couldn't help but laugh and surrender. Then teh Red Cross arrived, and Mr Tue arrived, and in true 'techy' style with a roll of wire hung on his arm, he immediately got to work putting banners, securing the stage, climbing trees to clear the branches which were blocking the stage, just epic! Then the water puppets rolled in and started putting up their backdrop, and last but not least the Sound and lighting guys arrived, backed up their truck and got straight to work. It was beautiful to watch everything coming together, adn the kids just loved being a part of it, seeing all these people working together to make sure that their performance would be incredible. Pretty special indeed.
I will let the photos tell the rest of the story ....
The kids were supposed to meet us at 4pm in the afternoon for their technical run and dress rehearsal on the stage. However at 2pm, all the kids were in their costumes and waiting excitedly at the meeting point. The kids looked so beautiful in their costumes and they were so switched on and ready to listen to instructions from our Water Puppet Director to get them through the technical stuff and also to adapt to such a huge audience. Oh it was so wonderful. Linh, Nam and I are just so very proud of them, I can't fully express in words.
Throughout the day, the local Red Cross made 5 announcements over the loud speakers in the commune, advertising the performances. When some of the kids went to the market in the morning, the sellers asked them if they were the ones performing tonight?" The kids asked them how they knew, and their reply was "Everyone Knows, we are all coming!" How wonderful. And yes, they ALL CAME! there was so much joy and excitement in the audience, a night just for them with children from their own village as the stars!
I can't give enough thanks to the different groups who all pulled together to make this night possible. When Linh, nadine and I arrived at 2:30pm we stood there and looked at the naked stage, which was looking like building scaffolding, I couldn't help but laugh and surrender. Then teh Red Cross arrived, and Mr Tue arrived, and in true 'techy' style with a roll of wire hung on his arm, he immediately got to work putting banners, securing the stage, climbing trees to clear the branches which were blocking the stage, just epic! Then the water puppets rolled in and started putting up their backdrop, and last but not least the Sound and lighting guys arrived, backed up their truck and got straight to work. It was beautiful to watch everything coming together, adn the kids just loved being a part of it, seeing all these people working together to make sure that their performance would be incredible. Pretty special indeed.
I will let the photos tell the rest of the story ....
Our village stage
Couldn't have done it without these guys!
Our beautiful banner
The new advertisement for the Red Cross
Mr Tue climbing the tree
The Right to Shine
Sound and lights arrive
The stage
Tuat and his balloons
Tuan and Truyen backstage
The kids from Phuong Dien!!!
Village scene
The fishing boat exits stage left
On the bus to Saigon
Linh giving direction
Getting mic'd up
Testing testing 1 2 3
The dance routine, look out Backstreet Boys!
Beautiful girls
The Boys!
Team Ready!
Lights, camera, action
The crowd loved them!
Our little superstar Tuan
Some of the crowd
The kids Bow
Supporting the singers!
Amazing and Wonderful!!
ReplyDeletethey really do shine .......fabulous work guys!