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The beauty and satisfaction of following passion
By Luiza Bengtsson and Claudia Royo
As international students, we came to Cranbrook to experience a new culture, lifestyle and educational system.
So far, one of the most important lessons we learned was not to take things for granted; most of us do not have as many opportunities to be involved in such an amazing theatre program back at our schools in our home countries.
In Brazil and Spain, the public schools never offer decent art programs. They say it is either too expensive or that they do not have time nor space available to hold those activities, which is rather unfortunate, since our citizens pay extremely high taxes, and giving youth the opportunity to be in touch with art is a priceless investment.
Here at Mount Baker Secondary School, the kids are able to have a deep immersion in the performance arts world while having a blast with their friends, without having to pay any extra money for that. Too bad that most of them are not aware of the great situation they are living and do not know how to appreciate it.
Thankfully, all of our friends (or should we call them a family?) who are still working really hard to make the Mary Poppins Musical an impressive production, really love what they do and do not complain about the long hours of rehearsals. It is actually something beautiful to see teenagers happy to go to school on a Sunday, excited to dance for seven or more hours. There is nothing more beautiful or satisfying than seeing people doing things so passionately.
Being part of Mary Poppins and The Optimist have been some of the best experiences here, and definitely will be our favourite memories of our exchange year in Canada. Not only do we have the chance to act, dance, sing, express ourselves, we also were able to find talents we did not even know we had and to make friends for life.
After meeting people who share the same passions as yours, and spending so much time together, you really build an indestructible bond, which no distance is able to spoil.
We would like to thank all the people involved in the Wild Theatre department for letting us have the time of our lives with them. It feels amazing to be part of something so powerful and beautiful as musical theatre, that can touch people’s hearts and pass an important message to the audience.
Therefore, we would also like to invite all of the readers to come watch Mary Poppins and find out which amazing message we have to share this time. The show will be held on the Key City Theatre from the May 5 to 8. We can guarantee you that you will not regret going.
– Luiza Bengtsson and Claudia Royo wrote this piece on behalf of all the international students taking part in this upcoming production.
Lead photo: (L to R): Luiza Bengsston (Brazil), Fabian Ernst (Germany), Manon Metzler (France – Rotary Exchange), Jan Janssen (Germany), and Claudia Royo (Spain). Photo by Julian Bueckert
