On September 23 and 24, the advanced English class of Ms Bootmann and some other Year 12 students participated in a Romeo and Juliet workshop organized by Bridgeworks and led by great artists from Uganda.

We were joined by Tekya Abramz, Kifuko Moureen Dirichu (Key), Ejuku Mark, Byamukama Bryan Powers, Peter Kagayi Ngobi and Ben - actors, percussionists and dancers from Uganda.

After a joint ice-breaking and team-building session, the students were divided into four workshop groups. For two days we had the chance to take classes in breakdance, percussion, acting and writing.

At the end of the two-day workshop, the artists performed their play “Romeo and Juliet in Kampala”, which relocates the classic Shakespeare play to modern-day Uganda. The performance, which was partly in English and partly in Ugandan, included breakdance elements as well as traditional and modern percussion music, and gave us the chance to get involved by reading out and performing single segments we had developed during the workshop.

During these two days we had a lot of fun, we danced together, we played together, we got to know more about Uganda and its culture and we also got to know Shakespeare in an intercultural context, which was really entertaining and exciting. Apart from that, though, we also got to know ourselves better and tried out new things we wouldn´t usually try out in our free time.

Thanks a lot to our guests for being so understanding and respectful, and for creating an environment in which no one was forced to do anything they were uncomfortable with, and in which everybody supported each other.

Text: Beyza D. (Q2), Foto: Beyza D. (Q2) und A. Bootmann