Shakespeare 4 Kidz - Dubai: Special Needs Workshops

The crowd erupted and cheered with jubilation as the Queen of Africa finally agreed to marry the Duke of Dubai. But young Fatima, playing the Queen at this year’s Shakespeare 4 Kidz Hamlet workshop, didn’t make it easy for Rafay, taking on the role of the Duke.

He had to bring her gold, the finest silks from Thailand and exotic animals before she agreed to the proposal. She even sent two of her finest swordsmen to fight the Duke’s men — a battle which was won fair and square by the desperate duke.

So it was happy endings all round at the workshop at the Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs run by two of Shakespeare 4 Kidz’s (S4K) biggest personalities, Alan Clarke and Sarah Gimblett.

Fits of giggles

A little shy at first, the youngsters took a while to get into the spirit of the action but it wasn’t long before Alan’s comical facial expressions and over-the-top actions had the children rolling in the aisles and queuing up to take the next spot on the stage.

The group performed a number of fictional stories which saw them running, jumping, making noises, copying lines and of course, wearing bright costumes.

The dynamic duo from S4K used fans and spray guns to simulate wind and rain, a move which naturally had the children in fits of giggles.

Teacher Aswathy Mathew said: “This workshop is absolutely wonderful for the children. It is jam-packed with multi-sensory movements for them and they enjoy themselves so much. I have to congratulate the guys from S4K because in just 20 minutes they had already captured the children and had them eating from the palm of their hands.

“That is easy with school children but with special needs youngsters it is always more of a challenge. The children have loved every minute of the session and we wish they could come more often. They are all performers at heart and I think they will miss the stage after this.”

To see the original story on the Gulf News website - click here

What they say about us:
"One of the country's leading children's companies tours The Tempest and Macbeth throughout 2005. Expect an intelligent staging sensitive to the tastes (and concentration spans) of younger children." Guardian Unlimited 2005