British choreographer Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures pride themselves in finding new ways of “telling stories without words”. In Romeo and Juliet, Bourne has taken one of the best-known words in the English language and transformed the familiar story in a reinvention which plays on the dystopian elements of the original script. Bourne … Continue reading “Romeo and Juliet Without Words”
If you are studying the 1961 film of West Side Story with your LLCER 1ère students, our Reading Guide will help them analyse key scenes, explore the background and inspiration to the work, and different iterations of this story of star-crossed lovers. West Side Story is a 20th century retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set … Continue reading “Our West Side Story Reading Guide Has Arrived”
Chita Rivera, a Broadway icon, has died age 91. Her first major role was originating the character of Anita in the original stage production of West Side Story in 1957. She was born Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero in Washington, D.C., in 1993 to a Puerto Rican father and a mother with Scottish-Irish origins. (Not … Continue reading “West Side Story Legend Dies”
The West Side Story production that has just finished in Paris will be touring to Bordeaux, Lyons, Rouen and Nantes in February and March. A full stage production, it is in English with French surtitles. The musical comedy by Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins is a reworking of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the Capulets and … Continue reading “West Side Story on Tour Around France”
If you are studying Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 with your LLCER 1ère students, you may want to take them to see this theatre adaptation in French which will be touring the country from January. Bradbury’s dystopian novel about a future world in which firemen don’t put out fires but instead burn books is a new … Continue reading “Fahrenheit 451 In Theatres around France”
If you teach in collège, you might like to sign your pupils up for an original multilingual story competition. It asks classes to write a story using elements of languages other than French. You need to sign up by 30 September 2023 but then you have till 24 March to send in your project. The … Continue reading “Multilingual Story Competition for Collège”
There are a few changes in the LLCER 1ère set texts list for 2023-2026 and lots of you have been asking if we are going to publish a Reading Guide for Fahrenheit 451. The answer is yes, and we’re also going to publish our first Film Guide for 1ère: West Side Story. The updated list … Continue reading “LLCER Update and Two Upcoming Reading Guides”
West Side Story will return to Châtelet in Paris this autumn. Reservations are now open for schools performances and workshops. The musical comedy by Bernstein, Sondheim and Robbins is a reworking of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with the Capulets and Montagues being replaced by rival gangs in New York. Reservations are now open for a … Continue reading “Save the Date: West Side Story on Stage”
William Kentridge’s work draws on South African culture and history as well as classical influences. He plunges his audience into a multi-sensory experience combining theatre, dance, music, film, drawing and animation. His show Sibyl is presented at Châtelet in Paris. Kentridge used his art to oppose apartheid and since the birth of the Rainbow Nation … Continue reading “South African Theatre, Music and Dance”
On 1952 London’s West End, Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, is a hit. Hollywood comes knocking at the stage door. But plans for a movie version of this smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after the film’s Hollywood director is murdered. Reality The Mousetrap occupies a special place in the work of Agatha Christie. … Continue reading “See How They Run: A Whodunit Within a Whodunit”