On 19 January, New Zealand’s Prime Minister announced that not only would she not seek re-election this year, she was resigning with effect on 7 February. On 19 January, New Zealand’s Prime Minister announced that not only would she not seek re-election this year, she was resigning with effect on 7 February. Ms Ardern said … Continue reading “Jacinda Ardern Resigns as NZ Prime Minister”
West Side Story will return to Châtelet in Paris this autumn. 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. Keep an eye on their schools’ page for group reservations and workshops, available in the … Continue reading “Save the Date: West Side Story on Stage”
This A1+ worksheet is based on the trailer of the new Matilda musical, directed by Matthew Warchus and released on Netflix on 25 December 2022. It was adapted from Roald Dahl’s famous story and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Matilda the Musical. The story is faithful to Dahl’s orginal: Matilda Wormwood is an extraordinarly … Continue reading “Matilda the Musical”
Canada has a new national celebration: Ribbon Skirt Day will be held every year on 4 January. The idea came from a young First Nations girl, Isabelle Kulak, now 12, who wanted Canadians to recognise and celebrate indigenous culture in the form of the ribbon skirts and shirts many tribes create. The country already has … Continue reading “A First Nations Schoolgirl Inspires a New Canadian Celebration”
Our challenge last year was to get 4e students interested in musicals! As we couldn’t take them abroad on an exchange, we felt like taking “a bit of abroad” to them, through musicals. You can read what we planned to do here, and below you’ll find our conclusions about what worked and what didn’t. Though … Continue reading “Assessing musicals with 4e euro”
After the Midterm elections in November, the 118th Congress has been sitting since 3 January. The Midterms were expected to result in a defeat for the Democrats and a lame-duck presidency for the next two years. But the Democrats have kept hold of the Senate and although the Republicans have a small majority in the … Continue reading “What’s Going On in the U.S. Congress?”
A chance meeting between novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and actor Bill Nighy led to Ishiguro remaking Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Living, setting it in post-WWII London. Nighy plays a buttoned up English civil servant who changes his attitude to life when he is told he is dying. It may not sound like it but it’s a … Continue reading “When a Nobel Laureate Remakes a Cinema Masterpiece”
The strange, gothic Addams family have been a staple of American cultures since cartoonist Charles Addams created them for The New Yorker in 1938. And when you think Gothic, Tim Burton is definitely one of the first filmmakers who comes to mind. He has created a Netflix series, Wednesday, about the daughter in the Addams … Continue reading “The Addams Family, Tim Burton Style!”
In the U.S.A., the holiday season starts with Thanksgiving at the end of November and encompasses Christmas and New Year. For over 50 years, African Americans have had another holiday to celebrate: Kwanzaa, from 26 December to 1 January. The celebration was conceived by a civil-rights activist and doctoral student in African studies at the … Continue reading “Happy Kwanzaa”
The British Royal Foundation is awarding five Earthshot prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help the planet. The 2022 winners were announced at a ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts, on 2 December hosted by Prince William. The winning projects are based in Australia, Britain, India, Kenya and Oman. The first Earthshot Prizes were … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes: Class of 2022”
