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“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”: Teach For India

By Chaitra Murlidhar and Anushri Alva:

Date:24th March, Saturday, 2012

Venue: Vitthalanjan Mangal Karyalaya, Wadgaonsheri, Pune

Time: 6:30 pm

Performed by: Grade 3 & 4, St. Francis High School, Vishrantwadi.

“Anything to eat?” cried Charlie, laughing. “Oh you just wait and see!”

To most kids in grade 3 and 4, this line signifies the end of an exciting book, which is just one of the many books they have read and have access to. To our students, at a low-income private school, this embodies the beginning of an era where they now believe that they can triumph against all odds.

The Charlie and the Chocolate factory musical is not a production put up by 80 children that will last one hour on March 24th but it is the culmination of a year of dance, drama and art lessons; a year of reading a challenging book for children who couldn’t read one sentence when we started out with them; 5 months of rigorous practice; a year of fighting against labels — too fat to dance, too shy to act, too dumb to read, too poor to succeed. This is the triumph of 80 little children who, before this, had never been given a fighting chance to prove their true worth.

2 acts, 12 dance sequences and spectacular sets will bring alive the journey of 5 children and their parents through Wonka’s magnificent chocolate factory, transporting you to a magical space where the underdog will emerge victorious.

Project ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is an art-integrated curriculum developed and implemented in an under-resourced school by two Teach For India Fellows — Chaitra Murlidhar and Anushri Alva. As part of the curriculum, the students of Grades 3 and 4 at St. Francis High school not only read – Charlie and the Chocolate factory, but were also given access to art, theatre and dance lessons, run by professionals, throughout the year in order to allow students to explore the text in an alternative and creative space.

 

Website: http://toinfinityandbeyond2012.weebly.com/index.html

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/To-Infinity-and-Beyond/124370171010615?sk=info

Trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eEMTPydz6V8 and 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9rTCTgB1rA&feature=related 

 

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