Navy celebrates founding with lunch for kids

The Regent’s plays host to a magical weekend of Shakespeare

Father Ray media students receive new computers

Annual Summer Camps kick off at Asian University

Navy celebrates founding with lunch for kids

Patcharapol Panrak
The Royal Thai Navy 1st Army Area celebrated the date of its founding on March 11 by providing lunch for students at the Ban Chong Samaesarn Community School. The school is located in a local fishing village.

Navy officers help the youngsters with their delicious meal.
The Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Navy’s 1st Army Area, Vice-Admiral Chaiwat Pukkarat, led Deputy Commander in Chief Rear-Admiral Worasak Channoo, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Rear-Admiral Nopadol Suthamasapa, Chief-of-Staff Rear-Admiral Taweep Sukpinit and Deputy Chief-of-Staff Capt. Anon Darasawat, who all went armed with lunch for the students.
They were welcomed by school director Worawit Chansai and Prasert Pitakkorn, president of Samaesarn Sub-district Administrative Organization.
Vice-Admiral Chaiwat said that March 11 marks the day that the Royal Thai Navy’s 1st Army Area was established; therefore, “It is a good time for officers, military personnel and employees to make merit and hold public activities to create benefits for civil society.
“It is especially important to support underprivileged people, students and impoverished children. The aim is to create a favorable image for the public of the naval forces so that both could support each other,” he said.
“One thing that should not be forgotten is kindness and merit. From today on there will be a dedication to deceased former officers in the unit who were revered people who had developed the unit to be what it is today,” he said.

Children in the fishing village school line up for lunch.

The Regent’s plays host to a magical weekend of Shakespeare

‘We are such stuff as dreams are made of...’

Prospero ensemble lift the finale.

Michael Thomas
Over 100 students from 8 international schools recently gathered in the Globe Theatre at the Regent’s School for a weekend celebrating and exploring the work of William Shakespeare. The focus of the event was a line spoken by Prospero towards the end of one of Shakespeare’s final plays, The Tempest: ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made of ...’ All the activities, in some way, reflected the theme of dreams and the contrast between inner mystery and outer reality that lie at the center of Shakespeare’s drama.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The event was led by Alex Clifton, Head Tutor of Acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, with two other professional theatre artists in support: Kathy France of Caravan Theatre, Bangkok and Rey Buono, a director and teacher currently based in SE Asia. The inspiration for the event came from the name of the Regent’s School Theatre, The Globe, being the same as William Shakespeare’s original theatre, now reconstructed on its original site in London.
Each school was invited to bring a 15- minute excerpt from one of his plays, with the Regent’s School starting off on the Friday evening with a memorable performance of Macbeth featuring a particularly strong performance from GCSE Drama student, Hyke Mazmanian in the title role.
This was followed by equally fine work from the students of NIST, Bangkok in a segment from Twelfth Night, followed by a highly entertaining presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Patana School. A beautifully costumed and performed excerpt from Romeo and Juliet by the students of the Modern International School of Bangkok contrasted with a startlingly different, but no less effective, performance of part of the same play from the students of Harrow School, Bangkok. The audience was amazed by the boldness of production and confident performances from all the schools which resulted in well-earned applause from the audience.

Oberon commands the fairies in The Dream.
The performances were accompanied by a wide-range of Drama workshops reflecting different aspects of Shakespeare’s work, ranging from an excellent session on Shakespeare’s the rhythms of his language led by Alex Clifton under the title of ‘Noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not…’; Kathy France with a lively session focusing on the connection between Commedia dell Arte and Shakespeare, complemented by Regent’s Art Teacher, Cameron Graham’s session on making Commedia masks.
Rey Buono looked at the ways that the ideas of the ideas of the Russian theatre practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavski can bring insights into Shakespeare’s work in Shakespeare’s Method with an in-depth study session on the Sonnets for Year 12 IB English students, led by Regent’s Head of English, Tamara Baxter.
Craig Anderson’s session focused on the way costumes and props can provide unexpected insights into approaches to character with a another session led by Regent’s English and Drama teacher Tom Rawlings on Shakespearean language transformed into ‘rap street sounds’ and an equally lively workshop on the techniques in stage fighting which focused on the combat scenes in Romeo and Juliet.
The students were also divided into mixed ensemble groups named after famous characters in Shakespeare’s plays: Ariel, Hippolyta, Time, Chorus, Oberon and Prospero. These groups gave the students an opportunity to engage in discussion and reflect on the performances seen over the weekend. Each group was also given a line to interpret and present at the finale on Sunday afternoon. This resulted in a set of highly imaginative performances and provided a fitting end to what had been an exciting weekend of learning and fun that had opened up doors of understanding and had dispelled any notion that Shakespeare was dull, boring and irrelevant to people’s lives.
In his excellent closing address, Alex Clifton emphasized the importance of maintaining an equal balance of faith and certainty in these uncertain times and underlined the salient qualities he looks for in an aspiring actor: hunger to succeed; honesty and truth; humility; humour and humanity.
This was the first Shakespeare Festival and plans are already in process for the next event in 2010.

A scene from Romeo and Juliet.

The art of stage fighting.

Twelfth Night.

Father Ray media students receive new computers

Father Lawrence Patin (left), president of the Father Ray Foundation, Brendan Kelly (2nd left), president of the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya, Rotarians, teachers and students pose for a commemorative photo.

Sawittree Namwiwatsuk
The Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya and Norwegian private sponsors donated seven computers to the new media class at the Father Ray Vocational School for Disabled. Keen students can now learn new computer programs for digital imaging and video production.
Teacher Chalermpol Chompookot said that the media section is a new area for the school, aiming to teach still photography, computer graphics, the making of TV programs, and editing videos to produce finished products.
Helped by donations and sponsorships, the vocational school has 174 boarding students, offering food, accommodation and schooling for free for the students from almost every province in Thailand.
The Media Section is the smallest with only seven students but it is a section trying to meet a demand and is likely to expand.
TV producers and local video editing experts come in to teach while regular teachers take care of general computing software and hardware knowledge as well as advanced graphic design with Photoshop and Illustrator.
Media Education takes two years so the first class is expected to graduate at the end September 2010.
Chalermpol said the school is very thankful to the Rotary Club and sponsors who made it possible to have powerful full-fledged media computers for all students.
The seven disabled students were selected from many applicants to the school last October. They have different disabilities that do not seem to matter when it comes to working on the computers.
The next semester starts in May and the school is seeking new sponsors as more computers are needed.
Fr. Ray Vocational School for Disabled can be contacted at 038 716 247-9 ext 6100 for the school administration or questions can be directed to Teacher Chalermpol at mobile 084977 6602.
The Rotary Club Jomtien-Pattaya is found at www. rotary-jomtien-pattaya.org

President Brendan Kelly (2nd right), Jan C. von Koss (2nd left), secretary of the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya and Jomtien-Pattaya Rotarians visit the new media class.

Annual Summer Camps kick off at Asian University

Early morning aerobics.

Susan Joyce
The first of the two annual Summer Camps has just kicked off at Asian University, with 136 youngsters staying on the campus to better their English, and have fun. A group of teachers from Pattaya are also improving their English communications skills at the university, and join forces with the Summer Campers for early morning aerobics classes.

Can’t be late for dance aerobics.
Three of the campers, Naphat Kukiatkan, Tanchanok Sathirasethawong and Korakot Teerasawad, have written the following:
“Talking about sports that can make you healthy, some people might think about football, basketball, badminton or tennis. But have you ever thought about the kind of sport that moving your body all around and every part? That’s right, it’s an aerobic dance.
In this camp every Tuesday and Thursday we have to wake up early in the morning for aerobic dance. Everyone has to do it, including TA (Teaching Assistants) and teachers. We have to follow what our leaders do. It has many steps. The things that we like about this aerobics are, it’s good for your health and it’s fun. It doesn’t matter what have you done, but it matter that you have to do something. Every sport can make you healthy. So it’s good to do some.
The four-week programme includes 22 hours of English classes each week, plus IT and mathematics. In the evenings and at weekends, there is cooking, arts and crafts, and Latin and Jazz dancing as well as day excursions to various local attractions.
The second four-week Summer Camp starts on April 16, and there are still a few places available. Details are on the Asian University website.

Can you touch your toes?

Step to your right - aerobic dance.

Parents and students at start first summer camp 09.

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