Shakespeare Festival at Ali Institute of Education in Lahore, Pakistan

The Ali Institute of Education in Lahore hosted a Children's Shakespeare Festival from November 3rd to 6th that boasted a surprisingly high turnout and has been deemed a great success. It was the first such Shakespeare festival to take place at Ali Institute, after an extremely successful children's film festival over the summer.

The festival ran for four days and involved several different area schools including SISA (School of International Studies in Sciences and Arts), LGS (Lahore Grammar School) Shah Jamal, LGS Model Town, Beaconhouse on Raiwind Road and in Model Town, Rosan's Islamic School, Laurelbank, Lahore Alma, Learning Alliance, The Educators' Tahir Campus, Linderholf, Al Ala International Islamic School, DPS Model Town, and Resource Academia, Salamat School System, and Message Grammar School among others.

Students from the primary, elementary, and secondary levels were chosen from each school to compete in sonnet reading and soliloquy reading competitions. Students at all levels did an excellent job, and the judges were quite surprised at the caliber of talent on display during the competition. Some students even showed up in period costumes to look the part of Shakespeare's characters. Soliloquies were chosen from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Othello." Students who attended the festival were given in depth study guides for these two plays to help them understand the main themes.

Highlights of the festival included not only the reading competitions, but also a variety of film showings, a poster competition, and live performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by SISA students. The drama was directed by Wasif W. Mir and Azma Khan, and was performed on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. All performances were packed and it was tough to get a ticket to Thursday evening's final performance. Getting the tickets was well worth it though, as spectacular costumes and scenery complimented the student actors' hard work.

The institute's director, Steve Ryan, expressed surprise that the film showing on Wednesday morning was attended by over 500 students! Since the auditorium has only 300 seats, many students were sitting in the aisles. Tents and snack booths were also set up outside for children to relax and discuss the films.

Hopefully this event will serve as an event to open doors for more of its kind throughout Lahore. Pakistani students are generally challenged to focus on academics, and not as much time is spent on developing creative arts such as drama, painting or music. It is not uncommon for a student, even an "A" student, to go from school to endless tuitions in various subjects with little time for sports, relaxation, or other extra curricular activities. Ali Institute, dedicated teachers, parents and students who seek to increase arts education in schools will hopefully use the Shakespeare Festival as a stepping stone to the development of a home grown arts scene right here in Lahore.