Chinese New Year Spring Festival at the Playhouse Theatre

As part of our international links and study of Mandarin with the Confucius Institute, on Friday 27th January 2017, we were invited to take part in their annual celebration of Chinese New Year at the Playhouse Theatre. A selected group of Year 6 children had spent lots of time learning a traditional Chinese dance and song, and were all extremely excited and honoured to be the opening act to commemorate the Year of the Rooster.

The children spent the entire day at the Playhouse busily preparing for our performance; having several rehearsals, sound checks and curtain calls, it was all very professional! The children were amazed by the elaborate costumes of the professional performers who were wearing traditional Chinese opera masks, and even managed to catch a glimpse of the traditional martial artists during their impressive rehearsal. Best of all, the children enjoyed tucking in to a feast of Chinese food for their lunch, and impressed the Consulate General for China by speaking Mandarin.

Despite a few nerves backstage, the children were excellent; performing to a crowd of over 650 people! Post-performance, needless to say, they were elated! The children should all be very proud of the hard work, commitment and courage that they showed over the past few weeks, and especially on the day of the performance.