Senior 3 Theatre Outing to Valletta
On Monday the 4th of March 2024, the Senior 3 year group were accompanied to Valletta for a brief visit to the Manoel Theatre, followed by a writing workshop. The outing, being an English Literature one, was purposely designed to enhance an understanding of theatres and the important status they have held throughout history. This experience also served as an excellent exercise for the students to reflect on what has been tackled this scholastic year regarding drama and theatre in their English Literature lessons, whilst also making use of compare and contrast writing techniques and practising formal letter writing. Thus, this outing also served as a way of practising English Language Writing Skills within a literary context.
Since the Senior 3 students are currently exploring the Shakespearean play ‘Macbeth’ and have immersed themselves in exploring William Shakespeare’s life in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, the main aim of this outing was to help the students to get deeper insight on drama and theatre in a bid to then engage in a written comparison and contrast activity between the physical layout of the Globe Theatre in London and Malta’s oldest theatre – The Manoel Theatre.
Prior to the excursion, the girls were each handed a small booklet which included important facts on both theatres and the instructions for a guided writing activity which the students were encouraged to participate in after the theatre visit.
During the tour of the Manoel Theatre, the guide gave us detailed insight on the construction of the theatre, its history, important people who have paid numerous visits, theatrical performances and productions, among other details. As for our students, they did not cease to ask numerous interesting questions which made our visit all the more memorable.
Since the outing was focused upon theatre, we also stopped for a short while at the ruins of the Royal Opera House in Republic Street, where the students were able to reflect on its structure and compare it to the Manoel Theatre.
The students were then led to the Upper Barrakka Gardens for their lunch break, followed by their writing workshop. The latter involved the students teaming up in groups of 5 and they were asked to imagine that it is the year 1731, which marks the Manoel Theatre’s year of construction, and William Shakespeare has just stopped for a visit to Valletta to observe the final improvements added to the Manoel Theatre. Although William Shakespeare had already passed on in 1731, the students were encouraged to broaden their imagination for this writing exercise.
The students were asked to imagine that they are William Shakespeare and they have decided to write a formal letter to Grandmaster Manoel de Vilhena following their visit to the Manoel Theatre in Valletta, in order to congratulate him on his latest construction, whilst also providing additional suggestions or improvements he might be interested to take into consideration for his new theatre. This advice would definitely be deemed useful considering that Shakespeare built the Globe Theatre in London in both 1599 and 1614, together with the company of actors that Shakespeare formed part of – the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
Despite the challenging windy and rainy conditions at a point during our excursion, the girls managed to remain on task by discussing and formulating quite a lot into writing, before having a representative from each group type out the final version of their formal letter, as has been attached together with this article.
The letters to Grandmaster Manoel de Vilhena will be put up on display in school.
This was a Senior 3 English Literature outing organised by Ms. Margaret Vella and Ms. Erika Scicluna, together with the help of Ms. Carmen Camilleri. We are also grateful for Ms. Maria Borg, Ms. Elaine Sammut and Ms. Leanne Cauchi for accompanying us on the outing.
Ms Margaret Vella and Ms Erika Scicluna
