Students in Williams Lake had the opportunity to perform Wednesday thanks to a touring workshop-performance organized by Canadian Parents for French.
During the workshop, held at Lake City Secondary School’s Columneetza campus, students eagerly practiced a dance number, part of the O Canada bilingual tour.
They also practiced a short play aimed at breaking down Canadian stereotypes and played a Canadian Trivia game.
“In the program we cover aspects of Canadian history such as the Deportation of the Acadians in the 1700s, building of the railroads, Battle of the Plains of Abraham and Louis Riel,” said Peter Harrington of Vancouver, the show’s roadie.
As director Paul Cournoyer explained and rehearsed various aspects of the show with the students before they were going to perform for their peers, he smiled.
“This workshop is ripe with confusion,” he chuckled.
The bilingual project is particularly exciting because it uses a form of youth-based crowd-sourcing to generate content for the commissioned piece and the workshops accompanying it, said Robert Rothon, executive director Canadian Parents for French in a press release.
O Canada! will visit 120 schools across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Yukon, reaching 46,000 students, between January and March 2014.
Williams Lake marked the 51st stop on the show’s tour.
“We have high hopes O Canada! is going to be a memorable bilingual experience that will directly engage youth in some key nation-building moments,” said Justin Morrow, Canadian Youth for French founder. “In doing so, we hope to help instill a sense of civic responsibility and hope for youth to be part of the next chapter in the Canadian enterprise.”
