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Tribune News Network
Doha
POWER was chosen as the theme for Doha College's 2016 poetry evening and the performances did not disappoint. There was power, passion, pageantry and even a satirical poem on Donald Trump the newly elected US president.
Over 100 students aged 11 to 18 mesmerised the guests with 28 poems including some in Arabic, French, Spanish, German and Russian during the 90-minute event at the Doha College Al Waab auditorium.
Doha College's Head of English, Clare Fairley, said:"It lived up to its power theme, with a range of style, drama and humour shown within the poetry choices and the delivery. To have a choir-like recital of Shakespeare's ‘All the World's a Stage', a rendition of Maya Angelou's ‘Phenomenal Woman' and two original poems created by the students themselves, showcased the diversity of creativity and prose we encourage and support at Doha College."
"This annual event is a fantastic platform for our students to perform their favourite poems and readings; each year the students rehearse and study the poetry to be able to not only recite it perfectly on stage, but also to be able to bring the words alive and evoke the poet's emotions within their delivery," Fairley went on to say."Overall, the event is aimed at encouraging all students' passion for, and enjoyment of, literature and poetry."
English teacher and event organiser, Danielle Haddon, praised the efforts and commitment shown by the students, all of whom had gone through an audition in order to perform last night. All the poems were chosen by the students, who were free to interpret the power theme.
"On the night, their job was to captivate the audience and they certainly achieved that," Haddon said.
Noteworthy mentions were Year 13 student Ata Chowdry who was performing in her 7th poetry evening at Doha College and this year chose a French poem ‘La Puissance de la Nature'. The most humorous poem was a satirical one entitled ‘Trump Le Monde', a parody of Donald Trump written by Year 10 student Jack Dillon, and performed in public for the first time.
When asked about his inspiration, Jack explained, it's not a political statement really, purely my attempt at humour!
Dr Steffen Sommer, Principal at Doha College, ended the evening reciting a poem in Russian entitled ‘Parus' by Michael Lermantov. Russian is one of the six languages spoken by Dr Sommer, a trained linguist.
