The Town Musicians of Bremen

Dear friends, our long-awaited performance "The Town Musicians of Bremen"  that we had prepared for a long time for has just taken place. All the leading roles were played by young people over 18 years of age with mental disabilities.

I came shortly before the performance and managed to buy the ticket as the first act callsounded, then the second and the third.  The small hall of The MaletskijSupport Center for young disabled people was almost completely filled by guests of the performance. Silence.Then welcome speech of the project manager, welcome speech of the stage director, greeting of all the actors on the stage.  And the performance began.

Weekly and then daily rehearsals, designing of costumes and scenery, compilation of background music - for several months The Maletskij Center concentrated on nothing but on "The Town Musicians of Bremen". The first night took place on 6 April 2013.

30 minutes of actions, 30 minutes of fear, 30 minutes of excellent positive emotions!

Yes, the actors confounded their lines, forgot actions because of strong excitement and fear, but at the same time they wanted the audience to get pleasure from the performance, to share their efforts and they wanted the viewers to feel their characters.

Every person inthe hall felt internal excitement of each actor, great importance and significance of the performance for them.  Every viewer:  with a look, with a smile or a song supported participants of the play.  For a wonder I remembered lyrics of all the songs and with pleasure sang together with the actors and the audience. Doing it I felt that we all were like a one big team, I felt that this wall in the form of stage separating actors and viewers disappeared and we all together were taking part in that kind performance about love and about true friendship.

Dear friends! All of us –actors, parents, staff of The Center and Caritas St. Petersburg – are sincerely grateful to you for your interest, concern and support! We would like to thank you all that you found time to participate in our event!

Arina Treskova Caritas