The French Schools Drama Festival returns with its 33rd edition tomorrow after a two-year hiatus starting off with the regional finals.
The festival, running under the theme Lutte Contre La Pauvrete (Fight Against Poverty), which brings together secondary schools across the country and showcases plays in the French language, resurfaces barely a week after organisers successfully held the French Storytelling and Singing grand finals last Saturday at Mzuzu University.
Jacaranda Cultural Centre (JCC) and Maison De la France Director and French Honorary Consul to Malawi Luc Deschamps said Thursday that they were thrilled to relaunch the festival after missing out for two years.
“The motivation of the schools and the students is inspiring. We are looking forward to great performances this Saturday (tomorrow) across the country,” Deschamps said.
Fifteen schools will battle it out in the regional finals across the country.
In the Southern Region, whose contest will take place at Jacaranda School for Orphans in Blantyre, four secondary schools will battle it out and they are Jacaranda, Army, Hilltop Academy and Zomba Catholic.
The Central Region will bring a battle between six secondary schools namely Likuni Boys, who are the hosts, Dedza, Kasungu, Marist, Robert Blake and Simulemba Community Day.
In the Northern Region, five secondary schools will shrug it off at Katoto Secondary School in Mzuzu and they are Chitipa, Kaseghe, Katoto, Mzuzu Academy and Marymount Girls, who are the defending champions.
He said two schools from each region will make it to the national finals to be held at Likuni Boys in Lilongwe on March 4 2023.
“Ludovic Cocogne, French Embassy Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Action is expected to travel to Malawi from South Africa to be with us during the national finals,” Deschamps said.
On not having more schools in the 33rd edition of the festival, Deschamps attributed this to the break and also the two weeks closure of schools in Lilongwe and Blantyre due to the cholera outbreak.
“Some schools pulled out as they did not have enough time to prepare,” he said.
Deschamps said the last regional finals of the 32nd edition of the festival that took place in November 2019 attracted four schools from the North, seven from the Central and five from the South.
