{"id":71527,"date":"2018-11-12T02:42:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T00:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=71527"},"modified":"2018-11-12T02:42:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T00:42:48","slug":"jacaranda-starts-defence-in-french-drama-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/11\/12\/jacaranda-starts-defence-in-french-drama-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacaranda starts defence in French Drama contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Sam Banda Jnr: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Defending champions in the French Schools Drama competition, Jacaranda School for Orphans in Blantyre, started on a positive note on Saturday as they came out top during the regional finals in the Southern Region.<\/p>\n<p>The Southern Region finals were held at Jacaranda School for Orphans at Chigumula Township in Blantyre.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/french-schools-drama-back-for-31st-edition\/\">Jacaranda<\/a>, which broke a five-year jinx last year to claim the top position, outclassed Joyce Banda Foundation, Malosa and Mulunguzi to show their seriousness in retaining the crown.<\/p>\n<p>Six schools were supposed to battle it out in the Southern Region contest but two failed to turn up.<\/p>\n<p>The 31st edition of the French Schools Drama Festival running under the theme \u2018<em>La Discrimination\u2019 <\/em>saw Jacaranda triumph with a play titled <em>Pourquoi <\/em>which means Why?<\/p>\n<p>On second position was Mulunguzi with their play Mais Sa Peau [But His Skin]<\/p>\n<p>Jacaranda and Mulunguzi have qualified for the national final to be held in March 2018.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/2-jacaranda-students-to-perform-in-bosnia\/\">Jacaranda<\/a> School for Orphans French teacher, Louis Zulu, said they would work hard to retain the championship.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe want to break the record by retaining the championship so this is just the beginning. For now we will polish the play,\u201d<\/em> Zulu said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chairperson of the organising committee, Poya Chapweteka, who happens to be Jacaranda Cultural Centre and Maison de la France Director of French Studies, said he was impressed with the plays staged on the day and the performances.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe schools have improved on acting but they should work harder on the language,\u201d<\/em> Chapweteka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He also called upon schools to participate in the contest which he said was crucial to the French language.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThrough this platform, students do well in French studies,\u201d<\/em> Chapweteka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the Northern Region, only two schools turned up for the contest with others chickening out.<\/p>\n<p>Marymount and Phwezi were the only schools that participated.<\/p>\n<p>The Central Region, which had more schools, has earned itself three slots.<\/p>\n<p>The schools that have made it to the national final are Robert Blake Darlo Girls and Dedza Secondary.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cDzaleka came fourth. They were very strong on the language but did not put enough effort in other areas,\u201d<\/em> Chapweteka said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sam Banda Jnr: Defending champions in the French Schools Drama competition, Jacaranda School for Orphans in Blantyre, started on a positive note on Saturday as they came out top during the regional finals in the Southern Region. The Southern Region finals were held at Jacaranda School for Orphans at Chigumula Township in Blantyre. Jacaranda, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":71530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71531,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71527\/revisions\/71531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}