This past weekend was a theatre festival that I have been helping to organize. The festival was for TYT theatre groups around the country. TYT - Thai Youth Theatre is a group that was started by several Peace Corps volunteers four years ago. Around the country, volunteers interested in theatre start clubs at their schools or in their communities. The clubs teach students about theatre and help them improve their English (because the performances are in English. Each year, volunteers work to organize a national festival. At the festival, clubs that are able, come together for theatre workshops and then to watch the performances of all the groups.

The festival has previously been in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. So, this year, we decided it would be in Korat. Since I'm the closest to Korat, I was co-chair of the festival. It was a lot of work and quite frustrating at times to get every detail in place, but we did it.

The festival was a great sucess. It was held at a performing arts college (technical highschool focused on performing arts) in the city. This was a wonderful space and offered a great opportunity for collaboration with the students and teachers of the school.

Groups arrived from around the country on Friday.

Many had traveled over night and were exhausted. The first group arrived around 3pm. I greeted the last group at 2am and shuffeled them off for their four hours of sleep.

The first day was filled with sessions about theatre: drama, costumes, set, sound effects and make-up. The sessions were held around campus with volunteers and Thais working together to teach them.

Volunteers teach about the different parts of the stage

students work in groups to discuss what can be used for sound effects

I helped in the make-up session. Lucky for us, there was a Thai theatre teacher who was an expert on stage make-up. She did most of the session. I'm sure they understood her Thai better than mine.

A make-up demonstration

First the students designed several faces - each with a different character.

Then, they saw a make-up demonstration and helped each other apply make-up to create one of the characters they had drawn.

Some of them came out looking rather strange. But, it was fun for all!