There is a bright side not to neglect when you encounter a total failure: you can nothing but improve. Therefore, the year following my first failure, I volunteered to undertake to prepare the yearly theater performance.

Those who had witnessed my first attempt were expecting the worse. Of course, I was decided to disappoint them.

The tragedy having ended in laughters, I let it to specialists and chose a comedy. The artists, and the sport coach who, again, was the helping teacher, agreed not to disclose what was happening during the rehearsals. I had told them what to answer to any inquisition. The truth (I have never taught lies), only the truth: "We are going to play a comedy by Plautus", but not all the truth.

Time passing, the pupils realized that they were going to take part in a one-shot event. The more the Day came near, the more they were excited. Came the day of the performance. The curtain opened to show an almost bare stage (shools are seldom rich enough to be able to pay for luxurious decor) and two characters entered, one telling the other:
Si ex te tacente fieri possem certior,
Ere, quae miseriae te tam misere macerent...

It is not up to me to say if it was a success, but believe me, to perform Plautus' Pseudolus in Latin was something.

Gabrielle Guichard
is a French teacher who helps you to learn French online.

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