“Lughati” Launches 3rd Play Award Competition for Preschoolers

The Sharjah-based “Lughati” initiative has just announced that 12 kindergarten schools have been shortlisted for the 3rd edition of its ‘Lughati Play Award’ contest, which has been designed to ignite their creative imagination and enrich their Arabic language abilities, in both spoken and written forms.

It is the first-of-its-kind initiative in the Arab world that is strengthening Arabic language skills of the UAE’s youth in a way that appeals to the age group. The Lughati initiative is enabling young Arabs to understand, appreciate and use their mother tongue by presenting it to them in creative ways using interactive digital technologies and smart devices.

Scheduled to be held from April 22-24, the award aims to enrich children’s vocabularies, help them speak Arabic fluently, and endear their mother tongue in a way that they are able to reach out to it naturally for general discourse. The contest also aims to brush up their creative talents and stage performance abilities.

All participating schools fall under the Sharjah Educational District, and include Al Qarain, Al Nafaes, Al Baraem, Al Morooj, Al Sondus, Kalba, Al Ruwaidha, Khorfakkan, Al Yasmeen, Al Rafe’a, Al Khan and Al Qala’a.

Badria Al Ali, Manager of Lughati, said: “Through its last two editions, the Lughati Play Award has motivated numerous Sharjah kindergarteners to learn Arabic and develop a true passion for their mother tongue. We are pleased to announce that the upcoming edition will see a contest among 12 kindergartens, and we are gearing up to make the most of this opportunity to help these young minds develop a genuine curiosity and fondness for this beautiful language. The competitions will use fun theatrical performances as a way to provide an impetus to the participants’ creativity. These creative endeavours are part of our goals to develop learning processes by incorporating diverse tools and methods that stimulate the little ones to explore the aesthetics of their native language."

Competition participants of this edition’s Lughati Play Award participated in a theatre training workshop at Sharjah’s Moltaqa Al Qasba last Tuesday and Wednesday. Presented by theatre director Hassan Rajab, the workshop involved 21 teachers from the kindergartens participating in the 2018 award, and focused on themes of acting, art of diction in children's theater, basics of children's theater screenplay writing, and direction techniques.

Stage director Hassan Rajab welcomed the award’s idea and goals, praising the great support offered by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to not just the development of the Arabic language, but also connecting it to the cultural movement – theatre in particular. He highlighted great role of the award in discovering promising talent, and its influence in deepening a love of the Arabic language in youngsters. Rajab expressed his hope that the idea of ‘Lughati’ and the award would be extended to other emirates.

The rules for participation include that the play produced by each participating team must include one main topic from the ‘Horouf’ programme used by Lughati. Contestants will be judged on their linguistic integrity in a performance whose essence should be based on one of three key topics: ‘My Mother and Father’, ‘The Sun’ or ‘The Colours’. Each kindergarten will be allowed one performance of no more than 15 minutes, and can use dances in their performance to convoy emotion.

Training for participating kindergartens will take place from April 11-18 at Al Qasba Theatre. The award’s judging panel, which is composed of a selection of theatre experts and professionals,

including actors, Hassan Rajab and Mohammed Saeed Al Salty, and playwright, Ahmad Al Majed are devising a special judging criteria to select winners. This will include but not be

limited to attractiveness of the play and its portrayal of the selected topic, innovative costumes, set design, and most importantly, the usage of simple classical Arabic. Diction, stage presence and diction will also be assessed.

The Lughati Play Award prizes include AED 10,000 for first place winner, AED 7,000 and AED 5,000 respectively for second and third place winners. AED 3,000 will recognise an outstanding group performance, and an incentive prize of AED 2,000 each will be awarded to best decoration and best costume.