Successful pageant

"Well done Gżira Pageant Group. It was a fantastic and professional presentation." Such words could be heard from the big crowds that attended the three presentations of "Hekk Hu l-Bniedem" that were performed at the Gżira parish church.

Time for rehearsals was very short since this year Easter came much earlier than usual. As this play was performed in church, we had to choose dates before the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. A bigger problem pushed us to perform a week earlier than scheduled (because of the elections). All this demanded bigger sacrifices - five weeks of almost daily rehearsals till late at night.

About 100 actors, ranging from very young children to pensioners, perform in this pageant. Families form one big family with the sole intention of announcing the grand victory by Jesus Christ over death - the resurrection.

A fantastic well done goes to our exceptional director Noel Cesare who had great help from Nicolette Farrugia and Jason Zerafa. A big thank you goes to author Joe Borg for always supporting us with his scripts and this year also with his presence as an experienced actor. I can't but mention our parish priest and group president Fr Karm Tanti for his wise suggestions.

And of course a very hearty thank you to all actors for their dedication and attendance at rehearsals even though they all used to do it after a hard day's work. Apologies to our young members when sometimes we were angry with them but they know quite well that discipline contributes to the end result.

Such a presentation needs hard work - a lot of props, loads of costumes, curtains, sets, lights and sound, promotion, make-up, hard-working backstage people... well, so many links to form such a big chain. Thanks go to all of them.

Such performances cost quite a lot to put up but we have always found support from friends. Two of these fantastic friends lately passed away and I have to name them and thank them publicly because they always gave us the much-needed support. One of these was Albert Rizzo (ex-Gżira Pageant Group member) who, even during his last days on the hospital bed, still sent us a donation. Our only regret is that he did not make it to see one of our performances.

The other was Paul Azzopardi (Paparukei Confectioners) who like Mr Rizzo always supported us. May God bless their souls. The success of our presentation is down to our determination and help from people like these.