29589: Hermantin(News) Young actors show need for Haitian Creole (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Nov. 30, 2006


NORTH MIAMI BEACH
Young actors show need for Haitian Creole
A theater company's latest work about Haitian culture has its roots in a local 
controversy.
BY MARC MATHIEU
For The Miami Herald

In a North Miami living room where more than a dozen members of an acting 
troupe and children's choir are rehearsing an upcoming play, the sounds of 
conversation and laughter give way to a respectful silence as all focus on the 
voices belonging to 7-year-old Richsmith LeFevre, Emmanuelle Dorothy Eugene, 8, 
and Nickaflore Augustin and Dorothy Pierre, both 10.

They are the center of attention not because of what they are saying, but the 
language they are using -- Haitian Creole, their parents' native language.

No words are needed by others to convey their delight. Raised eyebrows, smiles 
and nodding heads express the thought shared by adults in the room: our 
language lives on.

''It's our language, but so many people have marginalized it that are own 
children grow up unable to speak it,'' Withnie Honore, one of the approving 
adults, said later. ``Our language is what makes us unique. If we lose it, we 
lose part of ourselves.''

Honore, a special education teacher at Greynolds Park Elementary, is president 
of L'Association Chretienne pour la Promotion de l'Art et de la Culture 
Haitienne, a not-for-profit theatrical company that promotes Haitian culture. 
This weekend, its latest production, Que Faire? will be presented in North 
Miami Beach.

The play, written by Honore and set in Port-au-Prince, centers around three 
children whose lives change after their mother mysteriously disappears. As with 
her four previous plays, it focuses on issues prevalent in Haitian homes, such 
as generation gaps, teenage rebellion and family reunification. The play is in 
Creole with a smattering of French.

The young actors in Que Faire? were recruited in part because of the recent 
controversy at Morningside Elementary in Miami, where some parents removed 
their children from the school after it began teaching Haitian Creole. Many 
complained that Haitian Creole was an obscure language, and said it would be 
better to teach Spanish or Mandarin.

That controversy, coupled with Honore's experiences of growing up in Haiti, 
where pupils were forbidden from speaking Haitian Creole in class, compelled 
her to include younger actors.

''It's an obvious, ideal situation to teach them how to speak Creole [for] an 
audience that understands and appreciate the language,'' she said.

Many of the young actors say they were unsure of their acting and linguistic 
abilities at first but found support from their parents.

''I thought I wouldn't be able to remember all the lines in a different 
language,'' Emmanuelle said. ``My parents helped me because they speak Creole 
real good.''

Nickaflore added: ``It was different from doing homework because my father was 
able to help me because he understands French and Creole.''

Nickaflore's character, Melodie, is the eldest of the three siblings in the 
play. Eventually, their father Romel (played by Daniel Remarais) decides to 
remarry his high school sweetheart Michelle (Arrie Fils-Aime), but Melodie and 
her best friend, Mama (Dorothy Pierre) have another plan. Suze Flerena, Ledna 
Honore Medard and Jean-Marc Fleurimond play key supporting roles as an aunt, 
maid and servant.

Most of the children took quickly to Haitian Creole, according to Nickaflore's 
father Onickel Augustin, who helped make the young actors and singers sound 
like children raised speaking Creole.

''They are wonderful,'' he explained. ``We rarely have to ask for their 
attention twice, they are punctual and they are eager to learn. They will show 
every Haitian parent in attendance that Haitian children do want to learn 
Creole and they can learn Creole.''

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