Thai Priorities.. Thairorities?

There have been some questions raised (by me) about the exact purpose of spending hundreds and thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Baht on foreign English teachers when you cancel their classes half the time.  Perhaps you'll want to accuse me of implementing my usual hyperbole here, but the class I will have seen the least at the end of my 16 week semester will have met 7 times, so the "half" is actually generous.  In the past, I have witnessed the school bring some pretty incredible projects to fruition (the sports day parade) and have heard of even more (the actual sports competition as well as several more academic competitions all over the north of Thailand).  Today, I got the unique chance to see yet another fantastic display of Thai patriotism.

The best way I can describe it was a concentrated and more specific version of the parade in the guise of a theatrical play.  Don't ask me what the play was about cause I still don't speak Thai, but you didn't have to understand a word to sit there slack jawed for 45 full minutes.  I would also say that maybe it's because I acted enough in High School or because I watch a lot of theater, but either way I pride myself in being able to recognize talented acting no matter what language is being spoken.  Let me tell you, these kids had "it."  They cheated to the audience!  They projected their voices (the expensive microphone system helped there) talking slowly but expressively!  They were never idle even when it wasn't their line and they stayed in character the whole time!  There were even some fairly difficult scenes, including several elaborately choreographed sword fights and death scenes with ACTUAL.  METAL.  SWORDS.  Talk about a liability risk that would never be taken in US American schools.

Basically, I just watched a professional-level performance but it wasn't just the acting which left me ogling!  The costumes, as you can imagine if you've read my parade post from several weeks ago, were unreal.  When you have a bunch of high school students in a performance maybe you cut some corners on some stuff, making sacrifices of money or time.  However, there was nothing tacky about what the student-actors wore and it was clear that all the stops had been pulled.  I don't think the queen herself would have turned up her nose to donning some of the more elegant gowns.

Furthermore, as can be expected in any Thai performance, there was traditional Thai dancing, accompanied by the stereotypical Southeast Asian tune.  However, even when the focus was on the drama in the story, the background music was gorgeous and certainly did it's part to tie the whole thing together.

Arguably the most breathtaking and unbelievable piece of this insane little puzzle were the props.  I've already mentioned that all the actors risked life and limb to bring you the clang of steel on steel during the fight scenes, but there was so much more than just that.  There were homemade beasts of burden made out of papier-mâché but strong enough to carry students and roll underneath them to give the appearance of real life.  So real was the cannon and so engrossed were the viewers that when it was pointed towards the audience, there were little screams of fear which quickly turned to giggles as we realized we were safe.  There were even scene changes with beautiful bamboo walls on wheels serving as makeshift curtains.  It was fabulous.

At first, I didn't take many pictures because I was facing the sun and quite far from the stage.  However, I moved up a little bit towards the end, including a creep behind the "stage" in order to get to the other side.  This is what I have to show...

These videos might not work... fingers crossed.