White Horse Theatre visits with “Sticks and Stones” and “The Great Gatsby”
On October 16th, 2025, the White Horse Theatre visited Regental-Gymnasium Nittenau, bringing English-language theatre to life for our students. The British theatre company, well known for its engaging performances for schools, presented two plays – one for the middle grades, and one for the upper levels. The younger students enjoyed “Sticks and Stones”, a thought-provoking play about friendship, bullying, and standing up for what is right. With humor, emotion, and a clear message, the actors showed how words and actions can hurt — but also how courage and kindness can make a difference. The lively performance kept the audience engaged from start to finish, and many students later said how much they could relate to the story. The upper-level students were treated to a stage adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby”. The actors impressively brought the glamour and tragedy of the Roaring Twenties to life. Themes such as love, ambition, and the pursuit of the American Dream sparked a lively discussion with the actors afterwards. Students asked questions about acting, the characters, American and British accents, the language of that time and many more. Both performances were entirely in English, offering students not only great entertainment but also an authentic language experience. The talented cast succeeded in captivating everyone — even those who were initially unsure about understanding everything. It was a successful experience in understanding English especially for 7th grade, the youngest audience of the first play.
We would like to thank the White Horse Theatre for their inspiring performances and for making English come alive in such a vivid and memorable way.
Feedback from our students on Sticks and Stones (class 9a):
We think it was a great play and we enjoyed every single second of it. Bullying is a very important topic, we need to talk about it! The actors gave us the message not to be quiet if we see somebody getting bullied.
Sticks and Stones was a bit violent but that’s reality.
The acting was amazing and it was easy to understand. Thank you to the wonderful actors Charlotte, Tom, James, and Maria!
I think that the actors did a great job! I mean it’s not easy to change your outfit ten times! Sticks and Stones was helpful for younger kids to understand that bullying isn’t cool and causes very much harm to another person.
All in all, it was a very good experience and we could watch talented actors!
The actors were always in character and they spoke very clearly so everyone could understand them. And they were really nice after the show when you talked to them, they answered every question nicely!
