3. Review of Meie aja kangelane

Meie aja kangelane (A Hero of Our Time) is a play by Galina Polišuk that is based on the book with the same name by Mihhail Lermontov. The majority of the play follows an officer, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, during the 19th century.

What strikes out about the production is that there is a pond in the middle of the stage and overall, the set design is impressive. The large venue variety and a refreshing use of paper props keeps the play from becoming stale.

What was most intriguing about the experience, however, is how it got me thinking. Something about Pechorin’s adventures made me dream of a improvisational production where the audience follows the adventures of the protagonist throughout the land. Of course, it would need a director, a great supportive cast and impeccable teamwork. The play’s real value to me, however, lies in making me realize that not only is such a feat possible, it has been a big part of my life for a couple years now. I speak of tabletop role-playing games and more specifically itmeJP’s by now multiple Rollplay shows. Before making that connection (while watching the play) I had arrived at the conclusion that I would gladly pay for such content (which is available for free online) which is why A Hero of Our Time was an eye-opening piece for me.

To sum up, I think A Hero of Our Time is an excellent play and I would recommend it for the ingenious set and prop design, even though it touched me more deeply than it might others.

5. Letter of Complaint

Dear Mrs Saar,

I am writing to voice my concerns about the flawed IT system in the canteen and the insufficiency of science classes in Tallinn Secondary Science School.

Firstly, if students don’t pay their food bills prior to each month, they can only wait at the left-side queue (which is typically longer and moves slower than the right-side queue) to be manually tagged when they swipe their card. I understand the need to know in advance how many students to prepare food for but manually tagging each student that was not prepared for does not accomplish anything. They can just as well be tagged automatically when they swipe their card in either queue. I believe a better solution (if you wish to disincentivize paying after each month as opposed to prior to) is to bill parents for the entire month unless they send an email the previous day to be taken off the list. Since the menu is updated online anyway, students can choose on the previous day whether or not they wish to eat school food.

The second issue I would like to address is of the lacking number of science classes in the curriculum. In my opinion there should be fewer mandatory courses and more optional ones. Currently, the name of the school belies the contents of its curriculum. In my opinion, there are plenty of ways outside of the school to get course points such as Mektory and Teaduskool, but with the current workload it is hard to justify studying other subjects in addition to those in the mandatory curriculum and as such it would be beneficial if the number of mandatory lessons was brought down.

I hope that you will take into consideration my recommendations and thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Jaagup Kirme