“What makes you say a wonderful story?” An idea, a plot, a screenplay? Theatre personality and co-founder of Junoon Theatre, Sanjana Kapoor, says that all one needs is just a way to play with words. Ms. Kapoor was conducting a theatre workshop for the children as part of the ongoing 18 International Children’s Film Festival on Monday.
Children were given random words, who then had to come up with a story by arranging these words to make a coherent plot. The children were also expected to ‘enact’ the story using these unrelated words.
An actor should be aware of his surroundings, feelings and deal with the situations that often come up suddenly on the stage, and to do this one has to be alert and be willing to play with the words, Ms. Kapoor said. “The activities are designed so that key aspects of theatre performance can be taught to children in an interactive environment,” she explained.
Thirty-five children from different parts of the country participated in the workshop which aimed at introducing the concepts like expression, clarity of pronunciation and thought, imagination, negotiation and observation to the children. “The activities are fun to learn theatre,” Fatima Contractor, a seventh standard student from Riverside School in Ahmedabad, said. “This will help us during plays,” chipped in her classmate Nitya Shah. NCERT has introduced new curriculum with theatre and play, therefore, children should take advantage of these courses, Ms. Kapoor added.
