Academic pursuits take a back seat during the summer break. It's time to give vent to creativity.
That's what kids who were a part of the Alchemy Kids Theatre Club's summer camp and the annual theatre club did recently.
The 15-day summer camp was organised for children between the ages of four and seven and eight and 14. They were trained in stage play, dance, interactive story narration, creative visualisation, props building and street play.
The result of that exhaustive training was presented at the grand finale staged at Vaels Billabong International School Auditorium, Injambakkam. The programme started with the tiny tots giving the audience, comprised mostly of enthusiastic parents and relatives, a demo of voice training, face stretches, eye and breathing control exercises.
It was followed by a creative presentation based on the idea of water droplets talking to each other and the sun. A dance and a story narration later, it was time for “Blue Ray” — Ganapathy to take the stage for a play of the same name. Ganapathy is a pirated movie CD dealer, who mends his ways after a dream he has.
Next up was a street play, the concept for which was conceived by the students of the summer camp. “Lights, Camera, Action!”, a humorous play, upped the evening's entertainment quotient. The audience was in splits especially when one of the actors stopped mid-way to announce that he had forgotten the lines!
Concluding was “Rehearsal” — a semi-musical production, where the lyrics to the songs were written by the children themselves.
Overall, the production was good with a couple of dances thrown in. It would have been better if the audio was clear; the dialogue was inaudible in parts. SRINATH, VII, Bala Vidya Mandir Global at Bollineni Hill Side: I made a lot of new friends here and am happy that everybody applauded my performance as a boy who stammers in the play “Rehearsal”.
TEJASWINI , V, Vidya Mandir: I have been attending theatre workshops since I was three years old. All the exercises I have learnt have improved my skills. I am now very confident and am not scared to go up on stage. I liked the production. I had to work very hard on the dance steps though.
MEGHNA , III, Bala Vidya Mandir: After joining the camp I have become more confident. I loved having fun with my friends during the breaks, and I have made lot of new friends too.
MAATHANGI , X, Harsha Vidya Mandir: I joined the annual theatre club because I feel theatre is an art that should be learnt, plus it is fun. Through the different activities I learnt how it feels to be on stage, to emote and communicate well. In the production I played the director LKK, and liked my monologue.
SHASHANK , II, Abacus Montessori: I was spending a lot of time at home and wanted to take part in an extracurricular activity. That’s why I joined the theatre camp. We worked very hard for the play but it was a lot of fun too. Of all the things I learnt, I loved the street play the most because at one point you play a character and the next moment you become a prop.
