The coming year plans to be an exciting one for the Drama Club of P.S.G. College of Arts and Science. For, the club has lined up an interesting set of activities that is all set to bring out the potential of students in line with the spirit and passion that has shaped the its activities over the years.
The club’s agenda for the year include taking part in intercollegiate events and theatre fests such as 'Waves,' the prestigious ‘culfest’ of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, held at its Goa campus during September-October and 'Festember,' the festival of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi.
Drama plays an important role in the holistic development of a student, according to K. Kalpana Karthi, Assistant Professor, English Department and R. Ramarajan, Assistant Professor, Tamil Department, the Professors in-charge of the club. It helps bring out the inherent creativity of students and their skills in other activities such as dance, music and public speaking, they add.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the beginning of every academic year, the club conducts workshops that focus exclusively on recognising the talents of first year students.
This year's workshop, chairperson of the club Maria M. George says, offered a rich experience for students with the resource persons being Tamil poet Puviarasu, one of the founders of ‘Vaanampadi’ poetry movement who won the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2009 and Aravindhan Ravichandran, founder of ‘Srushti Theatre Movement.’ It was held last week. These two stalwarts shared some of their rich experiences and also took a few sessions. "In theatre it is important for the actors to shed their masks and explore and express," Mr. Aravindhan told the students.
Post the workshops and training sessions, Ms. George says the club is now gearing up for a gamut of performances ranging from mimes and street plays to flash mobs. It also performs street plays on social issues and helps create awareness.
ADVERTISEMENT
As part of its outreach programme, the club has joined hands with various departments of the college and performs street plays to instil a sense of social responsibility in students.
Miming exercises were an integral part of the workshop. Being a bit quirky, students enjoyed them a lot. One of the highlights of the workshop was students creating shapes of machines innovatively using their bodies. The workshop concluded with students splitting into groups and enacting five street plays, each conveying social messages.
The Drama Club also attributed its achievements to the support of College Principal R .Rajendran, secretary N.C. Nandagopalan and Professor-in-charge R. Radhakrishnan.