Growing up with theatre is a lot more fun and the 30 children who took part in the summer theatre workshop organised by Ashvattha will vouch for it. The seventh annual 14-day workshop of the institute culminated in the presentation of two short mythological plays titled ‘Fun in Heaven’ at Hotel Rockdale by the team of energetic youngsters, majority of who had their first experience with theatre. From beating the shy bug to making new friends, the workshop opened up a different world for the children.
The plays were inspired by two short stories of Devdutt Pattanaik – ‘Saraswati’s Secret River’ and ‘An Identity Card for Krishna’. Brimming with enthusiasm, the children in the age group of eight to 14 years presented two fascinating tales that had a message to convey to the parents and teachers.
Ajay Sasank, a student of class X, played the role of Krishna at the theatre workshop. “This was my first theatre performance. But the way we bonded during the workshop days, it gave me a lot of confidence to play my part on stage. I didn’t feel even a bit nervous. It was a funny story and we had lot of fun learning the nuances of theatre and presentation,” said Ajay. The play ‘An Identity Card for Krishna’ is a humourous take on identity crisis of gods. ‘Saraswati’s Secret River’ gives out the message about the need to nurture the inherent inquisitiveness of a child and make learning a fun process rather than a mechanical method where the young minds are forced to learn.
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“The theatre workshops focus on language skills, team building exercises, personality development and voice modulations. We want to give a platform to the children where they can be creative in a different way,” said Shyla Kurma of Ashvattha. The best part was that it was never just about acting. During the workshop, the children were given creative activities like making their own stories of Gods and Goddesses in the context of the modern world and making different sounds to create a story.