A host of children are arranging themselves in a circle, at the recently-inaugurated Centre for Creative Therapy at the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children (ICH), Egmore — a studio by The Little Theatre. Housed on the seventh floor of the hospital, the studio is meant to initiate arts-based therapy for children who stay in the hospital for long periods of time, or are terminally ill. One of them claps his hands as the others follow suit; when he changes his action the others, again, will have to emulate him. Claps to pats to pounds — the action keeps changing. Meanwhile, a little girl walks in, thoroughly confused at the scene. Her smile speaks of a sly curiosity. She is expected to spot the child who everyone is following. And the game goes on.
The centre’s first creative arts session thus commences on a warm note, with about 10 children, admitted in the hospital for various reasons, participating. In the studio, they sit surrounded by mirrors, spotlights and warm shades of blue. Beside them are sketch pens, colour pencils, colourful charts and more. Before long, they write their names on the chart paper and hold it up to introduce themselves to the rest, under the guidance of Nithyaa Venkataramani, an expressive arts trainee with the East West Centre for Counselling, Chennai.
The Little Theatre’s Hospital Clowns
Her aim for the session, is to employ creative arts to ease patients into different activities.
After introducing themselves, the children slowly begin to interact. Next up is a sketching session — and many take to it without hesitation. Houses, flowers, dolls, and sketches of lord Ganesha all appear within 10 minutes of stooping over the colourful sheets. Some of the illustrations are small, squished to corners of the paper, while others are large and occupy the entire space. Nithyaa tells me why this is so, “When they draw tiny figures, it is believed that they are withdrawn. On the other hand, larger illustrations mean they are slowly taking to the environment. Everything that comes out in the art is related to their life. Many children draw representations of their homes; this is because they are away from home.” A storytelling session follows: “You all will have to connect each of the drawings and weave a story in 10 minutes,” Nithyaa tells them. The excitement is palpable, and in less that two minutes, out comes a story. The story is oddly similar to what they are going through: a little girl falls sick, and goes in search of help in these houses, plucks a few flowers as offerings to Ganesha and prays for her well being.
Aysha Rau, founder of The Little Theatre and the mind behind the studio, says, “The idea is to take kids away from what they are dealing with. What is more satisfying than seeing those smiles?” Children who attend the sessions will be encouraged to put up small performances in the space, says Aysha. Forty-two artistes and art therapists have signed up to take sessions at the studio twice a week, the interiors of which were designed by Geetha Varghese. The Little Theatre’s Hospital Clowning programme, which is in its fourth year now will operate from the studio henceforth and this inlcudes clowning workshops and training sessions, apart from the weekly hospital round for terminally ill patients, she says.
Meanwhile, the children have moved on from stories, to song. They listen to Nithyaa’s guitar tunes, which strum a spontaneous tune thanking them for their time.
