The Bard is wooed!

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

Hamlet, Act IV, Sc. V

Best Actor: Wasaam Ismail of St. Peter’s College	Best Actress: Oshadi Welegama of Bishop’s College	Best Outstation Girls Schools Actress: Sabiha Fawzer of Girls High School, Kandy

THEATRE: Unrhymed iambic pentameter at the best of times is not easy to comprehend. Numerous scholars have pored over the works of the Bard, looking for the nuances, the hidden meanings and the light and shades found in the works of this 16th century playwright whose knowledge and understanding of the world to this day, remains amazing.

And so it was exciting to sit at the Bishop's College Auditorium and watch Shakespeare come to life at the Finals of the Interschool Shakespeare Drama Competition 2006 on the two days of June 24 and 25.

The semifinals had six girls' schools and 13 boys' schools participate from both the outstations and Colombo and it is noteworthy that this year, the finals, which showcased four each in both the girls and boys had schools from Negombo and Kandy that made it into the finals, vouching for the high standards the competition has infused into the whole event.

Launched by the Ceylon Thespians and organised by the Rotary Club of Colombo North together with YMCA Colombo and sponsored by Singer Sri Lanka, the Interschool Shakespeare Drama Competition has a history since 1973 and is probably the only such competition held in the entire world.

The competition is meant to kindle interest in the works of Shakespeare and thus, has seen hundreds of students enact excerpts and use the competition as a launching pad for their various dramatic endeavours in later years.

Chandri Peiris, Nafeesa Yasmin and Mohamed Adamally, Natalie Greet, Richard de Zoysa, Christopher and Rohan Ponniah, Ravi John, Chanaka Amaratunge, Steve de la Zilva, Feroze Kamardeen, Vinodh Senadheera, Marissa Jansz and Thusitha Jayasundera are some of those whose 'Shakespearean experience' has added impetus to their later careers and vocations.

This year too saw an emergence of a number of young actors and actresses, who will no doubt be familiar faces on stage from now on.

Bishop's College with a clever and well understood excerpt of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Nafeesa Amirudeen was adjudged winners at the Girls' finals, while Ladies' College with Comedy of Errors directed by Tracy Holsinger, As You Like It by Girls' High School Kandy directed by Bridget Halpe and K Abeykoon and another excerpt of Romeo and Juliet by Ave Maria Convent Negombo directed by Chamath Arambewela emerged first, second and third runners up respectively. Ave Maria's Juliet was emotive, bringing out the pathos in the lovelorn damsel with great aplomb.

However, more support from the cast would have added luster to the performance. Oshadhi Welegama, the Bishop's Juliet was outstanding and was well rewarded with the trophy of Best Actress at the end of the evening.

The nurse played by Hasulie Dias Abeysinghe deserves commendation as she lent herself as the perfect foil to the brilliance of Juliet's acting. A Best Supporting Actress accolade would not have been amiss for this nurse.

The choreographed duels were cleverly synchronized as were the flawless entrances and exits, which were timed to perfection. It was a well-deserved win.

Girls' High School Kandy, coming First Runner Up in the Outstation Girls' schools category to Ave Maria Convent Negombo's win, was a pleasant surprise with Sabiha Fawzer's Rosalind stealing the thunder in a very well executed excerpt of As You Like It.

Awarded the Best Actress for Outstation Girls' Schools, Sabiha, who at the start of the play seemed subdued and passive, completely morphed into the mischievous and teasing 'girl in man's clothes', displaying a maturity far beyond her years.

Young Orlando was also worthy of commendation as was the gentle Celia. Namali Premawardana from GHS playing Touchstone who shared the Best Supporting Actress Award with Dromio of Ephesus played by Tehani Welgama of Ladies' College was a treat with her expressive face and beautiful voice.

The unique rendition of Comedy of Errors by Ladies' College encompassed a story of seafaring merchants set in the Middle East.

Enchanting though it was with the twin brothers complementing each other's performances (well deserving of the Best Supporting Actress Award), as the judges commented later, the rendition bordered on slapstick and unnecessary minor characters brought in to add colour with acrobatics and the like, distracted from the essence of the story.

However, the costuming was excellent with the dramatic make up deserving praise. Overall, it was a visually effective production.

In the boys' finals, the tussle for the winner seemed to be between Royal College's beautifully and visually marvellous Richard III directed by a very young and obviously talented Sajith Amendra and a contemporary Merchant of Venice by St. Peter's College directed by theatre celebrants Jehan and Nedra Bastians.

With the latter emerging the winner with Wasaam Ismail's captivating Shylock (Best Actor - All Island) certainly contributing heavily to the overall marks, a somewhat disappointed Royal College had to be content with the shield for First Runner Up.

In the St. Peter's production, Portia was a little disappointing and did not do justice to the famous role and the celebrated Mercy Speech.

However, the contemporary Levis and t-shirt crews almost reminiscent of a courier company at work was different, while Antonio and Bassanio depicted as modern day 'heavy hands' complete with gold chains, mobile phones and sunglasses rather than the charming gentlemen Shakespeare intended then to be was a gamble in character portrayal, but brought in the desired results.

The racial element was also effectively captured and was central to the axis of the story. Interesting! The very difficult Richard III was captivating and played flawlessly by Laknath Gunatilake whose portrayal of the manipulative and evil king deserved more recognition.

The unique concept of a Rubik's Cube to depict the different circumstances and breakdown of the characters was excellent. Using UV lighting, ghostly makeup and effective stage whispers had the desired effect of fear, horror and terror in the tortured king.

The collective effort of the supporting actors was laudable with each doing their part to add finesse to the play, though some of the crowd scenes could have had less comedy elements, which detracted from the underlying tragic facets embedded within the play, though Royal was a hot favourite to win.

D S Senanayake directed by Dininda Paranahewa emerging second runner up and Maris Stella College Negombo directed by Delon Weerasinghe and Marissa Jansz as third runner up, unfortunately did not have the power and energy in their renditions of Romeo & Juliet, compared to the other two performances.

Both characters of Mercutio played by Charith Nikahetiya in the DSS production and Ainsly Christle in the Maris Stella one are worthy of applause, the latter sharing the Best Supporting Actor All Island Award with fellow cast members Dehan de Croos, Dilanjith Fernando and Jehan Gunasekera.

The duels were well manoeuvred and supporting characters did augment the story, while Tybalt played by Chaturanga Fernando in the DSS effort was praiseworthy. Maris Stella's interesting costuming of uniform blue and white coupled with the concept of 'frozen movement' of characters was unusual and though flagging towards the end, kept the audience engrossed for most of the excerpt.

Compared to last year, flamboyant sets were not the norm this year, with all schools working with stark but workable sets, which also cut down setting up time.

This is certainly a sensible stance to take as the quality of the acting was spotlighted as a result. Given the talent seen at this competition year on year, it may be good for directors to bear in mind that showy sets are not necessary to bring out the story and the acting talent of our young actors.

While the runners up were naturally disappointed and winners ecstatic as it was certainly a close competition in both the boys and girls finals, it must be remembered that it is not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.

Congratulations all and to an audience who appreciated Shakespeare in its entirety, thank you for adding to the evenings' pleasure.

"With this same key Shakespeare unlocked his heart' once more! Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shakespeare he!

Robert Browning (1812-1899), "House"

- SR

Previews and Predictions

Prasad ABU BAKR

COMMERCIALS: Invitees comprising Leo Burnett Solutions Inc's (LBSI) clients, business partners and other professionals from the advertising and related industries here in Sri Lanka were invited to view 47 of the world's highly acclaimed TV commercials and three of the most outstanding integrated campaigns at the Barefoot Gallery Cafe recently.

LBSI is the Sri Lanka office of international advertising giant Leo Burnett Worldwide and this event which is an eye-opener to many, was a kind of a peep show of the latest trends and advertising patterns and design that is currently happening worldwide.

All the TV commercials shown that evening were nominations that stood in line competing for grand prix, gold, silver and bronze awards at this year's Cannes Lions international advertising festival in France.

LBSI has made it a tradition at presenting similar events since 1999 making this year's event the seventh of its kind. As every year LBSI set its 'Prediction Night' to a theme this year as well.

The colours were mainly blue, red and white, the colours of the French flag and the invitation sought the support of its guests by donning on clothes to keep with the 'style of France', to light up the evening.

Guests were treated to a choice of red or white wine before the first 25 ads were presented for their prediction followed by european cuisine for dinner, after which the second half of the guessing game got under way.

The excitement of the evening is to be aware that you are guessing winners of an award function that is almost taking place simultaneously within that same span of time and you are ticking off your preferences, thousands of miles away from the main event.

But there is more to it than simply that, it is an event that not only showcases international ideas but brings together many people of the local advertising industry together, which makes it a kind of a fellowship evening and according to LBSI the event is a platform of opportunities for creative minds in Sri Lanka to network and discuss trends for the industry in the future.

At this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival held in France for the 53rd consecutive year of the 112 shortlisted awards Leo Burnett Worldwide had secured 29 Lions and had 15 countries contribute to their wins, making it the highest of the competing list in comparison to other participants.

The agency won more Gold Lions in the film category than any other network - a total of three from LB/Milan, LB/Lisbon and LB/London for Aristo 'underwater World', Institute for Support of Abused Children, 'Alzheimers' and DFT - Tennage Road Safety, 'Camera Phone' respectively.

'Alzheimers' made history as the first Gold in Film won by a Portugal agency. (Leo Burnett Worldwide has similarly won Gold in Film for the first time in 2005 for Peru and for Colombia in 2000).

In addition to the many Golds the agency also won three Bronze Lions for Europride 'Sperm', Charal 'Too Late' and McDonald's 'Inner Child' from LBW/Norway, LBW/Paris and LBW/Sydney, respectively.

According to LBSI a similar event is annually organised in this part of the world too. Known as 'AdFest' this year's event was held in the picturesque tourist resort Pattaya in Thailand.

LBSI had six of its members attending the event and among their observations were notes regarding the seminar (which was a part of a series that was held in the course of the event) by Prashoon Joshi (well known lyricist of the controversial Indian film 'Range De Basanthi') who spoke of how Bollywood has successfully moved towards reality and how the atmosphere is shifting from fantasy to reality and away from typical Indian's subliminal need to escape from the real hardships that he grows up in.

Upon returning from 'AdFest 2005' the six member team finally pose the question whether Sri Lanka will continue to remain observers at this event against fierce competitors from the region Creative minds of the Sri Lankan Ad scene - Second thoughts for you?

Priyantha's Fantasies

PAINTING: Priyantha Udagedara is a young artist who has worked tediously to bring his art to the present standard that it is at. With a talent to draw and paint from a very young age Priyantha has dedicated most of his youth to practise and perfect his craft passionately.

Born in Kandy, the artist seems to mix a large dose of the mural painting style with his ideas of expression; after all it is only natural that he gets absorbed by the surroundings that he was born to.

With the Dalada Maligawa, Embekke Devalaya and Lankatileke Viharaya and many more unfolding in the presence of his childhood artist Udagedara might have had his colourful journey through art nourished by those elements.

His work conveys a total involvement of himself in them, attempting to go deeper into his colourful illusions, their many minute details are sometimes almost filigree and curiously decorative.

Those fine details coupled with many hues of his colour palette makes his work travel towards an exotic world that makes the viewer marvel at those sights. Priyantha Udagedara has held three solo exhibitions before and this is his second time around at Paradise Road Galleries.

In addition to participating in various group exhibitions here the artist has also shown his work in Sydney and New Delhi at similar group exhibitions.

The artist who has won many awards and merit awards at numerous competitions is a popular choice amongst art lovers and buyers. His work has found their way into exclusive collections both here and abroad. His present exhibition ends next week.

(P.A.B.)

Gehan's Photo Booklet : Butterflies of Sri Lanka and Southern India

NATURE: Jetwing Eco Holidays, has launched a new series of natural history publications. The newest addition to its portfolio of books is the "Gehan's Photo Booklet" series. This series of booklets includes photographic identification guides to the fauna and flora of Sri Lanka.

The first booklet of this series is the Butterflies of Sri Lanka and Southern India. Photographs of 96 of the 242 species of butterflies and skippers found in Sri Lanka are included in the booklet.

Many of the species have two images each, depicting both the underwing and upperwing of the butterfly.

For some of the species where sexual dimorphism is present, images of both sexes are included. Images of Sri Lanka's largest species of Butterflies such as the Blue Mormon, Common Birdwing and the endemic Ceylon Tree Nymph are included in the booklet.

All the photographs in this booklet have been taken by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, CEO of Jetwing Eco Holidays.