Mystical Egypt

DANCE: It was a night of gay music and bright colours as four women and six men from the Beni Suef Troupe from Egypt took to the stage at BMICH on July 20. This event was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

The event was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural and National affairs. Minister for Education, Dr. Vishwa Warnapala, represented the chief guest of the event, Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayake who was indisposed. Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara was also present.

Pictures by Sudath Nishantha

Capturing Sri Lankan movements on canvas

PAINTINGS: An exhibition of paintings by George Beven will be held at the Lionel Wendt Gallery, Colombo 7, from August 11 to 14 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The official opening is on August 10 at 6.30 p.m.

Born in Negombo and educated at Newstead and Maris Stella Colleges Beven’s passion for drawing was soon recognised by his schoolteachers. He was encouraged to send some of his drawings to the Ceylon Observer.

The editor was so impressed that he offered him a job as an artist on the newspaper not realising this young man was still in school sitting his SSC exams. The job was kept for him and so George Beven became the first paid artist on the Ceylon Observer.

As he had no formal training in Art The Ceylon Observer enrolled him at The Hayward School of Art, where he was among the first batch of students to join. His mentor at Hayward was the renowned David Painter. In 1955 the Observer sent Beven on a scholarship to London to study fashion drawing and illustration at the prestigious St. Martin School of Art and Design.

A year after his return to Ceylon, London lured him back. It was soon after his arrival there that he held his solo exhibition at the Commonwealth Society. The cinema newsreels of Pathe Pictorial covered this event and Beven was seen in cinemas across the globe.

It was at this exhibition that he was hailed an Eastern Degas referring to his portrayal of Kandyan and Low-country dancers of his native Ceylon. Beven never lost his skill to capture movement in his paintings. Beven has always liked to experiment and so he used his fingers, painting with oil colours on rush mats.

Later in London he further experimented and created his famous monotone pictures, a process of flicking Indian ink off a toothbrush onto cartridge paper, creating the most beautiful and often haunting portraits of men and women, often celebrities, who autographed their portraits.

Such were Rudolf Nureyev, Michael Baryshnikov. Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich. A portrait of Princess Margaret was commissioned in the monotone style and was hanging at Kensinton Palace at the time of her death.

Beven returned to experimenting with poster colours and gouache using the most unlikely colour combinations to provoke and at the same time feast the eye. In his recent paintings he returns to his favourite subject - his beloved Sri Lanka. He shows us the beauty of the land and its people.

Whether it is the striking portraits of Tamil women, the face of a young Moslem in thought, the sheer beauty and calmness of a Sinhalese man in a lotus pond, the ecstatic movement of the dancers or the natural beauty of the island, they all are the expression of an artist who cares deeply.

A book “George Beven, A Life in Art” by Neville Weeraratne was produced for the artist’s 75th birthday and will be on sale at the exhibition.

Samanalayaya Drama Festival - 2007

STAGE DRAMA: The Sunera Foundation annual drama festival, Samanalayaya (field of butterflies), which began on July 1 has been held in 10 locations islandwide, including Jaffna, with a total of 31 short plays being performed.

This festival, which is the culmination of one year’s hard work and dedication of differently abled participants and workshop trainers alike, is a platform to showcase the acting and dancing talents of the Sunera participants.

Samanalayaya, which is now in its third year, will be held with a difference this time. The performances in the provinces, which will be viewed predominantly by friends and relatives of the participants, will be evaluated by a panel of judges.

The best of the performances in the provinces will be staged at the John de Silva Theatre on August 7 and 8 at 5.00 p.m.

Awards will be given to the best production, best director and best performer. The panel of judges will consist of Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Parakrama Niriella and Tialk Jayaratne.

Parents, friends and well-wishers are welcome to attend these events and see the flutter of butterfly wings for themselves. Entrance is free.

Teleview bags ‘Achievers Award’

AWARDS CEREMONY: The Achievers Award Ceremony organised by the Ceylon National Chamber of

 Industries was held recently at the Colombo Hilton for the sixth consecutive year.

Teleview (Pvt) Ltd., won the “Achievers Award” for the medium scale service sector. Rebecca Kohn, the Country Director of USAID who graced the occasion as the guest of honour and Dr. Tissa Vitharana, Minister of Science and Technology as the chief guest gave away the awards.

Teleview (Pvt) Ltd., is the oldest production house in Sri Lanka producing television programs. Since 2005 apart from producing television programmes it has been running over 15 new projects including a Technology Academy, a Television Village, a Home Entertainment Unit, a Rural Marketing Unit and an International Division.

It launched a number of productions and marketing projects aimed at foreign countries this year. Teleview over the years has won a large number of awards in Sri Lanka for Teledramas, TV commercials and documentaries.

Last year at the annual Sumathi Tele Awards Festival Teleview (Pvt) Ltd., won a special award of excellence for “Bhawathra”, the first ever Tele-drama series using Digital Computer Technology. This teledrama was also very highly commended at the Raigam Tele Award Festival.

In recognition of the contributions rendered to the television industry in Sri Lanka, Teleview was awarded the special mentions awards. Last year the Achievers Awards presented by the Ceylon National Chamber of Commerce, the best provincial and National Award for best Entrepreneur was awarded to Teleview and its Managing Director, Sunil Ratnayake.

Teleview being a premier service provider for television in Sri Lanka has planned to launch a number of projects targeting the local and the international sectors.

It plans to use High Definition television technology for television productions aimed both at the local and international market. For this purpose the entire infrastructure has been put in place and training of personnel is now going on.

Wijeya Peduru Musical Group to perform soon

Edward Weerasinghe Kelaniya group correspondent

MUSIC: Wijeya Peduru Musical Group, Kelaniya will perform their annual musical programme with old Sinhala favourite songs at John de Silva Memorial Hall, Colombo 7 on August 4 at 6.30 p.m.

Music will be directed by Visharadha Wijeya Bandra Samaraweera. Lal Wickremasinghe, Rohinie Karawita, Ananda Rajakaruna will be the singers. Prasad Jayasuriya, Dharmapriya Anuruddha, Asoka Samaraweera, Anandasiri Mallawarachchi and Priyan Perera will assist. The chief guest will be film and teledrama actor Ravindra Randeniya.

Blending creativity with the young audience

Lanka Children’s and Youth Theatre Foundation (LCYTF) will present Colombo Youth Theatre Festival 2007 as a part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.

The Lanka Children’s and Youth Theatre Organisation or Play House-Kotte which was established as a voluntary organisation in 1981 by Somalatha Subasinghe, the veteran playwright and theatre director, to promote children’s and youth theatre and mainstream theatre in Sri Lanka, was made a Foundation under Act No. 3 of 2007.

Over the years LCYTF has produced a repertoire of internationally acclaimed mainly musical theatre for children and youth and award winning mainstream theatre productions.

LCTYF is the leading producer of theatre for children and youth, and one of the major training and skill development centres for actors and other creative professionals in Sri Lanka. With its theatre productions over the years, LCYTF has also been able to set new standards for the Sri Lankan theatre.

The objective of the Colombo Theatre Festival for the Young Audience 2007 is to provide a platform in particular for young theatre directors to showcase their productions to the public. When selecting the plays for the festival the only pre-requisite that was taken into account is the merit of creativity of the production.

Therefore, the underlying idea of this selection process is to promote high quality theatre productions by young directors. Accordingly, four plays have been selected for the festival. They are Vikurthi (Distortion) by Somalatha Subasinghe, Sanda Langa Maranaya (Blood Wedding) by Kaushalya Fernando, Asinamali by Pujitha de Mel and Me Heeneta Namak Denna by Priyanth Kaluaarachchi. All these productions have won national awards.

The programme includes a line up of events such as theatre for children, short plays by young directors and plays from South Asia. This will make Colombo a significant location for showcasing high quality theatre productions with meaningful entertainment in the South Asian region.

Navajeevana 20th anniversary exhibition

PAINTINGS: Navajeevana, Sri Lanka’s largest community based rehabilitation organisation in the South serving the needs of people with disabilities, will be holding an exhibition by prominent artists as part of its 20th anniversary inaugural fundraising event on August 2, at the BMICH.

The key distinction of this exhibition is that all featured artists are people with disabilities who have achieved significant success in their respective areas encompassing portraits, abstract paintings, landscapes, sketches and sculpture.

Artists showcased at this very private gathering include veteran artists the likes of hearing impaired landscape artist and sculptor Nihal Sangabo Dias as well as newcomers H.M.A. Chandrasena and Thilo Saravanamuttu, both of whom are mentally challenged.

TALENTED: Newcomer portrait artist H.M.A. Chandrasena working on several new artistic pieces for the upcoming exhibition	ARTIST AND HIS WORK: Abstract artist and poet Thilo Saravanamuttu stands next to his newest creation, “Raptor Bird”

Nicolas Cage unveils comic book

INSPIRATION: Nicolas Cage loves comic books so much, he created one of his own.

The actor and his 16-year-old son, Weston, took their new comic book, “Voodoo Child,” to the pop culture expo Comic-Con on Sunday.

Weston dreamt up the main character, Gabriel, a biracial teenage ghost who fights the evil of bigotry in post-Katrina New Orleans.

“He’s specifically dealing with racism,” said Cage, a lifelong comic-book collector who played Marvel superhero Johnny Blaze in the movie “Ghost Rider” this year.

The 43-year-old Cage made no secret of his cinematic aspirations for his new comic creation.

“I have very high hopes to push ‘Voodoo Child’ into script and production ... and perhaps play a role in the movie,” he said. “We have those ideas in motion.”

Weston said he would like to play a villain in the film.

Cage said that Weston inspires him and that they hope to collaborate on other comic-book ideas. The six-book “Voodoo Child” series is published by Virgin Comics. The first issue was released this month.

“This is a highlight in my life,” Cage said, “that I got to create something with my son.” AP

The Magic of Harmony

celebrating 45 years of A Capella singing:

Herbie Jayasuriya

MUSIC: The Magic of Harmony’ was held at the auditorium of the British School Colombo 8 on July 7. The programme consisted of a very wide range of songs such as folk songs, Negro spirituals, Barber shops, nursery rhymes, a serenade, a calypso, a song from Nepal as well as a song from Sri Lanka.

The programme commenced with the National Anthem harmonised by Gerry Crake and ended with the evergreen songs of the menace that plagues this island - “Mosquitoes”. Singing in harmony was of a very high standard and the audience appreciated each song with a spontaneous ovation.

There were several solos sung by choir members and one solo by invitation. Douglas Fernando, one of the founder members who sang first tenor with me in 1963 proved that he is still in fine voice even at the age of three score and ten in his rendering of the “Blue Tail Fly”.

Bosco Fonseka sang two solos “Scarlet Ribbons” and “Every Time I feel the Spirit” with a great deal of confidence. Willie and Christopher, Lylie’s offspring rendered their solos with a great deal of feeling and were able to convey humour when necessary. The old Methusalehs of the choir - Douglas, Paul and Dunstan although they have grown old with the Choir, rendered “Solomon Levi” like three youngsters.

The piece de resistance of the evening was the rendering of “Old Man River” by Rohan de Lanerolle, a nephew of my old Principal the late Kenneth de Lanerolle. Rohan who was an invitee was a one time member of this choir. He sang his solo in such a manner that it sounded as Paul Robeson, the famous Baritone sang it in the musical “Show Boat”.

However the voice that really kept the choir together in their singing was that of Eshantha Andrado. Eshantha has tremendous range - he could sing the tenor as well as the bass parts equally well.

He has a striking personality and he stands in the middle of the choir like the rock of Gibraltar and is really an asset to this choir.

With regard to the songs sung, every part could be heard except for the “National Anthem” and “Beautiful Dreamer” where the melody did not stand out as it should. Throughout the performance Willie was in control of his choir just as his father was when he was alive.

Christo also assisted Willie in many ways during this performance to keep the interest of the audience alive. I could not imagine these two sons of Lylie and Irma who were tiny tots when I sang in this choir would grow up to follow in their illustrious father’s footsteps. Both of them carried this show on their shoulders and did their late father proud. In fact their humorous patter was reminiscent of Lylie.

It is very significant that the venue of this show was in close proximity to the place where their beloved father’s remains were laid to rest. I am certain that Lylie who is certainly in the heavenly abode would have greatly appreciated the performance of Willie and Christo.

Apart from me I found three fellow choristers who sang with me in this choir in the 60s present at this performance - Robert Joseph, Lakshman Fernando and George Daniel.

I am certain they too would have nostalgic memories of the fun we always had at Lylie’s. My wife and I are very grateful to Willie and Christo for the invitation extended to us for this performance where we enjoyed every minute. The large audience present left the auditorium with smiles as a just tribute to the singers.