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Children's Drama Festival at Nawa Rangahala:
Children's theatre - one third of education and character building
Ranga Chandrarathne
The Children's theatre Festival will be held at Nawa Rngahala on 7th
and 8th of this month. The festival will make up of two dramas;
Sinhalese adaptation of 'The Three Bears' (Walas Pawula) and 'The Snow
White' (Hima Kumariya).
Both were adapted from original plays by veteran theatre personality
Somalatha Subasinghe. Walas Pawula is directed by Dr. Chandana Aluthge.
A striking feature of these adaptations is the use of oriental and
occidental music for chorus. Music for Hima Kumariya is composed by M.R
Chulasinghe while music for Walas Pawula is by Tharupathi Munasinghe.
However, she pointed out that true emotions should not be showed up
in a children's play as children emotionally get attached to the
characters. For children tend to imitate characters in a play or
cartoons shown on television.
Violence shown in cartoons could adversely affect children and it
becomes ordinary to the child. So, bizarre characters and violence are
not good for children. Therefore, heightened emotions are not depicted
in children's theatre. Special training provided for the actors and
techniques of voice control and speak loud enough to be heard by the
children. Language for the dramas should also be proper so that children
will not learn bad usages.
At the initial stage, very little was known about children's theatre.
However, the idea of children's theatre was shaped by the work of Wimal
Diyasena, W.B. Ratnayake and Mangala Jayawardena. They conducted a
series of seminars on Children's Theatre and invited experts from GDR
(German Democratic Republic, as the East Germany known then).
Following these seminars, it was clear that the plays showed were
adult's plays with children as cast. 'Vessanthara Jatakaya' was played
even by kindergarten children.
However, after the initiation into the theatre, Somalatha Subasinghe,
the founder of the Lanka Theatre and Youth Theatre Foundation
(established by the Parliamentary act No. 3 of 2007), had rare
opportunity of studying children's theatre in Czechoslovakia, East
Germany. (They were socialist block then) and the Children's Theatre was
given full state sponsorship.
One of the salient characteristic of Children's theatre in socialist
countries was that adult actors played child roles. For instance, a
thirty one year old girl played as an eleven year girl. This dawn on the
idea that adults can effectively play children's characters.
This principle has applied in Sri Lankan productions. For instance
Nadee Kammalaweera played as an eight year girl in Hima Kumariya at the
age of 25. Though a person with dark skin portrayed the character of
Snow White, Snow White embodies inner purity which was vindicated by
response from the audience who highly appreciated Nadee's performance.
Musical plays are produced with a combination of Sri Lankan folk and
Western theatre techniques. Certain incidents and dramatic situations
have also been altered to render an indigenous flavour.
Traditional ritualistic music forms such as Yaga and Kolam have been
incorporated into the production which was well-received by the children
at rehearsal stage. For instance, dwarfs dance, Kolam is used. Drums of
Sri Lanka coupled with Sri Lankan dances have also been used. All these
amendments are being made retaining the dramatic effect of the
production. Oriental and occidental music have been incorporated into
the productions.
Explaining the objectives of the Festival, Somalatha Subasinghe
stated that Children's Theatre should be a part of children's education.
However, children should not always go to the theatre.
Actors can come to the class and perform in the classroom on subject
familiar to them. The place of the performance may be in the courtyard
or under a tree depending on the circumstances.
Children's theatre should be used to bring up children's
personalities and open up their vistas. In order to instill sense of
belonging in children, it is important to teach them Sri Lankan dance,
music, history and social values through culture.
Given the extent to which the Sinhala language has been degenerated,
some children do not know subject and predicate. In Japan when
communication became an issue among children, Japanese Government
introduced a special theatre programme in school to make children
converse through dialogues. So the children's theatre has an educational
value.
Somalatha Subasinghe firmly believes that children's play can be
taken to major cities and villages in order to expose children to plays.
Somalatha dismissed the idea that for children's play, performance
has to be brought down to children's level. One aspect of the festival
is to make children's theatre a social event where children with their
family members can enjoy plays. The festival is organized by Lanka
Theatre and Youth Theatre Foundation.
The cast of the musicals comprises Pramudi Karunarathne, Damayantha
Perera, Wishvajith Gunasekera, Chaya Sri Nammuni, Sanjaya Hettiarachchi,
Hiran Abeysekere, Shamaine Gunarathne, Nayomi Gunasiri, Dinuki de Silva,
Mayura Kanchana, Suresh Fernando, Namal Jayasinghe, Geetha Alahakoon and
Ishara Wickramasena.
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