Musical theatre for children
Play House, Kotte, the leading children’s play producer, presents
plays for children, Punchi Apata Den Therei (We Know It Now) and Toppi
Welenda (The Hat Seller) at Lionel Wendt on September 25 at 3.30 p.m.
and 6.45 p.m.
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A scene from the theatre productions |
The Play House, Kotte, was established in 1981 by Somalatha
Subasinghe to further the cause of children and youth theatre in Sri
Lanka. In its journey over the past 30 years the Play House, Kotte, has
been able to produce a repertoire of plays for children and youth with a
high artistic quality. Some of these productions have been
internationally acclaimed.
All the plays are produced as musicals and in the adaptations, new
characters and situations have been incorporated particularly to
communicate with the Sri Lankan child. The production style of the plays
has been developed so as to give the young audiences as well as the
whole family an aesthetic journey of entertainment.
Choreography, lighting, costumes, stage props, and music of the
dramas have been carefully crafted to convey the children a sense of
basic art forms and meaningful entertainment. The music enhances the
sense of beauty of the visuals generated on stage by the professional
theatre group of the Play House, Kotte.
The composition of music of these dramas has been based also on our
traditional melodies which are modified and adopted into the present
context.
The language of these theatre pieces are both musical and performance
based. They have been developed in a manner to inculcate in children a
sense of pride in our own culture as well as to promote the importance
of the institution of family and its values. The lessons of love,
humanity and world awareness for children are refreshingly presented in
the plays. The plays provide the opportunity for an intellectual and
entertaining discourse with children.
Both plays are written and directed by Subasinghe. Music for plays is
by M R Chulasinghe. The cast of the musicals comprises Wickrama
Seneviratne, Rohitha Karunaratne, Mayura Kanchana, Dilum Buddhika,
Sulochana Weerasinghe, Geetha Alahakoon, Nimmi Priyadharshini, Lahiru
Nimantha, Pramod Edirisinghe, Dilip Kumara, Thilina Prasad, Ayesh Perera,
Purna Dilhani and Palitha Abeyratne.
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