Showcasing juvenile talent
Nipuni WIMALAPALA
Sri Lankan children's drama art, unarguably, was well established
under educational and psychological foundation. This was through the
National Children's Drama Festival which was started in 1996 for the
first time in Sri Lanka.
The award recipients |
National Children's Drama Festival is one of the most significant and
eye-catching drama festivals, which is experienced by a large number of
children and adults throughout the country. This time it was more
impressive that 23 Sinhala dramas, 10 Tamil dramas and eight English
dramas were staged.
The winning drama of the National Children's Drama Festival was
Nuwange Mithuro which was presented by Giriulla Child and Youth Drama
School under the supervision of Palitha Lokupothagama. The script of the
drama was written by Lokupothagama who teaches drama and theatre at
Giriulla Wikramashila National School. His son, Sonduru Lokupothagama,
was the producer and the main actor of the drama who performed really
well. He won the best actor of the year. Costume designing was done by
Palitha while music direction was done by Nayana Laxmi Lansakara.
Nuwange Mithuro won six awards: best production, best script, best
actor, best music, best costume designing and best stage management.
While Sonduru carried out the best performance, Nadeeshani Ranaweera,
Sasindu Athukorala, Nuwan nandika, Sampath Sri Kulathunga, Manoj
Pathirana, Dananjaya Darmadasa, Yehan Pathirana Susan Madawa and many
other actors and actresses contributed their best to make this drama the
best one of the year.
The best actor, Sonduru, is a talented child who studies in grade 8
at Giriulla Wikramashila National School. He has started acting when he
was in pre-school under his father Lokupothagama. He is skillful and
willing to be an excellent actor while performing well in his studies.
The specialty of this year's National Children's Drama Festival is
that Tamil and English dramas were introduced for the first time. It
will help improve the standards of Tamil and English dramas in future. |