Unravelling talent

For the past twenty years, the Interact Club of Royal College, Colombo has organised the popular inter-school drama competition in Colombo. This year too, the club plans to bring Colombo's budding actors and actresses together at Drama Comp 2008.

Leading schools in Colombo including Ladies’ College, Bishop's College, Musaeus College and Anula Vidyalaya will be competing, with a variety of plays displaying their skills and talents. Bishop's College will present The Bear by Anton Chekhov while Musaeus College will perform an extract from the thoughtful play Middle of Silence. Ladies’ College will present an original play titled Rewind Replay. "It's a cliché fairytale with an Indian theme and a simple plot," says Anushka Senanayake, a senior student, not divulging the details of the play-within-a-play.

Each of the plays presented will be thirty minutes long, and will be considered for the following awards – Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Original Script and Best Backstage Crew, apart from the two major awards; the coveted Drama Comp shield and the Runners Up shield.

The plays will be assessed by three judges present in the audience as well as two judges watching from backstage, with the crews. The judges will be prominent personalities in the field.

Drama Comp is one of the five major projects organised annually by the Interact Club of Royal College, and this year's organisers led by Dinuk Kiriella and Dharshana Kuruppu hope to develop and encourage the younger generation in Sri Lanka to improve their standards of English Theatre, and by doing so, improve the overall quality of theatre in Sri Lanka.

"We have been able to encourage students to participate in theatrical performances enabling them to gain valuable experience," says Dharshana, explaining that projects such as Drama Comp help in unravelling valuable talent in students in various fields, be it leadership qualities or self confidence.

The organisers this year promise to give the audience as well as the participants an "enthralling and unforgettable" experience. 'Drama Comp 2008' will go on the boards at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, on May 22, from 6.45 pm onwards.

Tickets will be priced at Rs. 250 (balcony), Rs.300, Rs.350 and Rs.500 and are now available at the theatre and the Royal College Union as well as with the cast leaders of the participating schools.