Sunday Times 2
A show for a cause: Young activist rounds up ‘the best in the field’
View(s):If you read last week’s ST Magazine you would know of Birendra Siriwardhana, a 15-year-old with a conscience, who together with his sister Serika founded the Birendra and Serika Siriwardhana Initiative, which seeks to establish a trust fund to support action against gender-based violence targeting women. This Friday (November 
they will present an event at the Bishop’s College Auditorium to raise funds for this very cause.
Directing the show is seasoned theatre personality Steve de la Zilwa. The acclaimed actor and director is more used to curtain calls and plotlines but this time around he is taking on a slightly different role-it’s for a great cause after all. “How do you say no to something like this?” he laughs. “I can ask anyone to come onboard and they can’t say no either-so it works out quite well!”
It certainly has; performing at the show you’ll find a selection of Sri Lanka’s finest along with upcoming talent, including the A-Team, Naadro, Ravibandu Vidyapathi, Alien Accent, Suresh and Husni with DK and Dushyanth Weeraman. Most wouldn’t need an introduction-but we’ve gone ahead and taken the liberty of introducing some of them to you anyway, just to get a feel of what you can expect on that night.
Alien Accent is a well-known local band who has gained a reputation for themselves over the past years as not only great performers, but also as lyricists and composers in their own right. Dushyanth Weeraman is Sri Lanka’s self-styled answer to Michael Jackson, and has wowed many an audience time and again with his vocal skills coupled with what most of us mere mortals would call ‘charmed feet’. Ravibandu Vidyapathi studied classical Kandyan dance under the tutelage of the legendary Chitrasena and Vajira and drumming under Piyasara Shilpadhipathi and Punchi Guro, mastering both to become one of the country’s finest Eastern artistes. He also runs the Ravibandu-Samanthi Dance School with his wife.
Naadro is made up of a group of young men who’ve become more than a little famous for their percussion drumming, using unusual instruments from around the world coupled with day to day objects to create beautiful music. Performing at the show you’ll also find the A-Team, a band formed about a year ago. But don’t let the name fool you-the group consists of well-known names in the field such as Lelum Rathnayake and Umaria Sinhawansa.
The A-Team was founded by seasoned drummer Aruna Siriwardhana-who just happens to be Birendra’s dad. “I grew up listening to my dad play the drums,” says Birendra. “But unlike other parents he never forced it on me. In fact, he wouldn’t teach me unless I asked him to.” Birendra himself is more of a sportsman (he’s involved in almost all the sports teams in school) but he’s clearly cut of the same cloth-he plays the drums in addition to a few other instruments and has been performing since he was five-so you could say that music was part and parcel of growing up for him. This is why he felt that an evening of this very music would be the perfect way to raise funds for a cause close to his heart. And what’s more, he’ll be taking over his dad’s place as the band’s drummer for the night!
The show, aptly tag lined ‘The Best in the Field: Changing the Game for Women’ will be held at the Bishop’s College Auditorium on November 8 from 7.30 pm onwards (tickets available at the gate).
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